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Diya Chakraborty opens the communication she has received from the HO and the moment she realizes its contents she goes through it absorbingly. Not to be distracted, she keeps the incoming call lines closed for few minutes and does a quick calculation on what is the actual increase in her salary compared to what she is getting now. She compares all the elements of the column which reads current emoluments with new emoluments with utmost detail. After a thorough scrutiny she comes to a conclusion that the salary hike she gets is meagre, an eye wash and is not based on her real performance.

She takes a print out and keeps it on her desk. She calls her friends and colleagues in other departments. She hides her disappointment and enquires what kind of hikes they have got; makes a mental note of those things and wishes people who got grade changes and promotions. She also calls her friends doing similar role in other regions, checks with them and gains an overall perspective about the salary hikes announced.

Diya is an experienced customer care officer, placed in a regional office of this company which is selling major equipments for industries. She has joined this company fifteen years ago as a receptionist and assistant to the Regional Head. The company went through major changes in the last decade -was taken over by an MNC, people got displaced, product profiles changed etc. Her region also witnessed quite a lot of changes in key people during this period. There was frequent turnover of sales and service managers and hence customers of the region didn’t get proper connect with managers. Customers have to depend on the frontline staff whom they are familiar with or they have to reach the regional office number and connect with Diya for getting things done.

Because of her presence in the same place for a long time, customers know her and keep coming to her for regular and emergency support. She does her best to take care of their requests.  Customers who visit the regional office in person are also well taken care of by her.  Many customers have access to her personal mobile number so they can message her during emergency need for spares and services. She responds to those requests very sincerely. Hence, she enjoys the goodwill of most of the customers in her region.

Three days after receipt of this communication, the regional manager who just returned after a travel, calls her into his cabin. He asks for reasons why so many complaints got escalated to the HO in the last two days. He asks for a list of customer complaints received and actions taken on them. Diya keeps mum and does not speak a word. The Regional manager even shows her the message from the National Sales Head alerting him of something fishy happening on the customer care front in his region. Diya continues to maintain her silence. Worried, the Regional manager looks Diya in her eyes and asks if there is a hidden issue and demands that she speaks up.

Few seconds pass by. Diya starts weeping and, in few seconds, it becomes a cry and tears are rolling down her cheeks. She wipes out her tears and soon bursts out in anger saying that it’s all because of managers like him. The Regional manager was stunned and could not figure out what does she mean. He waits patiently for her to calm down and later enquires what is the real issue. She says managers like him are too busy, don’t understand ground realities, don’t value real contributors, tend to support those engineers from good institutions for promotions and hikes while ignoring those who have modest educational backgrounds.

The Regional manager waits patiently and Diya continues to narrate similar incidents in the past when she got raw deals in her appraisal and says something similar has happened this year too.  She says that she is a victim of her background and modest beginning and blames it on managers who are involved in the appraisal process. She hopes that somewhere in the future someone will appear to take up her case and help her come out of this predicament.

She slowly admits that she was not in a right frame of mind to answer customer queries in the last few days and also wanted the show the importance of her role in the region. Hence, she was not actively attending to the customer issues and made them wait. When customers felt ignored, the escalations happened and now someone has to step in and resolve all those pending customer requests and solve their problems.

When it comes to salary hike and promotions, Diya is playing the role of a victim. She blames the past managers and the current manager (persecutors) for her situation. She expects someone to take up her case and rescue her. Else, she will continue to play the role of a victim and bring it out in contexts where she needs sympathy or support from others.

Same Diya plays the role of a villain when it comes to customer care in the last two days. The customers become victims and the regional manager or someone else has to step in and rescue the customers from their misery.

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Image courtesy: en.wikipedia.org. No copyright infringement is intended

The drama triangle - dramas involving people playing the roles of Victim, Persecutor (Villain) & Rescuer keep unfolding in organisations regularly. All of us would have witnessed these dramas from close quarters. Most of us excel in these dramas and play our roles with aplomb. We enter into a drama with a hidden motive …to get something or to avoid something. At times, we are sucked into the drama because of our official role or relatedness with other players - like how the Regional Manager gets sucked in. I can recall lot of situations where I played the role of a victim and gained some benefits. I have also played the role of villain on many occasions and I guess it is my favourite role.

The dramas are painful and make life difficult for those involved in them. They bring out a range of emotions, complicate issues, strain relationships and also impact business and customers.

But they are interesting, at times juicy and make work life colourful. Aren’t they?

What do you think? Share your thoughts.