Office Satire Series #1 - Requesting the Manager to grant leave

The article presents both informative and fun parts. If you want to skip to the fun part, then go straight to the scenario with the Boss-Manager.

Every software project manager/delivery head is often faced with a situation in their work-life where a team member approaches him/her with a leave request, be it for a vacation or for other personal reasons. The manager has to grant or reject the leave keeping in mind both the project as well as the team member. More than the decision, what is more important is how the manager approaches and handles the situation, without hurting the team member’s sentiments or the project’ wellbeing.

Such scenarios also highlight the difference between a Boss-Manager and a Leader-Manager, if I may call them so.

In short, this is how a Leader-Manager would approach the leave request, when a team member comes to them with the request.

• Manager considers the leave request carefully; understands why the team member wants the leave.
• Manager keeps in consideration the work put in by the team member since the beginning of the project.
• Manager asks the team member if he/she has anyone in mind who could be a potential replacement/backup for the team member during his/her absence.
• Manager either selects a replacement himself (based on experience and skill required for the project) or considers the replacement suggested by the team member who wants to go on leave.
• Manager informs the backup team member about the need; confirms that the person is fine with handling the project in the team member’s absence; then holds a discussion with the team member and his/her backup and explains the responsibilities of both before the team member goes on leave. In discussion with both of them, he charts out a plan to complete a knowledge transfer before the team member goes on leave.
• He then asks the team member to come up with a KT plan to be completed within the period specified.
• He then schedules follow-up meetings with both team members to track the progress and intervene if there is a need to do so.
• At the end of the KT period, he has a open discussion with the backup team member about his confidence level and ensures that the backup has all the information required to handle the project while the team member is away on leave.
• He confirms to the team member, in writing, his acceptance of the leave request and also checks with the team member if it would be fine with them if he called, only if urgently needed, during the leave period.
• He makes it a point to get a good understanding of the project himself, if he has not done so already.
• Last but not the least, the manager does not treat this leave as a criterion of performance measurement during the annual appraisal.

Having seen how a Leader-Manager would handle the scenario, now let us see a detailed scenario of how a Boss-Manager would handle the scenario through a imaginary dialogue between the manager and the team member who requests for leave.

Team Member visits the Manager in his cabin. It is also not uncommon where some Boss-Managers may not even offer the team member a seat and will let the team member stand in front of them. It is just an arrogant bossy nature that some snobbish managers have.

And in this case that we are discussing, the team member is approaching the manager, a month in advance, with the leave request.

Team Member: Hi Jai, do you have a minute. I wanted to check with you about the leave request email I had sent you yesterday.

Manager: I am a little busy, but that’s okay (the manager is now a magnanimous prick who is gracious enough to give the team member his time. For all we know he could have been playing Angry Birds in his cellphone but looks all busy in front of the team member!). No Balaji, I have not seen the email yet. (In most cases the Manager would have already read the email but will still act as if it is all new news to him)

When did you send it to me? (He will ask this even though the team member just mentioned that he had sent it the previous day. This is a way/strategy to intimidate the team member)

(Boss-Managers take extreme pride in showing off that they are very busy and they have more than a hundred unread emails in their inbox).

Now the manager spends a good five minutes scanning through the inbox for the email and then reads it in front of the team member. In the meantime, the team member stands quietly, looking at the manager’s face or out the window, wondering if his leave will be approved or not as he has to book tickets (if not booked already) for the travel and inform the family members as well.

Manager: Balaji, so your leave dates are more than a month away. It is too early to approve your leave now as we don’t know what project emergencies can come up at that point of time. (Don’t be deluded into thinking that your leave will be approved if you asked for it a week earlier. Then the manager would say that it is such short-notice and the leave cannot be approved, and also say that you should have informed at least a month back!)

Team Member: Jai, I wanted to give advance notice so that you could plan for my leave in the project plan, and from my side I could conduct a proper KT session for my backup before I go on leave.

In most cases, the Manager will simply end the matter here saying that he will think about and see what can be done when the dates approach. But in reality he will totally forget about it and it will only come as a surprise to him when the team member reminds him about it.

However, in some cases the Manager will engage the team member further with some gyaan about the project situation, business running on client relationship, risk management and so on, before he finally comes to the point that the team member is waiting for.

Manager: So Balaji, have you identified the person who can take up the project in your absence?

(The team member will dread this moment as the manager is dumping his responsibility on the team member here. Moreover, if the team member approaches another person requesting him/her to be his backup, naturally the person is going to turn down the request, unless the request is coming from someone ‘senior’. We are in India, right? Everything runs based on seniority even in so-called flat organisation, right? Anyway, who wants to be someone’s backup and do all the hard work while the other person is happily away on leave?)

Now if the team member says that he has not yet identified a backup, then the conversation would end there. The manager would send the team member away asking him to come back after identifying the backup while secretly wishing that the team member would be unsuccessful in his quest.

But in some cases, the team member comes prepared.

Team Member: Yes Jai, I think Krishna would be able to handle the project in my absence.

Manager: Okay, then talk to Krishna and get his acceptance to be your backup. Then both of you plan for the KT and present the details to me in two slider PPT. Check my calendar for tomorrow and setup a meeting invite.

End of conversation here.

(Balaji is worried now. Krishna might even end the friendship if he pushed him too much to be his backup. He prays that Krishna should help him out. He also secretly hopes that Krishna would be ‘punished’ in the appraisals if he refused to help. This fool does not know that the manager is already going to hold his leave request as a parameter for performance or rather commitment measurement in his appraisal process. How dare he have a vacation when a project is going on? Only seniors are allowed 2-3 vacations per year so that they can recover from all the ‘hard’ work they are doing in office.)

Somehow the team member convinces Krishna to handle the project in his absence. So grudgingly, Krishna sits with Balaji to draw out a KT plan. They create a simple plan in Excel, and then transfer the data as it is into two slides in a PPT (Most managers are PPT blind; they can't see data in any other form other than a PPT document). Balaji sends the completed PPT to Jai via email, then rushes to his cabin to inform him that he has sent him the two slider (so that the manager does not play the drama about missing the email once again).

Balaji also checks Jai’s calendar (which is mostly empty anyway except for some escalation calls which he can’t avoid or Business Continuity Plan meetings where he is a mute listener) and schedules a meeting for the next day, including Krishna in the loop.

Next day, the meeting happens between the three of them.

Manager: So Krishna, did Balaji explain the situation and the requirements to you?

Backup Team Member: Yes Jai.

Manager: So you are fine with the plan then, right?

Backup Team Member: Yes Jai.

Manager: Are you sure? (If asked a couple more times, Krishna would break into tears and run out of the room.)

Backup Team Member: Yes Jai, sure. I can handle it, with some help and detailed KT (Now this is where Krishna places the safety disclaimer)

Manager: Good, then if anything goes wrong in the project I will catch you only first. Remember guys, if there is an escalation and things turn bad, I will not go down alone. I will take you both down with me as well (What motivating words for Krishna to hear! Even if Krishna had somehow mustered the courage and motivation to handle the project for Balaji, these words from Jai would definitely bog him down).

Backup Team Member: Sure Jai, nothing like that will happen. We will do our best (Now both Balaji and Krishna wish deep inside that the manager would just die!)

Manager: Fine then. I will send out an email confirming the same. Carry on with your work and keep me posted. (Well, don’t team members really want to post the bossy managers to some unknown destination so that they never come back?!)

Krishna and Balaji go back to their workstations. They start checking their emails when an email comes to them from Jai which reads thus -

‘As discussed, Balaji will provide the KT to Krishna on these dates below and ensure Krishna has all the information needed to carry the project work in Balaji’s absence. Krishna has assured that he is fully confident about handling the project as a backup resource and will ensure client delight throughout. Both Krishna and Balaji will take full ownership of the project to ensure all goals are met.’

(It is extremely important to start every official email with the two words - ‘As discussed’. This is to ensure a successful blame game tomorrow if the need arises to play one. It is after all part of the Protect Your Own Ass protocol)

Both Balaji and Krishna are devastated reading the email. Jai has put them in a spot, building up a situation to deal with them later in the year-end appraisal. They just know it.

Still without losing heart or time, they proceed with the KT sessions, also diligently keeping Jai posted about the progress almost every day.

Finally the KT is over and both are summoned by Jai to his cabin. They are once again not offered seats and are standing in front of him. It almost seems as if the manager cabin really needs just one chair, for the manager to put his ass on.

Manager: So guys, all done with the KT? Tell me Krishna, how confident are you now?

Backup Team Member: Yes Jai, KT is done and Balaji has prepared some documentation for me that I can refer. And yes, the documentation is in PPT only. Also Balaji has clearly explained the project situation to me as well. So I think I can handle it.

Manager: Good to hear that. As long as you realise that this client is very important for us, it’s fine. (There has never been a client who has never been important to us. Even those clients who pay us a pittance for an elaborate project is so important that we take him to five star hotels for lunch when he decides to visit our office. So what’s with all this justifying that this client is important to us. Sometimes when we read a mission statement talking about client service, best-in-class and client delight, we get the feeling that we are working for an escort service and not for a software company!)

Team Member and his Backup (in chorus): Yes Jai, we understand that the project is all important and we will do everything to ensure it’s success (They could have as well shouted Hail Hitler)

Manager: Good, also Balaji, hope you have net connectivity wherever you are going, just in case we need to reach you urgently for any details. Also, do provide us with your hotel room number, phone number, your wife’s phone number, flight details, and other relevant information before you go so that we may reach you in case of an emergency. (Well, an emergency is a life-or-death situation, or at least an ISRO project. But now every project is qualified as an emergency as well. Well yeah, customer delight, right?)

Mostly we will not call you, but if we have to then I expect you to help us. After all, we cannot compromise the project, right?

Team Member: Absolutely Jai, sure. I will provide the details to you (and also put it up on the notice board so that anyone and everyone can call me while I am away on my private getaway)

Manager: Great, ok then, have a great vacation. And good luck to you Krishna.

Both Krishna and Balaji come out of the room, totally exhausted, thinking about all that they had to do for a leave request approval from a bossy manager.

Unknown to Balaji, Jai has made note of this leave, to take up the point during the appraisal discussion.

It does not matter how hard a team member works throughout the year. But if the team member is not in the manager’s favourite kitty-party list and if he has taken leaves as well, then definitely a rating must be reduced. How else can ‘normalisation’ be achieved so that the kitties can be given the best ratings and promotions?