Logical conclusion

Logical Conclusion

In the days when there are a lot of dispute situations arising between employers and employees in respect to adhering to the path of righteousness or straying from it, both parties are a harried lot. Appointment and offer letters are not being followed and more and more people are questioning the proprietary of receiving the offer or appointment letters and the containing terms and conditions as if they were just plain typewritten sentences and not the guiding star for both parties.

The reasons are many, primarily the employer’s reluctance to let go of a good resource, especially during the busy period forgoing his earning potential. In his attempt to stretch the inevitable, he tramples on the rights as offered by himself in the very contract document signed with his employee. Another reason is the tomboyish attitude of the employee, where they are not concerned with projects or work undertaken, neither are they interested in moral jitters due to work left uncompleted irrespective of knowingly acknowledging the hardship it would put his organisation and bosses to not to speak of the monetary loss the firm may suffer as a result. 

This is especially true in the modern era and prevalent in areas where the company has invested its time and machinery to identify talent, train them and make them fit for the specific purpose of the project. The employer after all this is certainly entitled to a few winks of sleep and tension free environment. But no sooner does he think his hard work is paying off when employees barge into his peaceful existence to shake him out of his placid state of mind. They are always challenging the employer with their resignations and other irritatingly conspicuous demands which carry more of nuisance value for the HR department.

Fed up and to protect his turf the employer renegades on the very contract he enforced and turns into a foul guy putting up all kinds of un serviceable demands. The employee at his stage is frustrated because he needs to find his way out. His sole aim is to prosper at his own pace and has a date with destiny for which he needs to be suitably relieved. Many of the stipulations the employer places affronting the resigned employee are actually contradictory to the contract terms and conditions, but nevertheless he forces himself on the hapless employee who is faced with a peculiar worry either of accepting the demands or tighten the girdle to take the fight to the opponents camp.

The options before an employee are numerous, he can talk sense into the employers head, make peace with him and work out a middle path that which solves problems at both ends, refuse to accept any demands that the employer may put on him, or take the employer to the courts. Most of them and the prudent ones somehow manage to pacify the temperamentally seething employer and weave their way around the stumbling blocks.

However others may contemplate taking action, reporting to the labour commissioner, hiring a lawyer, complaining to their Unions, or other such measures. However the effort needed to convert the wrongs into victorious endgames are huge. It may take years to arrive at a favourable result; there may be times when you wish you hadn’t started it at all. There are times when you sit back and count the gains and losses arising out of this action. You discover the potential hassles when you as an individual have to fight the employer which is an institution. The institution has many helping hands and finance is no restraint whereas as an individual you stake your happiness on the altar of righteousness. Then the lawyers can do a double crossing job, the results are in no way certain, compromises may be offered after wasting many years fighting wrongs and many other possibilities. Family might suffer, neighbours might start a whisper campaign, society may see you as a rebel and your reputation might get tarnished in the bargain of taking your case to its logical end. Deriving a logical conclusion is not an easy job. So should you prostrate? Put down your arms? Hold up your hands in abject surrender? Or bow down in meek submission?

Before contemplating on rectifying the perceived wrongs, the aggrieved party must always weigh the pros and cons, the load on the chest and shoulders that he can bear, the financial implications it can cause, the solicitude that it might put him into since friends, supporters and acquaintances usually fall by the wayside. The loneliness, the disturbed state of mind, the fear of losing, the anxiety of a lifetime all this must be thoroughly rehearsed weighing them consciously before finally arriving at a conclusion on whether it is worthwhile and fruitful to carry on a crusade for justice.

The gravity is not the same for everybody, everyone has a different barometer of patience, some can withstand an onslaught for long, and others may crumble at the start, so it is essential that each individual analysis the extent to which he/she can take the fight to. Every individual must lay bare on the table the effects, consequences and preparedness to take in adversity. Once that decision has been made, you can fight on resolutely with a clear mind and conscience taking things to a logical conclusion irrespective of the flip side.

Robin Varghese – robin_vargh@yahoo.com

2^nd September 2014