Paycheck to Happiness???

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Paycheck to Happiness???

He was looking at the blank ceiling… he knew, his chances this time would be very bleak; He was being prepared for an operation As his anaesthesia started kicking in, his eyes were closing, he had a smile and a prayer, “Please Forgive Me! God, Knowingly or unknowingly I would have harmed or troubled people with my actions, with my Talk or even thoughts. I would not like to hold grudges against anyone, have forgiven all those, who have harmed me with their action or words”.

Blank…………….

When he opened his eyes, He finds Bright lights blazing, when he looked around with his dizzy eyes, he found people walking across, all in white clothes, he was sure he had reached heaven… “Doctor, Prem has opened his eyes”; This statement brought him back, he looked closely, It was the same ICU, same doctors and Nurses, within forty-five days he was in the same hospital twice... Prem was brought back to life, who had come with a massive Heart attack….

The Doctor examined him and said, “you are really lucky, or I should say it is your family’s prayers”. Prem looked at the doctor and smiled. When the doctor opened the door, he could find Roopa anxiously listening to the doctor's instructions with folded hands and Ganesh his elder son holding his mom tight. He could barely lift his hand, the Nurse quickly reacted and said, “you take rest, maybe tomorrow morning you can meet your family”.

After a few days in ICU, he was shifted to an individual room, with strict instruction of no visitors, as he had a lot of visitors last time when admitted  and with No Mobile for at least next 30 days. As expected, his colleagues and friends wanted to visit him, Roopa was very polite in letting them know that he is very sensitive to infection and requested them all to come home when he is discharged.

Prem, heard what Roopa was telling his friends and colleagues, He said, “I am sure, I can speak to them on the Phone”, Roopa, says with a stern voice, “NO… forty-five days ago also you did the same thing, Doctor has advised no Mobile around you for next 60 days and for sure will not be given. If anything happens to you, they will not have anything to lose, it will be me and my kids, does that small thing not go into your head”, She tells this and turns back to prepare Juice for Prem, wiping her tears.

After dinner Roopa gave him medicine and was laying on the bed, reading a magazine, she just dozed off, she was too tired, Prem looked at her and was wondering that she has been with me for 23 years and I have never seen her sleeping before me….

One thought led to another, Roopa’s words were still echoing in his ears…. “it’s a loss for me and my kids”, What went wrong, when did I start neglecting my family and health? When did I start taking so much pressure? I have always been successful in my profession….

He remembered his first job when he was hired as a Medical Representative and assigned a small town near Hyderabad, He would travel everyday to that town which was  close to 100 kms away and return back in the evening, He would enjoy his travel, and being a keen photographer would take photographs on the way, six months down the lane he also did a photo exhibition, He named it “life through a salesman’s lens”, it was well received by people, He was enjoying his life filled with travel and meeting new people every day.   His hard-work paid back, he was awarded the best salesman of the year by his company at the Annual sales convention; But all he knew was He was just enjoying his work.

He was popular with most of the Doctors, Medical distributors and shop owners, he would go out of the way to help them in any situation. He won every competition floated by his company and had also visited various countries, sponsored by his company.

His work and Photography were going very well, and of course making good incentives.  After four years he was promoted as a Territory Manager having few MR reporting to him. He was asked to shift to Karimnagar, He was not happy to shift his base, but had no choice, so moved reluctantly.

 After a few years, when his Boss moved to a Private Life insurance company as a Branch Manager, He invited Prem to join him as a Sales Manager, Prem said, “I have no idea about financial products and for sure will not be able to do justice”. Sriram said, “come and meet me in person, I will explain to you how it works and I am sure with your relationships in market you will be able to do well”, he also further added, “I am also from Medical line and for the last Six Months have been doing well, ours is the top branch and best part is you will be based back in Hyderabad”.

Prem wanted to be Back to Hyderabad, it was early days of private life insurance industry, so he tried reading more about it, He also met a couple of people he knew from LIC of India and asked their opinion about joining Private Life Insurance, he got a very mixed bag of reactions…After Having a fair bit of idea, he went to meet Sriram, and He was surprised to see such a plush office for a Branch Manager, in his industry they used to work from Distributors office. While waiting at reception to meet Sriram he saw so many people moving in and out of office all so busy.

Sriram came out from his cabin and took him to a conference room, after initial chit chat, asking about his professional life, he asked, “so let me know if you would like to join?” Prem said, “I am not aware what it is, so not sure,  if you can let me know what could be my work I can think about it, I am keen to come back to Hyderabad to be with my family, as you are aware sir, now I am blessed with a kid and would want his education to be here.

Sriram said, “ok, then I will run a presentation about our company and then I will let you know about the roles and responsibilities''. The Presentation lasted for 20 minutes and it was made by the best advertisement agency, making the industry look very glamorous and what Prem had observed while sitting at the reception…. Impressed, Prem wanted to know more about the role, Sriram said, “the role is simple, as I spotted a talented person like you, your work would be to spot a person capable like you and take him through a career seminar and make him join into a career as an financial Advisor, and further added not necessary he has to have a background of Finance, he can be anyone who has an urge to make more money while helping their friends and known people secure their future financially”.

“If you join, we will be training you at our Head office for twenty-one days and you have to pass an exam to be qualified to sell our products.  In the same way all the candidates you will source, would have to undergo a training, write & pass an exam to sell the product and this is similar in any company who is selling life insurance and it is a law made by the government of India.” Prem further asked, “LIC is there for such a long time, why will anyone buy our product?  Sriram said, “very good question” and he said, “I would want you to go through a career presentation” and asked him to read the FAQ as well, after an hour of going through the presentation and FAQ, prem said he was clear.

Sriram said, “let me take you to our training room where the class is going on now”, Prem could see around 50 people going through the training and the trainer just declared for a lunch Break, Sriram said,” Let's have lunch and you can also speak to the trainer if you would like to clarify something else”. Sriram called Sampath and introduced Prem.

After his Lunch and a detailed talk with Sampath, who happened to be from a manufacturing industry was convinced he could do well in the job…. waiting in the conference room, Prem called up Sriram saying, he would like to leave… Sriram said, “wait for fifteen minutes, I will join”. Sriram came and asked, “so what do you think? “ Prem said, “all looks good, May be I will send you my CV, you can forward it to your HR department, Sriram immediately said, “It’s okay all those formalities we will do you later, if you are okay and have the intention to join, my boss is around, I can arrange for an interview for you”, and added, “getting him is difficult, so finish this round and don’t you have the CV on the mail?”

He said, “yes but it is an old one not an updated one.” “That’s okay, you just forward that to me and I will take a print out”, said Sriram.

After waiting for almost two hours, Vishnu came into the meeting room and Introduced himself and gave his card to him, He was the Regional Manager. Prem apologised for not bringing his updated CV, He said “That’s just a piece of paper”, let us understand each other in person, He spoke to Prem understanding his likes, dislike, family his hobbies and also shared few of details, Prem never felt it to be an interview, after an hour of discussion, he call Sriram and HR and said, “I liked your boy, Please give him an offer and I want him to join our team ASAP”.

Prem was Happy, the HR soon joined him and had some formal discussion, took some details about his present job and Salary and said, they will get back to him. Sriram asked him to join the next Monday, But Prem said, “sir, you know I have to hand over the Territory to someone, would need at least two months”, Ganesh said, “you don’t worry, I will speak to our friends in your company’s HO and see that you will be relieved of your job by that time”, prem said “but still I would need some time to shift back to Hyderabad sir”.

It was already Eight in the evening, He had come at 11 in the morning, still the office was buzzing with people and work was going on as if the day had just started, He liked the energy in the office.

Next Morning, He got a mail with his offer and he was surprised to find a salary Jump of around 50% which he never expected.

Prem showed the offer to Roopa and she was excited to see the offer, she said, “we will be able to close our Housing loan earlier. He called Sriram and Thanked him for the wonderful offer, Sriram said, “what I could do in my capacity I did for you, now you have to prove to my boss that my decision to bring you here is not wrong”. Prem promised that he would never let him down.

Prem’s Company tried retaining him, but the Salary offer and Incentive structure given by the new company was too luring for Prem to stay back, after his training, with his goodwill in market, he could get some of the most potential people into his team, he was looking at segments which generally other sales manager were not even considering.

As expected, he was successful, Other than his salary, he made a huge incentive, He also qualified in a few competitions and won a car for himself, this motivated him to work harder. But his work timing had become very hectic, he used to go at 6 in the morning and come back late night.…most of the clients would want to discuss their financial planning in private at home rather than in office, so he had to pick up his Financial Advisor and go to their friends or Relative house.

He found that Most of his Advisors after their natural Market were not able to survive and got dejected and would choose not to work further, as they were not trained to be  good sales person, He found out that for every 10 people he recruited only 1 or 2 would be active by the end of the year, so he would spend time to get his team in place and every time a new set of Financial Advisor join, he would have to spend more time to train them, on and off on field , other than attending his Branch and other official meetings, all this had become very time consuming for him.

But he was making money, He moved on to a bigger house and bigger car, In a couple of years he was promoted as Branch Manager, He thought now he may not have to look for much Financial Advisor and do Micro Management, but as time passed, he understood, it was easier to manager his team, now he has responsibility of him team, As recruiting Financial Advisor had become difficult and people had come to know about the difficulties related to this industry by now, even to find people to join as Sales Manager’s had become difficult.

Now his work was to find his Sales Managers and if Sales Manager were able to recruit a Financial Advisor, he would have to go with them to show how they can pitch a person to join as a Financial Advisor and help them do business. To pep them up he would have to take them to Dinners and so on….

He was getting exhausted…. He was getting offers from better brands of Life insurance for the same role with a better pay, one of those frustrating days, He decided to move to another company, he thought,” anyway I have to do the same role, why not for better money?”

His Visiting Card changed, got a better Salary, but there was no change in pressure, every morning it would start with the boss sending SMS asking, what number would be given and Late evening it would be the same con-calls on why it has not been achieved. It looked like a door to door sales man job.

Now twelve years into the industry changed four companies with some change in designations, the pressure was only increasing, People sitting in top positions, were not wanting to know the ground reality, they were not doing anything to improve the training content, all they needed was “Numbers”, He wanted to quit and go back to Pharma industry many times, but with a big EMI of the fancy house, car, credit card and so on…he knew his previous industry wouldn’t be able to pay him so much.

Every now and then his boss  was asking him to resign, if not able to perform and he asking his team the same, He felt there was no motivation, no leadership, no direction it was all about daily targets…Having no Choice, He was continuing the job, He would show everyone he was happy but not, truth was he was not able to spend time with his family, Sunday also he would have sales calls to make, the Photographer in him had died long back and he had no time for his friends. If he was meeting his friends, they would surely mention to  him in a fun tone, “don’t ask us for insurance or reference for a Financial Advisor”.

With Business pressure so high, he collapsed in office and was taken to Hospital, It was a minor Stroke, He was in Hospital for a few days , two week later his boss called asked why are you not joining back, He said, “doctor wants me to take rest for two more weeks", Boss,said "Prem, they will say like that, but your team not performed in the last two weeks and this is a good opportunity to give your example to your team and customers that life is very unpredictable and they should take life insurance”.

He joined back the job, all the caution told by the doctor vanished into thin air, He had again started skipping meals or not having food on time, He was not supposed to climb stairs but was doing that and taking pressure…. The lesser said better….

On the way back home, he was on a con call and due to his ill health his business figures were down team performance was least in the region, he was been asked to explain and he felt a strip tease was on in  front of the entire team, it was too much of stress for him to handle and he knew something wrong was happening, he pulled his car a side and he blanked out….

Roopa woke up and asked have you not slept yet, have you again started thinking of your company? He said NO…

After a few days when he came back home, He asked his son to drive him to the office and asked Roopa also to join, when he entered the office everyone was surprised to see him so soon, every one came to enquire about his health? He sat in the reception looking at all the certificates and awards he and the branch had got, by then his boss also came in, He asked,” how are you feeling, you should have taken some more days rest before joining”, Prem smiled at him and Handed over his resignation, He said, “Boss…I am not here for any more mad numbers and fake Recognitions, I want myself back to myself…. He further added if something happens to me you will replace me with another person in no time before even my funeral, but that will not happen in my family, I am the only one for them and I work for them and to keep them happy, so I am back to the journey where I can work for them….

Boss looks at him and says in a low tone, “Hope I could also do the same”

While returning back, He said, “I have asked some brokers to sell our house, we will buy a smaller house with no EMI and a small car as well. With our little savings and if you can give your gold to  mortgage, I would like to start a medical store near our home, maybe you and me can run it, after all we are both qualified.

Roopa looks at Prem and her tears roll out…