Saturday, December 27, 2014

Dare to be true!



This very touching and innocent ad by Kinley 2014 TVC can make others think and retrospect about themselves. Some might even be able to relate to the same situation shown in the ad. Many times we do things that might not be right but we somehow manage to pull through it thinking that it was right for that situation. We tend to twist or hide facts just to escape from being blunt and open about things. I remember one such instance in my life where I thought of twisting and hiding facts just to be on the safer side and escape being in trouble for the future. 

We had an audit for a certification program for our company and it was the first major audit I was facing. They designated me as the person in-charge of quality control for the entire organisation. It involved compilation of documentations done by each department. That was the tough part - If someone had asked me to maintain documentation for my team I could have done it easily but my job involved me to coax and cajole the various team heads for submitting me the documents on the right time. The various team heads were at least 10 years elder to me and so I had to respect them and at the same time get work extracted from them. My CEO was too good a person but at the same also a perfectionist. If I failed to submit documents by the stipulated time he would definitely be a not-so-good man and I absolutely dreaded that. Somehow, one day before the audit I tried to complete my work and I presented it to him knowing that there were faults and mistakes in the documentations. I just prayed that it should escape through his perusal as well as the auditor's. One of the team leads refused to sign a few sheets in a document on the pretext that she was too tired and bored of signing many documents at once. It was my luck for that day that this minor blunder got missed from the eyes of my CEO. I knew somewhere within that I was not doing the right thing by hiding something from him because being a documentation specialist I exactly knew what was wrong. I still remember the warning given by the the team lead to me, "Look, you don't try to act too smart and show all this to the CEO or the auditors. Try to hide facts and small flaws sometimes. Only then can you become a good quality in-charge." 

I had sleepless nights thinking about the same. I was worried about the outcome of the audit which was to happen the very next day. This was my first job after college and I was too inexperienced to understand the corporate world. But I knew my CEO was an honest man and he expected honesty from everyone, even if we were wrong.  The audit happened the next day.  I came to my workplace with puffed eyes as I had been crying and mulling over the same fact. I had never done something like this, not even in school days. The first thing my CEO asked me was, "Did you even sleep last night?" 

I was loathing with guilt . At one hand he was being so concerned about me and I was hiding facts from him. I told him, "Sir, this is going to be my first audit experience. I am not sure what is going to happen today" Saying this I gave a half hearted smile and left. The audit was a disaster when it came to documentation. I was not to blame but it was my fault that I had overlooked few things and hidden it even from my CEO. The lead auditor asked me, "Why is there no signature of any authorised signatory here?" 

I kept quiet. She kept repeating the same question. I told, "Madam, the team lead was too lazy to sign. and I am new to the corporate world and to the job. I will take care next time."

She looked at me sternly, just like a school principal and said, "Anyway, I am going to document this as a fault in my report". I was already embarrassed at my act. 

Finally the time of the final report submission came. All the team leads were called and my CEO was also there. The report was presented. My CEO looked upset but to my surprise the auditor blamed the team lead for not signing the document. My name was not seen anywhere but I was appreciated. I was too upset again. After the audit I took permission and tried talking to my CEO. He still seemed upset with me. 

"Can you please tell me what went wrong??" he asked me sternly. 

I explained to him the entire situation and also discussed about what the team lead told me. I ended it with just a sorry. I was too embarrassed to speak further. He looked at me and said, "Never twist facts again or hide things just to save someone who is doing something wrong. Face the truth as it is. Take this as a first hand experience and move on.."

The fact that I was not thrown out of the job and was forgiven made me a better person from that day but telling the truth to the auditor and my CEO helped me. It saved my reputation but not of the team lead. The team lead was refused promotion for one more year. 


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