Driver - Ek Khoj (The quest for a loyal driver)
On the occasion of the 69th Independence day when our Prime Minister is asking fellow countrymen to take up entrepreneurship in his own unique style with the tag line “Start up India”, my family is trying to find a new driver with the tag line “Start my car”. It might seem a mundane task but it can get as difficult as searching the right groom for your princess daughter.
One of the many perks that comes with my father’s job is an official driver. But unfortunately the driver has to be found by us and his company will only reimburse the expenses of the driver. So, when my father moved to Mumbai three years back he appointed a driver and in hindsight we were quite lucky that the same driver continued to provide service to us for close to three years.
On a not so fine Monday morning we learnt that the loyal driver had resigned without giving any prior notice. It has been close to three months and as many drivers since that gloomy Monday and my family is still trying to find the right match for our young & beautiful car.
During the initial days of this search, I was quite excited to interview the driver candidates. I think the excitement was mainly because it gave me the feeling of a CEOs son who had the liberty to accept or reject the candidate at his own whims and fancy. However, the excitement slowly died down with an increase in the frequency of interviews.
When one after another driver divorced our car, we were not only disappointed but also shocked. As per us, we were definitely good employers if not the best. But now that I try to go through the psyche of our employees (read drivers), we were not offering them with anything special. Our package to the driver included a fixed salary component (which was at best at par with the market standards), overtime (which was a rarity), travel allowance and a Diwali/Eid bonus.
What we did not have on offer was to ask him to take ownership of instances of our drunken driving. What we did not have on offer was to make him a media star or pleasure trips to Bombay High Court. So, I can very well imagine our ex drivers enacting the 90s Nirma ad - “Jab wahi mahange daam waali safaai kam daamon mien mile to bhala koi ye kyun le wo na le”. However self-deprecating it may sound my family is the “Ye” in the above line.
In the job market comprising of the likes of Microsoft, Facebook, e-commerce giants we were at best an average Indian IT company. If we were to go by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, our package was at the bottom of the pyramid taking care of only the physiological needs. A driver also has the right to move up the ladder in this pyramid and reach to the stage of self-actualisation which we could not have provided despite our best intentions.
So, we would not be bothered by what the nation wants to know until we find a driver who is satisfied with a HMT watch in the age of smart watches and the prime time debate in my family will continue to have only one topic “Driver - Ek Khoj (The quest for a loyal driver)”.
Note - I hope this write up does not reach the eyes of our ex-drivers some of whom were very active Facebook users
One of the many perks that comes with my father’s job is an official driver. But unfortunately the driver has to be found by us and his company will only reimburse the expenses of the driver. So, when my father moved to Mumbai three years back he appointed a driver and in hindsight we were quite lucky that the same driver continued to provide service to us for close to three years.
On a not so fine Monday morning we learnt that the loyal driver had resigned without giving any prior notice. It has been close to three months and as many drivers since that gloomy Monday and my family is still trying to find the right match for our young & beautiful car.
During the initial days of this search, I was quite excited to interview the driver candidates. I think the excitement was mainly because it gave me the feeling of a CEOs son who had the liberty to accept or reject the candidate at his own whims and fancy. However, the excitement slowly died down with an increase in the frequency of interviews.
When one after another driver divorced our car, we were not only disappointed but also shocked. As per us, we were definitely good employers if not the best. But now that I try to go through the psyche of our employees (read drivers), we were not offering them with anything special. Our package to the driver included a fixed salary component (which was at best at par with the market standards), overtime (which was a rarity), travel allowance and a Diwali/Eid bonus.
What we did not have on offer was to ask him to take ownership of instances of our drunken driving. What we did not have on offer was to make him a media star or pleasure trips to Bombay High Court. So, I can very well imagine our ex drivers enacting the 90s Nirma ad - “Jab wahi mahange daam waali safaai kam daamon mien mile to bhala koi ye kyun le wo na le”. However self-deprecating it may sound my family is the “Ye” in the above line.
In the job market comprising of the likes of Microsoft, Facebook, e-commerce giants we were at best an average Indian IT company. If we were to go by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, our package was at the bottom of the pyramid taking care of only the physiological needs. A driver also has the right to move up the ladder in this pyramid and reach to the stage of self-actualisation which we could not have provided despite our best intentions.
So, we would not be bothered by what the nation wants to know until we find a driver who is satisfied with a HMT watch in the age of smart watches and the prime time debate in my family will continue to have only one topic “Driver - Ek Khoj (The quest for a loyal driver)”.
Note - I hope this write up does not reach the eyes of our ex-drivers some of whom were very active Facebook users
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