Repercussion

Jana was a beautiful woman and she knew it. She was intelligent enough to understand that most of her male colleagues were attracted to her beauty more than her work performance. They would search for opportunities to approach her for solutions to problems, sometimes self-created. She would solve them to the best of her ability and sometimes even acknowledge that the problem had no solution. This endeared her to all her male colleagues.

But, Jana was never popular with her female colleagues. She had no complaints about that either. ‘Each one to their own’ was her attitude. Her mind was focused on her job and soon enough she got the deserved promotion. Her climb up on the success ladder drew sarcastic comments from many of her female colleagues. Even then she did not let their comment affect her commitment to work.

But today Anila had crossed the limit.

“I am not surprised that Jana got the raise as she must have offered some favors.” The snide comment was meant for Jana’s ears.

This was incredulous. ‘Did they actually think that?’ wondered Jana.

But she knew in her heart of hearts that it was Anila’s unbridled frustration that emanated from the comment. Anila was equally qualified, equally dedicated to her work and Jana herself had felt that she should have got the accolades that came Jana’s way.

‘But was such a derogatory statement justified? And was it Jana’s fault that she was more popular than Anila?’

‘Anyway, nothing could be more derogatory than the sexist remark and no one could be allowed to get away with such stupid innuendoes which questioned the very nature of her character,’ thought Jana.

Her dormant fury erupted like a volcano. She turned and screamed, “How dare you cast such an aspersion on my character? Who gave you the right to talk such nonsense?”

The entire office was stunned into silence. Nobody had ever expected the soft-spoken, ever cheerful Jana to raise her voice. The men were gaping at her astonished. The women were looking anywhere but in her direction. They understood the enormity of the aspersion cast on Jana’s character by this one-liner from Anila.

Anila knew that she had made a stupendous blunder. She did not answer immediately. Her mind was in turmoil. Anila was not generally a person given to making snide remarks. She did not actually know what had come over her in that moment when she heard that Jana had been preferred for the job promotion over her. The months of genuine hard work, the aspiration to acquire the rightful fruits of her labor, the feeling of being done hard by the employer, probably everything together bubbled up into smoke of fury that had resulted in her remark.

She would have to make a conciliatory gesture. Otherwise, this one statement of hers had the capacity to blow up the entire harmony of the workplace. And she did not want that to happen.

Jana’s fury had been righteous. No one could swallow such a cheap remark made against their character. Her anger had not abated a bit. She glared at Anila, making her feel even more uncomfortable.

Anila made up her mind to apologize. She walked up to Jana and with folded hands said, “I know I should never ever have made such a remark. Sorry, Jana.”

Jana was surprised. She had expected Anila to be defiant. She had expected her to come up with some defensive explanation for her remark. But she had definitely not expected her to acknowledge her mistake and apologize. Her heart melted. She knew exactly what Anila was going through. It needed real courage to be able to come forward and apologize. She drew in her breath with admiration for her colleague.

Her prolonged silence made Anila slightly worried.

“Jana, please accept my apology,” she pleaded.

Jana nodded.

“Thanks, Jana,” said Anila.

Then she walked up to her Boss and said, “Steven, I will be tendering my resignation letter before I leave in the evening.”

Jana was stupefied. 

“You can’t do that!” she exclaimed.

“Yes I can and I will,” announced Anila. “You have been great enough to accept my apology but I don’t think I deserve to be here in this office anymore after today’s happenings.”

“Don’t say that, Anila!” said Jana. “I know for a fact that you deserved the promotion more than I did. You are equally talented, intelligent and even more focused on your job than I am. And your contribution to this project of ours which is nearing completion is much more than any of us here. A momentary lapse cannot be reason enough to resign.”

Steven, their Boss, had been a silent spectator till then. But he had another pleasant surprise up his sleeve.

“Anila, I am not going to accept your resignation. You are going to be elevated to the Chief Designer’s post with effect from today. This was already decided by our Board of Directors at yesterday’s meeting,” he announced.

Anila could not believe her ears. Jana went forward and clasped her hand in a firm grip. A smile slowly lit up Anila’s face, and the entire office atmosphere lightened in relief.