All in a day’s work ( Unpublished excerpt from Twice Blessed)- Part 1/3
Part 1: The Acrimonious Beginning
I arrived at the office for my regular post lunch shift. As I swiped in the unusual nature of lifelessness inside was the first anomaly that caught my attention. Everybody was busy at his or her respective workstation, concentrating at something of paramount importance.
On a regular day, teams working together, huddles debating colours and fonts of a campaign, shouts for hot coffee, a queue at the photocopier, client meetings. . . , would be in full swing at this hour. I found it strange that none of these activities were in evidence. Even more perplexing was the scene inside The Boss’s cabin.
He sat at his desk, surrounded by the sales and the account management team. Instead of addressing them, he was busy on the phone. Everyone gathered in the room was also busy on his or her mobile blatantly disregarding the ‘All phones on silent during meetings’ rule.
The Place, the boutique advertising agency where I worked was a liberal organisation. Few rules were imposed but the ones in place were enforced with strict discipline. In my two years there, I was yet to come across an instance where one of these sacred rules was disregarded in this fashion.
Something was up. I was sure of it.
The moment I reached my desk, the intercom buzzed. It was The Boss asking me to step into his cabin for a discussion. For some strange reason, the call unnerved me. As I worked part-time and by the time I arrived the whole office was fully immersed into their day’s work, it was routine for me to be summoned in for a discussion within minutes of arrival. Despite that, I felt impending doom in my bones.
Walking past familiar faces, I tried to catch someone’s eye and get a hint about the situation. A few muted smiles aside, everybody avoided eye contact with me, making me even more uncomfortable. I was in trouble. That was the unsaid message. Some deep serious shit! I wondered what it could be.
The sales and account management people filed out as I stepped in. Their stony expressions cemented my fears. Prabhat, my accident prone, catastrophe magnet of an assistant was already present and he stayed put. He looked crushed. A hitherto unseen expression, I noted, surprised.
Usually, when he goofed up and dumped the universe on me, he looked confused and apologetic. Sometimes, even shocked and sad, but never devastated, as he did now. He looked distraught and ready to burst out. That set worry bells ringing. What had he done now? How bad was it?
“How was your exam?” The Boss began being his courteous self.
“Good, Alok.” I replied cheerfully, without letting on my tension.
“Saw today’s paper?”
“Nope, is there something I should have seen?”
“You could say that.” He replied, passing me a copy of the day’s paper.
“What am I looking for?”
“Not the weather report”
Bad mood, I assessed, as I scanned through the sheets of the paper. Then I saw it. The last two pages of the paper looked very familiar. It was the crackle campaign. Wow! It looked awesome. Slowly realization dawned. Why was it out a full week before schedule? Then my heart stopped beating.
The brand was wrong. The ad was the same, pixel for pixel, word for word, but the campaign belonged to a competitor. I checked and rechecked. Even the fonts, words, everything was the same. Yet, the brand was wrong. How could that happen?
“How did this happen?” The boss demanded, at that instant.
I looked at Prabhat and then at the newspaper, trying to understand how it could be that an ad designed in this office, approved by our client, would end up endorsing a competitor brand using a rival agency. I was clueless about how to respond to the Boss’s question.
“Do you know what a hit on my reputation this is? Our client is threatening legal action. Our other clients are getting cold feet. I have been fire fighting all day. You were the ones responsible for this account, I want an explanation. How did this campaign end up with a competitor agency?”
“I have no clue, Alok.”
“That’s not acceptable. You were responsible, Tamannah.” Looking at my distressed assistant,”And you Prabhat. If you cannot do a thing right, how is it that you always manage to do something perfectly wrong? How did you pull, this stunt off? I genuinely want to know. You worked your butt off for this campaign and then handed it to your friends at The Catalyst?”
“No boss, I don’t have friends there.”
“So Tamannah must have shared the details, is that what you are saying?”
“No, she would not have done so.”
“Really, you know that how? Tell me how the hell this ad is in today’s paper?”
“I swear. I already told you a million times, I have no hand in this.”
“So Tamannah, you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Boss . . . I saw the ad just now, in front of you. I am still reeling under the thought that information was stolen from our office. Do you think, any other campaign may have been compromised?”
“Let me worry about that. You tell me how something you were responsible for ended up in today’s paper.
“I don’t know.”
“Excellent, that is an answer I can defiantly give my clients and they will be sufficiently reassured with those words. Do I look like a brainless hippo? Both of you sitting here smug and unaffected, as through you are not accountable for any of this! But get this, both of you. You are responsible. I will dig to the bottom of this and I will take appropriate legal action against the culprits. There will be no favouritism for family or women or anyone.” (Prabhat was The Boss’s brother in law, explaining The Boss’s choice of words there.)
“Legal action.” Whoa! What had just happened?
“Do you hear me both of you? “He roared.
We nodded shocked at his ferocity. The Boss was a docile, kind, easy going person. Who was this guy? We were seeing this avatar for the first time.
“Now get out and don’t come back until you are ready to explain how this happened. And Tamannah, you need to hand over all the campaigns you are working on to Tushar. Both of you are suspended until enquiry on the matter is completed. There is no need to come to work unless I ask you to or you have an explanation for what happened.”
How humiliating! I had never been thrown out of a classroom, much less my own office. How date Alok put the blame on me? “Alok, you are reacting unreasonably. We have done dozens of campaigns together. I have worked here for almost 2 years and you know me well enough to know that I will never do anything unethical. How can you blame me for what happened? I understand I am responsible for the account but this kind of deceit is not something I am capable of doing and you know it. How can you utter such harsh words at me?”
“Tamannah, I am sorry if you feel that you are being penalised for something that is not your fault but truth be told, you are at fault. This is a new account and you were responsible for both the campaign and this assistant. On your watch, a competitor has acquired the entire campaign and used it. I fail to see how all is not your responsibility”
“But you are accusing me of unethical behaviour”
“I am accusing you of no such thing. I am saying that this happened on your watch. I just need to know how that came about, if you were not involved.”
“If you were involved,” I retorted, furious. “Really Alok!” Finding it difficult to control my temper, “If I was involved! So you are entertaining a possibility that I may have been involved in all this and that is not an accusation? Let me tell you something. I don’t need this job. I come here because it suits me and I enjoy my work. I have no need to sell campaigns on the sly for a few extra bucks. I cannot believe I never saw the real you till this moment.”
“The real ‘me’ is sitting in a pot of boiling oil, trying to decide if I can pay my employees this month considering the rate at which clients are pulling out of our services.
“I am not responsible for that. No matter what you think.”
“Look Tamannah, I am not saying you did anything underhanded. I am just saying that someone did and this account was being handled under your supervision. So, if anything was amiss, you should have at least suspected.”
“Alok, what are you saying. This team has been here almost as long as I have. Many people on this account have worked for you longer than I have. We have done so many campaigns together, there is no one out there who is dishonest or who would consider tarnishing our reputation. One fine day, suddenly when things go south, you suspect everyone and blame me for being accountable. Wow, Alok, this is really rich.”
“Ok, we’ll think your way. Everyone is impeccable. Nobody has done anything unethical. Explain one thing to me. How in hell is it that this ad came out in today’s paper, without anybody’s hand in it? You are thinking about this only for the past few minutes. I have been pondering this issue since daybreak, when I saw it in the paper.
“The only reason I did not call you was because you had exams and that is important for you and your future. So before you go about accusing me of shifting loyalties, just think about that. I have been sitting here and answering clients and speaking to all employees, not just those on this campaign. Nobody has heard or seen anything. So what am I to assume?”
“Thanks Alok, for not calling me in the morning. That really was thoughtful of you. I would have been totally stressed out and my paper would have been a disaster. You are right, you have been dealing with this all day, but look at the office. These are people who work here because they want to. No one has ever given you any reason to feel disappointed in them, let alone disloyal. These are the people you are suspecting of going behind your back. Don’t lose their trust over a matter that does not involve them, then, even if your clients don’t ditch you, you will be as good as gone.”
“I also don’t want to think the worst of my team, Tamannah but what is the alternative? How could this have happened?”
“Our systems could have been hacked.”
“Right, we are a super secret hi-tech facility whose innovations have huge demand in the black market. This is not our biggest client, Tamannah. It’s a start-up and there is no reason for such information leak for such a small campaign.”
“I agree, hacking is a bit farfetched.”
The phone rang just then, and Alok listened for a few minutes to what was being said by the caller, for a few minutes. He kept asking, “Are you sure” and then after some five minutes, he put the receiver down. “Well, hacking is ruled out. That was the forensic technology expert. The office system security is intact. No breach. Bust someone could very well have taken a print out. It’s a print campaign after all.”
“Alok, this is dirty business, I don’t see this leading to any result, other than ill will among the team.”
“I need to plug the leak. I cannot afford such behaviour from anyone. It’s just too dangerous”
“What are the ‘crackle’ guys saying. “
“They are not saying anything. They told me their lawyer will be in touch.”
“Shit!”
“Shit, doesn’t begin to describe the mess, believe me.” Then he turned pale. “Bean bag is headed this way. There goes one more account.”Bean Bag, a giant obese man, was the nickname of one of our most fussy yet loyal clients. One could please a king and yet fail to match Bean Bag’s expectations. I handle his account and the whole office sympathises with me for being stuck with the account.
“I will deal with him.” I offered briskly, walked out of the room, met Bean Bag halfway, and steered him towards the nearest meeting room. He was persistent but I was also insistent and finally, with some effort, I was able to get him to sit down. The next hour and a half were pure torture.
He was clueless about the actual problem. One of his business associates, who had a friend whose cousin was a client of ours, had told him that three of our campaigns had been leaked to competitors. Apparently, these competitors were paying five times the price to beat the market by killing the campaign and benefitting from our excellent creativity.
Wow! , I thought. Someone’s imagination was working overtime and the rumourmongers had no doubt done their bit as well. Dissecting the gossip part by part and refuting each bit with facts took the whole time but in the end, he left smiling and reassured that his account was very special and we would die before anything from it was leaked to competition.
After he left, I tried to recall, all that had transpired between The Boss and me. I wondered if I was still suspended. If Bean Bag’s information was anything to go by, clearly, there was a lot of bad talk going on in the market. No wonder The Boss was ready to shoot at sight. Still, I did not like the idea that Alok may actually entertain thoughts of legal action against me. I dismissed the thought when another equally disturbing one came.
Alok was partly right. The campaign had been my responsibility; even through Prabhat was handling it. I had sat in on every meeting and in short, I was responsible. It made me feel sick, to be the cause for this entire mess. He was right, I may not have handed the details to outsiders but I had not seen it coming. Someone was to blame.
In, this team of trusted friends and colleagues, there was at least one who had not cared about betraying everyone. As the one responsible for the whole campaign, I should have been the first to notice but I had not done so. Wasn’t it up to me to find out who it could be? I wondered what I could do. Where should I begin?
To read more about Tamannah and her adventures visit Twice Blessed A Sneak Peak.
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