I was working for a year as a lecturer in Mumbai....earning well ....when the fiancé got his dream job in this South Indian Tea Company .... he was hell bent on working on tea estates .... my cousin in Kerala was teaching in a college near a TE .... and her husband was working in the Tvpm High Court .... ergo I had no clue TEs could be in far flung isolated places ....ergo ....even though he had got into a Financial Journal in Mumbai ....I told him it's better to stay in places with a slower pace of life...
cut to 6th December 1998 and ...the train from Pune to Kolkata was cancelled due to some political issue ..
by the time we reached Assam I knew .... infrastructure and a few other things were very different than what I had seen in Maharashtra or Kerala or Bhopal or Bangalore ....places I had been to before marriage ....
after the initial days of relatives and travelling to relatives places ...I was exhausted of travelling in pitch black conditions and the odd phenomenon of darkness falling very early by 3pm IST ....
however for all the hardships ....the policies of the firm that the husband was working for fascinated me .....there were a few issues with the seniors in that work place ...and though those said seniors wanted to give the husband 'the pink slip' and I got a few jibes about having so much gold as dowry ...ergo we could start something easily .... it was a bit odd to hear strange talk in a corporate set up and it was a very close group people working and partying together ....something that was Very Alien for me ...as till then friends and work colleagues were poles apart
I would have loved to start something of my own ...as I was missing Pune-my city very much...
and I was used to discussing academics .... talk in Tea circles was not my cup of tea ...
after a point .... however ....
Enters .... the owner of the Murugappa Group ...and he wants to give the husband a second chance .....and I was impressed ...as usually in corporate circles ....
the theory that Rules is that of Managerial Discretion ...most appraisals have quite a bit of subjective content ...and in Tea Circles .... protocol is very strict...as much as the Army at times ....
most times managers work for their next incentive and next bonus and next whatever .... many times their decisions are self driven... than ....betterment of the organisation alone ....
And it is very rare to see ...the owner of a group of companies take personal interest in his human personnel .... he decided to give the husband a change of scene and we were transferred to the Annamalais in Tamil Nadu ... TEs set in the midst of a wild life sanctuary ...
not only that ...the year I got married ....the Tea Estate personnel were taken to Malaysia and Singapore for their Annual Conference ....which meant I got to see quite a bit of KL on my own ...as the mornings we women got to sight see ...while the men were in conference rooms ...
the Group took the executives and their wives to Annual Conferences abroad....and it gave people like the husband and me ....who were starting out in life ....an opportunity to travel to destinations we would not have on our own....
during the trip I met and interacted with the Gentleman and Lady who own the Murugappa Group ....both Mam and Sir are unique people ....so very humble and kind and extremely down to earth ... Mam was heading the Coffee Board then if I remember correctly ....I had come from working in two colleges and seeing how a corporate set up works up close was Interesting ....
I got to hear about how TEs worked even when I was visiting people... the husband knew from neighbouring estates ...Unilever, Birlas, BBTC and TanTea (a giant owned by the Govt of Tamil Nadu) were Tea Companies in that District ..
the first thing I noticed is Workers Empowerment ...coming from Assam and househelp that Scared me with their Alcoholism ....I saw workers and househelp who worked so very well and did double the amount of work than the work force in Assam ...
the workers specially were taskmasters and could go home once they finished their quota for the day ....most days much before work ended for other workers ...and they seemed to work with single minded dedication ....
alcohol prices being sky high meant that ....All that the workers earned was being saved and invested in either gold or land .....and people were using the TE schools and hospital to the fullest ...the garden doctors and I soon were friends and I would help all the executives and the lady doctor doing an MBA through Distant Learning ...
TanTea a huge company with colossal land holdings ....had just One Manager ....and I was like Wow ....this is Unique in India ...
when workers are paid very well and Empowered ....they become Responsible and Work becomes akin to Worship
not only that ...every worker and labourer was so very enterprising ... they had some side business or the other ....like the person who cleaned the bathrooms was also an electrician ... sometimes if the company electrician was in some far off location ...I would pay the bathroom cleaner a little money and he would repair whatever was not working ...
plus due to talk during parties and home visits I would get to hear HR policies too ....
when executives had Training Programs ...wives too had a get together and a talk from the trainers .... it was an atmosphere of nurturing and caring for the individual and the human personnel too ... every such get together and meeting and even during parties I would go and interact with people who knew something I did not ....
my point was to keep increasing my knowledge ...be it a language or subject or system ...I used to even make notes on Botany regarding the Tea plant aka the Camellia sinensis...for the husband
and the book Maverick by Ricardo Semler became everyone's Bible in that organisation...
with all that I heard and learnt ....there was some deviation happening too ....a group of executives who were the bullying and devious kind were cooking up a strategy to harm a few of their fellow executives ....ergo ....drafting the Appraisal was an exercise I got to know for the first time ....
those days I wanted to shift to New Zealand (place with zero snakes) and start a Phd on Appraisals and the subjectivity and politics therein ...LOL
soon trouble started brewing ....everyone was worried about retaining their job ...I was a little less worried as that would mean I could go back home after a visit to Assam
then a group of people handed in their resignations on the same day and the GM advised the husband to do so too ...or things would become uncomfortable for him with the remaining close knit group....
I found the GM and his wife to be very erudite, kind, helpful, grounded, easy going and absolute gems ...Mam ran a school in a hill station called Ooty....she would keep giving me tips during company parties ...as I was the youngest tea executive's wife and with no background in tea ....coming from a very urban setup ...
the GM, a very senior Executive and the husband got a farewell party on the same day ....that was the day I was floored by the words of the owner of the Murugappa Group ....Mr V gave such a moving speech ...he knew the people leaving shouldn't be leaving and as luck would have it ...the senior executive had landed a plum job with a Tea Auction company ...that the group was dealing with for selling their produce ...
Mr V spoke without mincing words and was totally upfront in all that he had to say .... along with a taunt to his executives to watch out for the strict ways of the senior executive leaving the T.E....specially now that he would be an Important person in the scheme of things ....plus he asked the husband if he was confident of getting a job .... it was the First and Last time I saw the owner of a company ....talk to his executives and be so genuine and caring about people's well being ....even when they were leaving the organisation...
every interaction involving the Bigwigs of that Group was a huge learning experience ....Mr.V had varied industries within the Murugaapa Group and it was commendable the amount of travelling and one to one interactions he made time for ....
one of the biggest learning experiences was the way the management was guided by the owners in such a hands-on way .... I have Never seen such interactions or well knit group of management, executives and workers in any corporate set up ...post that stint in the Annamalais ....
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