Bursting the Boss Myth!

“There is no such thing as a ‘boss’,” he announced, leaning back with his cup of green tea. The three of us burst out laughing – together. We worked in the same department and had to meet a deadline in three days to keep his bossy highness in good humour. This man was obviously getting tipsy over green tea! Or may be he was unemployed – perpetually so. Perhaps, he was a boss himself waxing eloquent trying to deconstruct his role verbally, while holding on to his golden throne. Just a subtler form of power play. Anyway, it was party time and the strangest of theories could be entertaining at times.

“The ‘boss’ is an illusion and like all illusions its strength depends on the perceiver’s mind,” wisdom poured like a fountain. So, what was he suggesting, if the three of us practiced concentration hard enough our pot-bellied, tyrannical, gold-toothed corporate master could be…whooosh!!!?? “Of course, there are no magic wands,” (Oh my God, the guy was a mind reader!) “but if you try hard enough and long enough you can be free of the bossiness of others if not get rid of the boss figure.” I wonder if he noted the frowns and sighs that went round the room. “There is no great secret behind this – only the simple understanding of the web.”  The web? www…the answer to all ills? Don’t tell me this was going to be a combined form of advaita philosophy and matrix maya churned together by some glib talker who never worked under pressure or had to fend for a family? “What web?” someone burst forth. I wasn’t the only one listening!

“The web of life – the reality of our being connected. Life is not a vertical or linear arrangement, it’s more like a mass of wires connected. While it’s not possible to always reach each wire centre directly there is always a connection.” That was a good idea – provoke the boss’s wife-wire, or kidnap… after all, those connections would produce fairly direct results. “But remember, if you snap or cut a wire, the entire system is affected.” What a mind reader! Or may be it’s just obvious, that’s what most – all(?) bossed-upon employees want to do!

“You have to work towards finding the mass of wires that meet at an interval and try to produce an effect there.” So networking was the key, right? “Sometimes a good hard shake-up gets a dysfunctional interval to start again.” Ah revolution! So, that’s what he’s been talking about all along. I always knew revolution was the answer when came to some bosses at least.
“…Or an exchange of wires sometimes can work….”
What does it all mean? Not in woolly, abstract terms but for real-life people like us with deadlines and performance pay?

“…which just means that you’ve got to make the person see from your and other points of view, whether the person is your boss or your servant. Perception is all.” Easier said than done, my boss was severally myopic – literally and metaphorically. He hid and remedied one type of myopia by wearing contacts, but what is the answer to the myopia of the mind? How to make him see? “Begin by what the person does understand and is sensitive to and then take him to that he yet doesn’t fully comprehend.”

“Oh yeah! Like start from profit and take him to more profit! And if you really want him to see anything besides – forget beyond profit or his ego, it will take ages, I’d probably leave this job and move on by the time that happens, if it happens at all. Who cares about his transformation then?!”

“Transformation requires patience and knowledge or wisdom. First, the knowledge of the right ‘wires’ (read, string pulling!) and secondly, the knowledge to let go and wait patiently for the signal to reach the right point. But remember, sometimes, you just can’t pass electric current through a fused wire. It will take time and perhaps more than one stuck signal for the web to take out and make new the fused wire or even replace it.”

Fused wire? …Replace it?…I couldn’t quite make out whether he was talking about death and resurrection, or sending someone to a really transforming workshop, or simply saying that hang on there till more people push and he’s forced to quit, may be even fired. My devilish serpent tongue was licking my lips. Anyway, I still guess it would take some serious time for his bosses to realize that he’s fake…. And what if it did happen? He may be replaced by yet another wired up character rather than a live wire one. That’s being back to square one – with a different boss.

I wonder if he thought the same way about his bosses, and they about their respective bosses…where would this lead to? God?…or back to the web of which we are all an integral part? The notion of hierarchy leads to the ultimate boss – God, and he’s NEVER directly accessible! You don’t even know whether his representatives are really his representatives, may be they are just pretending or worse, are self-deluded. If God isn’t the answer that leads us back to the web and the onus is on us, and a lot of wire work needs to be done. While you are at it, do the work as best as you can, make the right noise in right places, if possible in the right way and wait…and wait…and wait…and if nothing happens – sip green tea – it’s good for the heart!

Harvinder Kaur is an educator and a writer, currently heading an international school in Mumbai.