BRANCH MANAGER OR A JOKER

In one of the branches of a top Indian Public Sector banks in Pune, Maharashtra , A  Junior Officer got married recently, so he had been cautiously applying for leaves remaining with him, to enable him to attend the necessary ceremonies after marriage ex : for the purpose of first first rakshabandhan after marriage , dashehara after marriage, first diwali after marriage etc. He was lucky enough to get those leaves sanctioned by his Branch Manager. He was very persuasive.

The Other Junior officers in this Branch got jealous and complained to the Branch Manager, that this officer went on leave very frequently. The Branch Manager should have objected this allegation here itself, because he had himself sanctioned his leaves and knew about the issue. But the Branch Manager was a very foolish person, he pretended to be very annoyed with his Junior Officer after listening to his staff. He did not even think for a moment and ordered his subordinate officer to provide a caution letter to this Junior Officer for his absence from duty to satisfy his audience. This particular junior officer had been on leave for two weeks when all the jealous co workers took the opportunity to complain against him. As per the rule, “Majority wins”.

The Branch Manager called the junior officer to his cabin in the evening, the day he reported to work. He started scolding him. He mentioned that he had extended his leave mentioning that he was sick. He accused that the junior officer was lying. He threatened him that he would be provided a caution letter from the branch for this kind of behavior.

The next day the Junior officer was provided caution letter by the Branch Manager. The Junior officer was taken aback when he read the letter. He tried to explain the Branch Manager that he was not at fault. In fact no mistake was even committed. The Branch Manager refused to listen. But he mentioned that may be your the movement of stars is not in your favor and your bad days may have just started, it happens. (The Branch Manager was Brahmin.)

The letter mentioned four already sanctioned leaves and an extraordinary leave on loss of pay which was sanctioned by the Deputy General Manager, because the officer was on Probation and did not have enough leaves when he got married. The Branch Manager should have been issued a caution letter for sanctioning his leaves, by his higher authorities, if the frequency of leaves was found objectionable.

Indeed! It was a foolish decision to provide a letter to a Junior Officer, merely to make majority of his staff happy, the way a joker does in a Circus. This was realized by the Branch Manager as soon as the Junior Officer provided a reply to the caution letter. But the damage was already done and the Branch Manager felt so guilty that he could not look in the eye at his Junior Officer at that moment.

But later he learned to be shameless unlike others Branch Managers in the Banking Industry. Obviously the show must go on.

THE TRUTH ABOUT DEPRECIATON

In one of the branches of an Indian Public Sector banks in Mumbai the newly appointed clerical staff working at the cash counter where he needed a new pen urgently, because he had to sign the vouchers provided to him by the customers who paid and received cash from him. Due to heavy crowd at the counter, he had no time to approach the head clerk and obtain a new pen from her. So he continued using the same pen which faded intermittently while writing. In case you ever obtained a print on your passbook, you would have noticed the faded print. The ribbons on the printers are seldom changed. Doesn't the service quality get affected?

Meanwhile, when this guy shared his problem with the customer in front of his cash counter, he offered his pen and requested him to keep it as a gift to the bank. However the rules and regulations of the banking industry did not allow this guy to accept the support from this customer, so he refused. The newly joined staff in the Indian PSB's prefer to buy their own stationary rather than asking for it to their seniors. Why? Because they make them beg for it. The Indian PSB’s must be including the expenses on Stationary in their balance sheet, Right?

An old staff sitting next to him told him that when he was young and faced the same situation he had to approach the Head Clerk and request him for a new pen. The Head Clerk would then ask the clerk to show the empty refill and only then would provide him a new refill and not a new pen. 

The Indian Public Sector Banks very rarely enquire about their employees’ needs. However they never fail to scold them if they make even a silly mistake. Only the newly opened branches get the new stuff during their inauguration. This new stuff is used forever and ever until it breaks ex: Keyboards, Mouse and other computer peripherals, staplers, punching machines etc. The depreciation on the computers is calculated for only three years, that doesn’t mean that these PSB’s throw the old computers out as soon as they complete three years. They continue to use them till they can. 

Recently when one of the branches of an Indian PSB in Pune needed to install the Biometric devices on its computers, their data center informed that the computers were supposed to be discarded because they had already completed a period of three years. They also informed that they could install the software only on those computers which were covered under the agreement i.e. those computers which had not been used for more than three years by the bank.

How can we trust the balance sheet of the Indian Public Sector banks if the depreciation is not calculated properly?