A Backfired Resignation – Short story

A Backfired Resignation

Asim was one of the best performers in Company A. A topper throughout in school and college, he topped in his performance at office too! A dedicated, responsible and intelligent employee – the company’s asset. When he put in his resignation, his reporting head got a bolt from the blue. He immediately asked the HR Dept. (Human Resource) to retain him by hook or by crook!

After hours of discussions, Asim agreed to continue working for Company A since he was immediately offered a 70% hike in his salary. He was an asset to the company – losing him meant heavy loss. Not only was he an intelligent and dedicated worker, but many others – his juniors especially – looked up to him with a lot of respect and he was a great motivator too. Always helpful, he had turned even the most mediocre performer into an asset for the company. Such a multi-talented employee was not so easy to give up! Asim was retained and things went back to normal for all.

Not quite for all though! Kasab had worked closely with Asim and he had been his team member in couple of projects earlier. He knew all about Asim’s job hunt, his resignation and all that followed. The fact that Asim did not leave the organisation and continued to work made it very evident for all about his untimely appraisal and salary hike!

After 2 months, Kasab tried to play the same game! Without getting a job in hand, he sent his resignation to the HR. He was pretty sure that the company will give him a salary hike and retain him – just like Asim. He was the most senior in his department and who could replace him in such a short notice…he thought.

The HR and his senior officer took it as a very pleasant surprise! His reporting head, Mr. Dutta, had tears of joy when the HR broke the news to him!

Mr. Dutta – “What? Kasab has resigned!? Tell me where do you want your lunch or dinner party… gosh! it’s party time!!”

Kasab had always been a very below average performer. After having failed to deliver even the simplest of things correctly, the company had given him a cookie-cutter kind of a job – everything was automated and all that he had to do was to fill in the data and generate the report. Since he had the engineering degree, he had to be paid pretty high for his standards. Mr. Dutta had often mentioned the HR about his frustration to handle ‘dumb’ Kasab. He had even said that a class 8^th student would do a better job than him! He was slow, laid-back and most inattentive! A single work had to be repeated at least 7 times before it got done. The entire organisation was fed up with Kasab and his lackadaisical nature l! Just because he had been with the company for 6 years and was pretty regular in his attendance, so the company never showed him the door.

The HR immediately gave him a date for his Exit Interview. Now it was Kasab’s turn to be surprised! But it was too late for him to take back his resignation. He started to frantically apply for jobs…and eventually got a job that paid him even less than half of what he was drawing in Company A!

Moral – Don’t judge yourself by someone else’s standards!