HR policies and Grandma

My morning was spoiled …. Well almost …. Whenever you deal with HR policies that tread on the dangerous territories of compensation, I always feel like a slice of cucumber in a vegetable sandwich – you are pressed between the two sides and finally achieve martyrdom without being noticed!!

Whenever compensation policies are discussed, there are financial realities on one side and aspirations, which are almost always disproportionate vis-à-vis realities, on the other side ….. Your job in HR is to implement the realities while maintaining the overall good health of the organization……

I had just walked out of one such meeting discussing revised overseas allowances with a group of associate….. Extremely frustrated with the negotiations, I just decided to take a walk on the terrace. Well, my company was perhaps the only IT company operating out of south Mumbai. Our office was a cute little bungalow with a lovely terrace garden ….. next to our office was a typical Mumbai residential structure crammed with lot of families …. In the window next to our terrace, I saw a stubborn 4-year old along with his grandma …. The little one simply refused to eat the routine food and wanted something different which the poor grandma was helpless about ….. Something in this run-of-the-mill scene stopped me in my tracks …… I could not hear the what was being said but grandma had started a dialogue keeping the food tray aside ….. the child started giggling after some time …. As they got along, grandma slowly picked up the food tray and started feeding the kid …. By then the child had started listening with rapt attention and eating the morsels one after the other ….. As the food tray finished, there was a peculiar expression on Grandma’s face – it was not cunning or of any victory but simply that of pure contentment …. She was admiringly looking at the kid with mission accomplished! ..... Nowhere in the process had she raised her hand or voice ….

It was one of the most gracefully handled conflicts – LIVE! Grandma knew that what she was feeding may not be fancy but was the best available for the kid ….. she also acknowledged the kid’s desires without dismissing them ….. She was definitely focused on feeding the child but also sensitive to the situation and realities … there can be genuine conflicts without anyone being “unreasonable”…. She knew the importance of the job at hand but perhaps, was not anxious to “get over” with the job somehow ….. Anxiety breeds more anxiety in a situation where conflicts / difference of opinions exist ….. I guess there were two very important drivers …… Grandma was extremely concerned with feeding the child for its well being rather than accomplishing a “task” and she also had an outstanding temperament not to get drawn in any “battleground”.

Wisdom is far more precious than “strategies” in some matters …. I thanked the old lady from the bottom of my heart and as I walked back for the next meeting, there was a definite spring in my stride!!!!!