Page 68 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

wondered how that had happened. After full one year of his dedicated
work, I could not stop myself from asking him indirectly how good his
interpersonal relations with his earlier Branch Head were. He told me, "My
branch Head at the earlier branch was good at performance and an honest
guy but on some occasions, I found his personal conduct quite
unreasonable." He further reported, "He asked me to train his minor son
how to drive a motorcycle. I tried it with banks' motorcycle as desired by
him but the teen got involved in an accident. The bike remained with
workshop for 2-3 weeks and returned after incurring lot of expenses. He
again asked me to train his son to which I politely refused as that was not
my job and also not the purpose of the motorcycle provided at the branch."

"On another occasion, without going into the circumstances and giving
me an opportunity to explain, he chided me for giving lift to girls on bank's
motorcycle. Perhaps he was revengeful for my refusing to let his son learn
driving on the bank's motorcycle. I explained to him that I had only once
given lift to two girls at a time and this got reported to him. In fact, while
returning from field duty, I was passing by a bus stop where 2 sisters who
were also the daughters of my landlord were waiting for the conveyance
for long. They signaled me to stop and requested me to drop them home.
As I was heading towards home only, I gave them a lift. This act should
not be treated as the misuse of the bank's vehicle." He also told, "The
earlier warmth in our relations got lost due to these instances and later
he started complaining about my performance which was not correct as
I was working with all the devotion as before."

At some later stage, I could know that our common ex -boss had really
changed a lot in later years. He himself did certain things later that led
him to fight a long legal battle with the bank.

Insights from the episode

1. Working style of the team leader influences the team members.
2. The environment also plays a role in performance.
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