With Bosses Like These

General Fiction

By Subir Banerjee

Publisher : Amazon.com

ABOUT Subir Banerjee

Subir Banerjee
Subir Banerjee is settled in India with his family. Following his education in the country’s premier engineering college IIT, he led a successful career in information technology, culminating in various senior roles in the information technology industry, besides pursuing his hobbies of  More...

Description

WITH BOSSES LIKE THESE takes the reader through a whirlwind tale of the protagonist Rajat's harassment at the hands of bad bosses and how he stands up to them, a situation often true at many workplaces around the world. Can bosses get any worse, whether in the office or elsewhere! Rajat's mischievous interludes in college, diehard romance for the girl of his dreams and creative pursuits become a thing of the past and his ambitions at work gradually take a back seat as he grapples with his scheming, unscrupulous bosses. Will he succeed? Would his lady love accept him and stick to him in his hour of need? WITH BOSSES LIKE THESE is a moving, sometimes witty while at other times tense, tale of love, corruption, trauma and revenge, depicting an undercurrent of political decadence and corruption prevalent ubiquitously in the society. Will his sadistic bosses let him scale the heights of his career which his abilities otherwise entitle him to? The plot is set against the backdrop of a society ravaged by graft and crime, where the corrupt have a free run, emboldened by a visionless political structure that is both hollow and unstable.

 

Rajat's disgust for bosses and leaders who misuse their position and power to harass subordinates or embezzle funds on the sly keeps growing, and his simple life turns harrowing as he resists their unethical moves, till he reaches a crossroad in his career. Will he have to leave his work, his career, his dreams behind? The gripping finale pits him against the worst boss of his career who won't stop at anything to destroy him. Will Rajat lose everything? He must use all his guile and strategy to not only survive but also take the battle to his boss's court and hit back with his best in the thrilling, thought provoking climax. Will he finally get justice for himself and his family or is it the end of the road for him?

Several years ago a sales colleague in a private office narrated his experience about bribing an official to have his company's tender passed for a deal. Some years later, I heard in corporate circles about the chief information officer of a company being threatened due to his honesty and refusal to oblige the corrupt officials in his office and accommodating vendors outside. To protect his life, the CEO of the company provided him special security cover. That got me thinking about crimes in private offices and I kept an eye open for other incidents. I wasn't disappointed as these seemed to take place on a regular basis in our industry. In a later job I witnessed a senior management person embracing his secretary in his cabin, and heard rumors that he bought penthouses out of embezzled funds. Thus through the years, experiences of others and my own kept accumulating inside me, bubbling to come out in the form of a story. Seeing the general decline in political conditions all around and reading about scams, I felt that the political bosses in many countries weren't too different from some of the bosses in our offices. With enough on my plate, I got down to write my novel- in the form of fiction, with its quota of romance, shady characters and suspense, starting with the loving dalliances of a carefree, college going boy whose only occupation is chasing the girl of his dreams, before moving on to a touching tale of love and endurance, over which looms the shadow of harassment at the hands of sadistic bosses, that ultimately leads to revenge in a thrilling finish.

Excellent build-up of the plot, with a smooth flowing narrative. The storyline is something many experience in the office and finally goes beyond it to paint a horrendous picture of the dangerous possibilities in one's professional life. The suspense keeps growing as the story progresses and kept me hooked till the end to find out what will happen - Air Vice Marshal (retd.) A. Chakraborty

I liked the college atmosphere inside a typical IIT hostel. Over all, the romance described in the book is quite akin to the real life affairs which get depressing at times when your fiancee is hard to get. But as the novel gets into murky, professional areas of work life, it is scary to think how bright people are sometimes manhandled by their bosses mentally and in other ways too, leading to unpredictable outcomes - Joy (3rd year, engineering NSIT)