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| Edited By: Sarita A Tanwar |Source: DNA |Updated: Sep 10, 2016, 12:30 AM IST
Boss. It’s the word that makes almost everyone go... ‘Ugh!’ The species is universally hated. Like the mom-in-law. Hollywood even made a film called Horrible Bosses. While there is just one film made on the other maligned lot, titled Monster-In-Law, there are dozens of films on evil bosses like Devil Wears Prada, Working Girl, 9 to 5, The Proposal, Wall Street, Office Space etc. And it is not gender-specific either — female bosses are hated as much as male ones.
And that’s probably justified. There are too many stories of mean bosses for me (or anyone else, for that matter) to defend their lot. I have heard (thankfully, not experienced) a few ghastly stories about these power-drunk patrons. A lady boss at an advertising agency works late hours every night (severe lack of personal life?) and forces her team to work the graveyard shift, too. Now, even they don’t have a personal life and not just her staff, even their friends and family hate her.
A gym owner, who talks non-stop about healing and loving, criminally underpays his staff, makes his staff work 12-hour shifts and pays no overtime. If someday, he gets bumped off, the cops would be wise to first rule out everyone on his payroll. A friend tells me about her very sweet and friendly editor who loses her temper once every week with some staffer over some silly (and imagined) mistake and blasts him/her in front of the entire office. Just to let them know that she is the boss. She may be the boss, but that’s not what they call her (PS: It’s another B-word).
People with horrid bosses are doomed to be miserable for the better part of the day. And that’s because most of us spend more time at work than we do at home. I have been lucky. I have always had great bosses. Beginning with my first boss, Nari Hira, who had a friendly manner and was a gentleman. He threw his heart (and home) open to everyone. Which is why anyone who has worked with him is still in touch with him, decades after parting ways with his company. After nine years in Stardust, I moved. Over the years, I worked in other organisations and it was largely a good experience, and when it wasn’t, I moved on.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury to walk out simply because they don’t like the boss or the work environment. But TBT, the minute they get an opportunity, people will leave. Which is why — and this is a fact — most horrid bosses are eventually left with un-creative and weak teams, because the good ones leave first as they are in demand. And that is true whether it is in a bank, an advertising agency, a PR company or a film set.
Actors spend anything from 60-200 days on a film. It’s important that all the energies match. Recently, a top actor refused to work with a big character actress saying, “She is a good actress, but she is too bossy. She will create too much trouble on the set. There are many other good actresses. Let’s get someone else.”
The industry is full of rotten as well as good bosses. Rohit Shetty, whose credits in the film always appear as “Directed by: Rohit Shetty & Team”. It’s unheard of. Whether it is in his office or on his set, he sits down for a meal with his crew. He works the same number of hours as them. If they are in the sun, so is he. His team members adore him and wouldn’t dream of ever leaving him to work for anyone else. That to me, is real success. Winning people’s hearts is a bigger achievement than winning awards.
One also hears great things about Karan Johar, the boss at Dharma Productions. He might send his staff scurrying in all directions to avoid his catty comments, but they swear by him. He is warm with everyone who works with him. He doesn’t reserve his niceness only for stars. You just have to walk into the Dharma Productions office to feel the love. The energy is infectious, and there are happy, shiny faces walking around. An atmosphere every work environment should aspire to be.
No wonder both Rohit and Karan are flourishing while this big producer-director who treats his crew like slaves is struggling to survive. He is infamous for serving separate meals to the lowly workers on the set. The assistant directors who worked on one of his earlier films talk about the nightmarish experience. Most days, they’d reach the set at 6 am, and since most stayed far from the set, it’d take them an hour to reach the location but they’d wake up early and cook and carry lunch from home to avoid the rationed meals of two chapatis (the kind served in jail), boiled rice and watered-down dal. Of course, the food made for the actors, the producer and director was of 5-star quality. No wonder he is now left with a crew of two-star quality or `2 people, a wonderful coinage by the one who shall not be named.
Meanwhile, I am living in the hope of seeing a movie about a good boss..or a good mother-in-law. Kyunki….
