My First Boss

I was undergoing my first branch on-the-job training. As a novice, I had to obey all the directives given by my superiors, and particularly the Branch Manager (BM). After two months, I was manning the current and cash credit counter. Cash credit is a borrowal account, from where the borrower can withdraw funds upto the sanctioned limit.

One day BM asked me to make a demand draft by debiting a cash credit account of a borrower. I checked the account and told him that the limit had already been exhausted. But he insisted stating that a credit voucher would be made available to me. I left one line blank in the ledger and issued the draft, but the corresponding credit voucher didn’t come to me even after the close of business.

I went to BM, but he coolly told me that the voucher was in clearing. I realised that there was something fishy, as clearing would take two working days to afford credit in the account. It meant that the account would remain overdrawn and irregular till that time. Obviously he wanted to favour a borrower out of the way. My innocence was taken for a ride. I didn’t utter a single word, but my facial expression told him what I wanted to convey.

The next day was weekly off. It increased my tension, as the entry was passed by me. The responsibility was mine. I could not sleep well for the next two days. I took a sigh of relief only when the account was regularised. But I learnt an early lesson from this incident and I didn’t find myself in such a predicament thereafter.

After six years, I was made BM of a branch. There I received a message from my Regional Manager (RM) to conduct a preliminary investigation of a complaint lodged by an employee of a bigger branch against his BM. Incidentally, that BM was the one, who was my BM in my first branch.

I was not ready to go, as he was senior to me, but RM prevailed upon me. When I reached that branch, he was taken aback, and as I had anticipated, he protested to RM that the matter had already been resolved, and there was no need for an investigation at that juncture, that too by a junior fellow. RM didn’t listen to him and asked me to go ahead.

The complaint was about a drunken brawl, but my inquiry revealed some serious malpractices too that led to a physical scuffle between the two. It was more serious than what I had come across in my first branch. Both BM and the employee concerned were prima facie at fault.

I submitted my report, and based on that report, a departmental inquiry was ordered to determine whether the rules had been flouted by them. Both were found guilty and punished accordingly.

The justice may be delayed, but it seldom damages a cause that is just.

–Kaushal Kishore