Page 129 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

coming so late. He informed that one of his relatives got seriously ill and
had to be taken to hospital and so he got late. I sympathized with him. I
told him, "Joining for work at 2.30 pm after lunch hours means your
remaining work hours will be only 2.5 hours up to 5 pm against total 6.5
working hours. So it is about two third of a day. You have to be marked
absent for the day. There is no system of half day leave at our bank as
you would have observed during your employment for 6 months during
the probation period."

He simply told that he did not read the leave rules carefully and
apologized for the unintentional mistake on his part for joining at lunch
time and leaving for lunch again. I allowed him full day attendance as a
special case as he was otherwise a diligent worker. He never repeated
such a thing in future as long as I was heading the branch there.

I did not assume the way I was told about him but interacted with the
employee to know what he had to say about the episode. The same
employee being in very senior position himself in the bank now, once
told me that he remembered my pragmatic attitude and the way I myself
followed the rules and regulations first, before asking others to follow
them.

Insights from the episode
1. Presumptions may be misleading, better talk and clarify.
2. We assume too much or believe what others say about someone or
something without crosschecking ourselves with the concerned
person. That leads to unhappy situation later in some way or the
other.

— z —

126 | A Banker down the Rabbit Hole