The world is so fake. Sometime I feel I am living inside a departmental store where everything, or should I say "everyone?", around me is wrapped in plastic pack. I know that we all know this and that we all see this phenomenon happening around us everyday, but here is the incident that triggered this post.
On Monday we had gone for a team lunch to meet one counter partner of our project who was working from USA. He happens to be an Indian but settled in the USA. During the lunch I could see that everyone from our team, which is six ladies (including me), were on their toes to impress him. Most notably the lady in red, who was the manager of the project for some time, took the best care possible of him. She went out of her way to make him feel special. After the lunch I along with two other ladies got into the car of lady in red and she dropped us at office.
But I couldnt believe what happened next. The moment she got into the car, the lady in red started criticizing our guest like hell. I couldnt believe that she disliked him so much as from her behaviour I imagined she was very appreciative of the guest and his contribution to the project. Then another lady, who was furiously putting make up in the lift, joined the lady in red, criticizing the guest over his looks. And then another lady who came in a special new dress that day, started bad mouthing him about how that person disturbs him in her work.
I understand the reaction of other two ladies as they were trying to impress the lady in red, after all she was a manager. But I could never understand the way lady in red baheved. If she disliked him so much then she had all the reasons not to turn up for the lunch. It was not mandetory after all. And I really cant understand how she was sweet to him when she disliked him so much!
Another incident of super fake attitude of the same day:
That day I along with two other ladies (the lady with make up and the lady with new dress) shared an auto to reach the venue. On the way we were chatting about things one or two. Then I realized that the other two ladies were discussing something, and I missed what they had said so I asked them "what did you say?"...these two ladies pretended that they didnt hear me. So, at that very moment I knew what it was about. These two ladies are up for the promotion for lead positions. So, they are talking about the upcoming test and interviews and meeting schedules and etc. As per my company policy, these issues are not to be discussed in public. These issues are not even discussed among two participating employees. But since these ladies are friends so there is no harm doing that. But what was odd that they were discussing this in my presence and i am not participating in this process. Then why are they doing this? The answer to this question lies in the super fake attitude that people in my company posses in abundance. When in presence with people with lower positions, the people in higher positions get partial blindness and they dont see or cant hear people from lower positions. For example, in this situation I am a developer and these two ladies are soon going to be leads...so they dont see me sitting there or they dont hear me asking questions....for them I dont exist. They will see me and hear me when they will want to.