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Victim of a Dirty Boss - Mute HR - Indifferent Dept of Labor - Stress, agony and frustration.

Posted by: uppuchi
Date: 1/23/2005 12:04:06 PM

Forum members, I do not seek pity nor sympathy from you. Life never is smooth and challenges need be handled as and when they arrive.

Let's rewind to March '04, when my contract job at TI of Florida, ran out after serving it's full term and my Employer Sap Technologies of MA, ditched me. I then flooded my resume in Dice, Monster and a few other sites.

Come April '04, Kema Tech, an Indian company, hired me as a full time perm and placed me at their client in Sav, GA in May '05. Was hired as Project Mngr Grade II. Asked to report to a Sr. Mngr at HQ in India.

At client site, a Proj Mngr - Shrilal, Grade I ( lower to Grade II ) from Kema Tech, self professed as the lead for the project and a team of software developers.

New on the project, I leaned to Shrilal during orientation and to understand the client's biz. Soon enough Shrilal and I showed signs of "gel-well" Proj Mngrs. Lack of knowledge in Employer's Org structure, and being new, I remained silent while Shrilal controlled the administration of the team. He sent emails, scheduled mtgs, liased with the Indian Sr. Mngrs, and threw his weight around. Once I asked him whether he had informed the team that I am Proj Mngr II and higher than him. He affirmed negatively and said this "Keep a low profile and don't tell anyone your position". Questioned him on this hush-hush reason, as my hiring was proper per company norms and in par with rest of companies and level. Shrilal just shrugged off his shoulders and walked away.

3 months later, during a conference call with the entire Sav, GA team, the HR team and Sr Mngrs at India, for the first time I introduced myself and announced my designation as Proj Mngr II. Here's what happened - 1. The Sav, GA team of developers were surprised that Shrilal did not tell them that I was a Proj Mngr II, 2. Shrilal got very annoyed with me since I announced my designation.

Thereafter, Shrilal morphed into a new personality that lacked cooperation and interaction with me. Soon I was torn away from all the Kema Tech developers and made to sit admist the Client folks in a different wing of the bldg. Being very new, I had no one to turn to and work given to me now, was to write computer programs using a new tech called Struts in Java. Shrilal continued to profess himself as lead and deliberately included my name in his email and other lists along with the developers just to make believe others that he is the Boss. Plus he routed all papers for me via him, including my pay check! A junior gets to know his Senior's pay details! Shrilal sent out memos for his team and made it a point to ask me to go to his desk to pick up a personal paper or document of mine. On one occassion Shrilal told me he was the Boss and would perform my "performance appraisal" every quarter.

October 2, I recieved an email from my Sr. Mngr, Kema Tech, that in 15 days I would be replaced if I did not come up to speed in my work at the Client. He also wrote that there's some confusion in my position and that I really need to report to Shrilal despite my designation as Proj Mngr II while Shrilal is only Proj Mngr I ( lower to me ).

Why did the Sr. Mngr stoop to this level? Sr. Mngr and Shrilal are buddies since five years, and hail from the same town in India, speak the same dialect, and belong to same age group btw 28 - 32. At the time the email was sent to me, the Sr. Mngr was on a visit to the client at Sav, Ga. Sr. Mngr's exact date of arrival was not informed to me and only Shrilal was informed about it. Day before the email was sent to me, Shrilal brought the Sr. Mngr and did a 1 min intro and both left. And, Sr. Mngr and Shrilal met the Client Sr. Mngr and seem to have got a feedback about me.

I personally me the Client Sr. Mngr and he affirmed that he did not give nor ask of me a 15 day time period to bridge my knowledge gap and come to speed. He only cited that I am lagging behind a bit on the project. I explained that I was waiting on inputs from others work as it is inter-related and dependent. He agreed to sit me later and not to worry.

But the humiliation and insult given to me by Kema Sr. Mngr and Shrilal was terrible. Leave alone being stressed and lack of support and cooperation from Kema folks, I was left to defend for myself.

One other thing is, Shrilal has to his record, being instrumental in laying off two other developers during Feb '04. They were on the Sav, GA team and client project two years before Shrilal took over. They questioned his behavior which I am told was very bossy. I met one of those two, Prath, who confided that Shrilal was diabolic in his schemes and will never tolerate anyone who comes in his way. They questioned his dictator like attitude and consequently he asked them to return to India. Returned tickets were arranged for them but a day prior to return date, the two quit Kema. According to Prath, Shrilal and his crony in India showed him and his friend the exit.

I had no choice but to follow them, though I wrote to the HR Global Director of Kema, and the Head of Finance and Enterprise Team, plus the HR Manager at NYC office, plus the Sr. Manager of India. Not one of them replied nor arranged a tri-party meeting between me and Shrilal to resovle this issue amicably. Even prior to all this happening, I had mentioned to this elite higher-ups about this anomaly in reporting structure but they did not care. I don't know what clout and pull Shrilal exerts on them but I always felt that they never questioned him during my brief stay with Kema.

Anyway, my resignation was accepted without giving me an opportunity to discuss this with HR. HR did not bother to reply. I don't know whether they questioned Shrilal or not.

Oct 17, 04, I filed for Unemployment Insurance and produced the email from my former Sr Manager of Kema where he wrote to replace me in 15 days and report to Shrilal. Dept of Labor (DOL) claims examiner declined unemployment insurance citing that I had quit my job voluntarily.

I filed an appeal with the DOL and a telephone hearing date was given to me and Kema. For my defense I faxed new documents to corroborate evidence of my work environment, Shrilal's authoritarism, Kema's intransigence, and more. By law, I also sent a copy of this to Kema also.

On the day of the Telephonic appeal, the examiner announced that there was no representation from Kema Tech and that I, the claimant, was the only one to be heard. I narrated the events that lead me to resign my job. I remember telling the examiner that I would not quit a $77000 / annum pay, to seek $300/week of unemployment insurance, but if I did this it is only because of the extent of work related stress and torture that I had undergone while with Kema.

Yesterday I received a letter from the DOL, that I am not entitled to the unemployment insurance because I quit the job. I leave it to you dear readers to form your own judgement.

I quit because I was forced to quit. I did not quit $77k just to seek a palsy $300/wk. I did not quit for lack of education as I have a Master's degree in Computer Science from a good school in New Jersey. I did not quit because of any negative attitude nor decline to work nor to pick up quarrels with anyone. I quit because I had come to a deadend in my work due to lack of cooperation, lack of work input from others which was very essential for my software program to work. Shrilal had his way once again a third time. Shrilal continues to gloat in his profession but many of the team members confided in me that he is very tyrannical by nature and that they are frustrated but comply to his whims and fancies since loss of job would spell doom to them since they would have to return to India.

Some Bosses are totally insensitive to others feelings, family, children, etc. All that they care is how they can make more money for themselves and how to progress more and more for themselves. They are inhuman and lack feelings.

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