Hilarious - A manager explaining his direct report's absence

Question

This is an actual e-mail sent by a manager in an Indian IT company

. His direct report had not shown up for two days. When he was questioned by his boss .. this is the response he sent : She was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. She is back to office on Thursday and worked this weekend (Saturday) to cover here pending work. I have personal spoken to her about her health she said now OK. But as per my observation whenever there is some pressure comes she getting faint and falling into unconscious. So that last time when she fall sick I have asked to talk to her. As Sarita is little bit frustrated to talk to me. Today I had mail from here asking for appraisal, I have communicated to here it possible for me to recommend you only when you have made any deliverable. Communication mail is attached. I will sync with through phone on this

rs2010 · Answer

Sometimes I wonder how is it possible to make someone like this guy a manager and second how on the earth this emails get leaked to public?

pleonasm · Answer

Well - let's put it this way. Generally, 'stupid laughable stuff' gets around fast. Someone inside passes the information out to his/her friends, stripping all the confidential information ( last names etc ) and from then on - if the content is really that good, it spreads like a wild fire. Information dissemination is not that hard these days.

How do guys like him get to become a manager - that's because the recruiting process in the IT companies in India is like a mad house. Imagine yourself as a recruiter who has to pull in 300 recruits a day - quality obviously drops. They focus on what's barely required - technical skills and even that takes a hit sometimes.

rs2010 · Answer

I could not agree more. After analyzing behavior of my manager from last couple of week, I am also feeling this way. And for the record I am also part of one of those software giants.

scorcho · Answer

I feel desensitized. I see an email like this at least once a week from our offshore centers.

If you work in the flat earth form of IT these days, this seems like just par for the course.

scarish · Answer

Hmmm...are we suggesting that fluent English is somehow a mandatory requirement to be a "manager" anywhere. To be fair, I regularly get emails with horrendous grammar from native English speakers!

If the "manager" in question is managing Indian resources without any critical English communication requirements, then as long as he knows how to speak/write Indian might just be alright don't you think

Having said that, I agree with the underlying sentiment of the post, that if he is required to regularly communicate with English speaking clients then his language skills are a big drawback!

bigoyal · Answer

well, why you think a manager should have good command over English ??

being in Indian IT industry for several years, I have worked with clients from US, Europe and Asia. I have seen many top line managers (neither of them Indian) who cannot even speak or write single word in English. So, we used to have translators assigned to do this job. Anyway, believe it or not, even in some top ranked industries it’s the technical skill that matters, unless you have some specific job which demands good communication skill in a particular language.

ozzie123 · Answer

Reply for two people above this post: It's actually not the language that we laugh at, but how the manager handles his sub-ordinate, especially the part where he have to ask "permission" to talk to her because she's upset. Not to mention that he didn't fire her fast enough even though knowing first-hand that she can't handle pressure plus doesn't deliver any deliverables, it makes you wonder how the guy get there in the first place.

bigoyal · Answer

btw, let me admit, this post was funny :beer

GMAT888 · Answer

lollll

Hilarious - A manager explaining his direct report's absence

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards