favorite TV
channel is POGO. I had lots of hope on her…. A Little bit monsters but my
daughter was full of life and fun.
At home my
mother and wife were trying to show their superiority. Fragile ego problem .I
was without job for one and half months and was drummed by either of them. I
met my ex colleagues of Chennai branch. They told me that our manager took
bribe of Rs 50,000 from the trainee technician to appoint him in Chennai branch
.the boy was from his same cast. I knew our Chennai branch manager was a man of
dubious character. When working in any organization over a period of time we
will understand how the system works but safe guarding our job is most
important than ever changing equations and politics in an office environments.
Later our company came to know his involvement
in double-dealings and kicked him out of the service. He had misappropriated
lacks of rupees by appointing new dealers .he even collaborated with them and
made good fortune. Two of the dealers he appointed went absconding along with
goods. Company had lost nearly twelve lacks of rupee .Out of three cores of
rupees as outstanding amount from our dealers from across India; our manager
had alone supplied goods worth more than sixty lakhs of rupee items even after
repeatedly receiving bounced cheque from the dealers. Some of the dealers
declared bankruptcy! The other method he used to make money was by taking
company’s service contract. He runs a parallel service for the costumes with
the help of two of the technicians. Out of hundred and sixty-service contracts
he had appropriated half of them in his name. Who will bell the cat? At the age
of forty-four I went for job hunting.
A.D.1999... Our union finance minister
(present Prime Minister) declared “Liberalization” policies, another pet name
given for Globalization. Every Companies and organizations were offering
voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) read load shedding or to contain overhead
cost .No white goods manufacturing companies were employing new service technician
for their service department. They appointed franchise. . Some of them offered
work on sub contract biases to get their service done. With no other option
left, I had joined in one of the India’s leading white goods manufacturing
company’s franchise as a service technician. It was not bad in the beginning.
Only five technicians to attend service calls .At times instead of three pin
codes we end up attending four-pin code area per technician. Even at 9.30 p.m.
we were on site about forty or fifty kilometer away from our home. Life was
tough but we were able to make some extra money.
According to the
manufactures whims and fancies and regardless of workers benefits franchise
changes rules and system by overnight. Appointment procedures were made simple
by franchise .No more appointments letter. Appointment was always made
verbally. It goes something like this.” Do you have your own vehicle and a
mobile? You know a Cell is a must".
Without bike and cell phone you are not considered as a service technician.
They call it survival kit or Minimum requirements. “Ok, good. “Now you have to
pay for uniform dress!" (Only God knows how long he is going to keep you
in work.)”From tomorrow onwards you can join for work”. After you join for work
only he will tell you how to make more money by-achieving target (regardless of
working hours). Sooner or later you yourself will find how much money, time and
energy you have to invest to make extra money.
We never had PF,
Gratuity, medical, (ESI) or life insurance, no vehicle maintains allowance,
petrol or food allowances. Only consolidate pay per calls were paid .RS .15 or
RS 20, depending upon the distance from work place. They paid RS 40 per call if
it is in Timbuktu or in out station. There are some company’s franchise and
service subcontracts offering Rs10 for attending service calls. Those
technicians survived by making “extra” money .how they make extra money and how
much they make depend upon their individual “skill”.
Manufactures
increased number of franchise to six and gradually increased number of
technician to 24 to give customer immediate response, technicians got only one
pin code per person. . Per pin code area for one person reduced call attending
time and also reduced number of service calls or his livelihood .our
manufacture appointed five more franchise. Manufacture insist that we sell
accessories to makes extra money to make up the lost service calls .All the
accessories were over prized cheap and duplicate items made in Delhi. Some
chine’s spare parts were asked to sell it to customer. Some of the items are
even sold by footpath sellers! Selling was tough. Since most of accessories were sold along with
appliance by the dealers at the time of selling machines. Company offered us
some incentives like if we sell these items we get a consolation amount of 50
peanut .the highest being 100 peanuts. Per person per pin code area, it means
number of reduced service calls (cards). Per day .
we
received average four or five calls. However distance and petrol consumption
remains same. At the end of the day when you calculate petrol, maintenance and
other expenses the struggle we family men make out a living was not worth it.
With no other job then franchise system available we just continue to work.
Lucky guys are those young bachelors at the end of the month they make out
about Rs 2000 or Rs 2500 p.m. we family men find it difficult to meet both
ends. Most of the ‘young and energetic’ technician made fast money. Some of
them disappeared with fridge or A/C. some technicians made arrangements to
collect repairing charges from different customer in one particular day and took
the entire amount about Rs12, 000 or Rs15, 000 and vanished. The intelligent
one canvassed service contract from the customers and settled down with their
own shop. With ‘inside people’ they can all ways get their work done in double
quick at the half rate! In fact those technicians give much faster and reliable
service! In my five and half years of service at franchisee more than 250 young
and energetic technicians were kicked out of service, some of them disappeared
with company’s fridge, washing machine or A/C. Hiring and firing was the order
of the day.
