This is a true story. Some part of it is sanitized to protect myself from being tracked by my employer 

Background 

Some time back, I joined a reputable company in the financial industry in a small country in Asia, after many years of successes in my domain (related to customer service area).   

I consider myself a very good people manager (I was brought up that way, by my mentor and friend in my first job). To look back and able to see many subordinates who became good friends of mine and looking forward to meet up with me whenever I’m in town (I moved abroad some years back)…… To see my Facebook wall full of birthday wishes from many of them…. To have many of them still constantly checking in to see how I am doing years after we parted ways…. To have many of them still asking if there is a chance to work for me again….  It puts a smile on my face.    

“YES, I have done well and took good care of my subordinates, and I am proud”, I told myself.

My last company was great in terms of its work culture, and I had very supportive and caring managers that made my time there a memorable one. However, as a normal human being, I couldn’t shake off the thoughts of “grass is greener on the other side”, and decided to move out to explore new turfs.     

Beginning of the New Chapter 

In the new company, my perspective of being successful and climbing the corporate ladder was challenged. To say that it’s a paradigm shift is an understatement.   

For the ease of reference: 

M1 = My immediate manager 

M2 = M1’s manager, also my 2 levels up 

M3 = M2’s manager, also my 3 levels up 

And so on….   

M2 is the main character behind this curious case. He rarely smiles, and when he does, you can hardly notice as he still looks stern.    

On my first day at work, I was given a less-than-30-minute briefing by M2 (M1 was on vacation) and then I was on my own. No introduction was done for me to anyone on the floor, as well as my team (my subordinates) and I didn’t even know where they are seated.   

I sat there not knowing what to do as my PC was not ready, so I decided to just read up on some policies that HR gave to me earlier. It was almost like a library, people don’t seem to be talking much. When it came to noon, the office became quiet as people started going out for lunch. I looked around and M2 was gone!    

“What the hell….”, I thought, “I’m just gonna go grab some lunch”. And so, I went for lunch on my own, came back, and continued reading up policies.   

On the second day, the same thing happened again…. M2 was nowhere to be found and I’ve read up all the printed documents that I had on hand. I couldn’t stand it anymore so I went around introducing myself and found out who my team members are, and that I will be their new manager. M2 came by later and told me to speak with one of my peers to understand the operations.   

I went over and introduce myself to my peer, and asked for a short chat with him. I was really surprised to see no energy in him (I can tell… after managing diverse teams for many years), the body language showed sign of frustrations all over.   

So we sat down and he started asking where I was from, etc, and we did a brief introduction of ourselves. I asked him straight to the point, on how it’s like over here compared to his previous company, and all the stories came as a bolt from the blue. Needless to say, all negative…..   

Throughout my career, I have never came to a company where employee shared nothing good to a new joiner on their first meeting…. I thought maybe it was that particular person’s own issue… (I soon realized that all the negative comments are true... after speaking with different people later on).   

Later that day, M2 came to me and asked if I’ve looked into the issues with my team’s work, which, anyone with a sound mind would know that I would not have the chance to do that yet. I was then told: “Stay on top of it!”   

My second day ended with anxiousness and question marks in my head. More so, “What the f***???” (pardon my language but I think there’s no better way to describe my feeling).     

TO BE CONTINUED……   

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