Just bossing around

It all started with a missing intern.

Yesterday my intern disappeared without a trace. Poof! No call, no sms, no email. Fearing for the deadlines first and her well-being later, my managing editor and I managed to get her mobile number from the other intern at work, and called her. She told me she wasn't feeling well.

"You should call in sick in the morning so I am kept aware of your whereabouts." I told her.

"Uhh.. yeah. Sorry."

I forgot about the incident soon after. I was ready to let it go. She's a kid after all and she’s too new to the publishing industry. She probably did not realise that if you miss a single deadline here, half the world comes crashing down on you.

Later, my managing editor sent me an email advising me that I should "keep a closer eye on my staff".

Ouch.

Of course he had a valid point. And he meant it in a good way. But, ouch.

I thought I was doing well. I usually don't like to micro-manage my staff. My working style is very typical – if you have a good attitude, are eager to learn the multitude of things I am eager to teach you, give me good-quality work, are willing to use your creativity, show initiative, are not lazy, don't miss deadlines, I won't breathe down your neck.

So far, I have had the good fortune of having a brilliant team of editors. Fast learners, excited about things, and the best part is -- they have a sense of humour (without which, one would die in the pressure cooker environment of this industry.)

Apart from the occasional reminder about punctuality (I am a sucker for punctuality and believe that even ridiculous work hours such as 8:15 to 6:03 pm should be respected), I don't run a very tight ship with my team. In fact, I have often been accused by other colleagues of spoiling my editors.

During the peak season for textbook publishing, things can get crazy, and editors often have to stay back at work after midnight. My team usually leaves work on time. And I encourage that. In spite of the odd looks that other teams give us. I wish I could tell them -- leaving on time does not mean that my team has a very light workload. It just means that my team is efficient.

If we should not let our personal lives affect our work lives, well, it's only fair that we should not let our work lives affect our personal lives too. That is my motto. And our personal lives starts at 6:03 pm. So I say, come in on time and leave on time. Unless of course you have a deadline.

And things seem to be going fine for me and my editors. But yesterday's incident made me go "ouch." For the first time in three years.

A year ago, I was happily skipping along like a little lamb when I bumped into a promotion. And suddenly, my work wasn’t just my own stuff anymore. There were so many other things to think about. Training my staff, motivation, workflow, fighting for my editors’ rights at the update meetings, making sure they are not given subjects they don’t want to work on, arguing with other departments, especially Marketing that threw impossible demands at us with amazing regularity.

I freaked out a bit.

"You mean I will be mutilating other people's work like you mutilate mine?" I asked my senior editor.

"Haha! Yeah. We feel you're ready to do it." She said.

"Gosh! And I'll be rejecting people's work and asking for redrafts? And what about the editors who are older than me? Will they listen to me? Will they respect me? Will they abide by my instructions? Will they really even listen to me?" I had a million and one doubts.

My boss gave me a little talk to ease my fears about leading a team of editors. “It's all about knowledge and experience. Your age does not matter.” She said. “And you have both, so you already have the authority. Don't worry.”

As I stepped into my new position, I realised how difficult a supervisory role is. You have to not only set the right examples, you have to hide your prejudices so the morale of your team does not get affected. You have to be the bridge between upper management and your team so that everybody is happy and productive.

Some time ago, someone remarked that most working bloggers are either planning to eat rat poison or feed it to their bosses. Now here's why I wouldn't do it. We can crib all we want about our bosses, but it’s only when we step into their shoes do we realise that they're also going thru as much shit as we are. Possibly more.

I think I only had the rat poison situation at Company #1. In my present company, I have had the good fortune of having bosses, each of whom has taught me something important. Each of them had a different style and I learnt a bit from each, put it together and got myself a working style.

Today, I am reminded of all the bosses I have worked under and learnt stuff from. They’ve been of all kinds.

Now book publishing presents very unique problems. We have too many ‘freak-out’ incidents. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Here are just a few of the freak-out incidents:

• WHAT? The Ministry of Education wants the conceptual framework in two weeks?? But we don't even have an author yet!!
• WHAT?? The colour printer broke down? But the proofs are due for submission this afternoon!!
• WHAT?? The artwork is delayed? But the first proofs were supposed to be in yesterday!!
• WHAT?? The website link given in our book has transformed into ahem ahem… something not so suitable for kids anymore??
• WHAT?? Another designer quit??
• WHAT?? Three editors quit??
• WHAT?? Colleague X joined the competitors?? But I had discussed all the plans for next year with him/her!!
• WHAT?? The cover got rejected by the publisher?? But it was supposed to go to print today!!
• WHAT????? What do you mean the soft copy of the book got corrupted???
• WHAT?? The magazine is two weeks late? But it must reach the schools before the holidays start!
• WHAT?? What do you mean the author used the wrong syllabus?? She's written practically half the book!
  
• WHAT?? The freelance illustrator took off on a sudden vacation without completing his work??
• WHAT?? What do you mean the author got arrested? We're launching his book next week!!
  

And every time, surprise, surprise, there’s a new problem. And sometimes, it's so unexpected and unprecedented, you just don’t know what to do with it. So you go to your boss with the problem.

Here’s what happened to me when I did that with each of the bosses. I want to document all this so I can revisit and remember why I do what I do.

Boss 1
The first senior editor I worked under was this fierce lady who had an incredible amount of experience, and an incredibly short fuse to match. She knew her stuff all right, but she was absolutely terrifying. Diplomacy was something she probably did not believe in. In fact, one of the male editors told me in my first week itself, "Beware! Every female editor who has worked under Boss 1 has cried at least once." I was determined to not join the group of the crying editors. But boy, was it tough.

I dreaded meetings with her where she would go through pages and pages of my work that she had mutilated with her infamous pencil. Going to her with a problem was like entering a lion's den with raw-meat-cologne sprayed all over yourself. I was so freakin’ scared of her that it actually made me more thorough and diligent with my work just because I did not want her to find any flaw in my work and scream the place down. Also, I wanted to prove to her that it wasn’t true that engineers were no good as editors. And one fine day, when one of my editorials came back from her, not only untouched by that infamous pencil, but with a 'good!' written on it, my joy knew no bounds. I had finally cracked the wall.

Boss 2
Boss 2 was a sweetheart. She adored me to death, and had such immense faith in my creativity and project-management skills that it was almost embarrassing. “Oh Sayesha, I am sure you must have already thought of a solution. I have faith in you.” So there was no choice for this over-rated Sayesha to think up a solution and execute it. “See, I told you, you’d handle it fine!” She’d say. She made me believe in myself.

Boss 3
Boss 3 was funny, funny, funny. It was amazing how she saw the humour in even the scariest of problems. I learnt from her that work should be fun. That a boss does not have to be a hard-nut ass-kicking slave-driver. She taught me that happy editors are productive editors.

Boss 4
Now Boss 4 was strict. Ooooh, very strict. But more diplomatic than Boss 1. But she expected me to be very very independent. She did not want me to go to her with problems, she wanted me to go to her with solutions. “So? What is your plan of action to counter these problems?” My thought bubble, “My plan of action? Errr... I thought you could advise me... you're the boss..” But she would look at me in the eye till I came up with a plan of action on the spot. So the next time I went to her with any problem, I always remembered to take a plan of action along with me. And a back-up. And that attitude is such a big help today.

Whatever I have learnt today, I have done so by watching my bosses, by analysing how they deal with situations. And that kinda puts the pressure on me today when I deal with those situations.

Sometimes I tell myself, "Be a good boss. You have to keep your composure, show little emotion, not freak out, cos your editors are watching you. They are learning from you. Don't make them freak out too!"

But at times I can't help it, and I don't stop myself from freaking out. Right in front of them.

I guess it just makes me a more human boss I suppose?

Now would you please excuse me while I go and sort out another freak-out situation.

WHAT?? What do you mean the pregnant author’s hormones are kicking in and she refuses to complete the book??