In which I hand over my company, daily grind and all, to an almost stranger and survive to probably do it all again!
Words and photographs by Arshiya Bose
I knew Rewaj and I would be comrades in Acumen Seminar 1 itself, when I realised he was able to swim through a certain work-life mode that felt like an iceberg to me. So when he agreed to come to Bangalore to spend time with me at my workplace (with less arm-twisting than I had initially imagined), I was thrilled!
I must have used the word ‘agenda’ sufficiently enough because he seemed convinced that I had a detailed plan for his five day visit.
My team in Bangalore consists mostly of three women, Jacintha, Kavya and Renuka who run the operations/business end of our coffee enterprise. Our field team, Sannarangegowda and Kethegowda are based in the Biligirirangan Hills which is also where the 400 smallholder producers we work with live and grow coffee. I have always known we are a motley crew and I have always run on the faith that ‘something will happen’, ‘we will cross the bridge whenever we get there and then get more organised’. You know, familiar stuff!
My team in Bangalore consists mostly of three women, Jacintha, Kavya and Renuka who run the operations/business end of our coffee enterprise. Our field team, Sannarangegowda and Kethegowda are based in the Biligirirangan Hills which is also where the 400 smallholder producers we work with live and grow coffee. I have always known we are a motley crew and I have always run on the faith that ‘something will happen’, ‘we will cross the bridge whenever we get there and then get more organised’. You know, familiar stuff!
Day 1, 9:00 am (Rewaj can’t be late to office): I hold a team meeting to impress him. We hold meetings but they usually revolve around whenever we have the Bourbon biscuits! The meeting ends with the realisation that Kavya has forgotten to send an invoice to a customer and that we are totally out of stock of roasted coffee. It is Diwali and Jacintha is panicking because there is a gas strike and our roaster is shut for the next three days. I am calm first but slowly I can see myself having a Hulk moment. Let’s say the meeting didn’t go half as gracefully as I had hoped. Rewaj asks very casually, “Can I take over your office for the next week?” I usually see myself as a control freak but in this moment, I am surprisingly easily convinced by this cherubic 24 year old. What’s the most he can do?, I think to myself but don’t say out loud! The first thing he does is abbreviate names to J, K and R! Then he deftly dances through all our order management systems. He switches around positions of peoples’ desks. R will sit next to J. Rewaj takes our SOP, reads through it and sighs. Of course I don’t ask what made him sigh! He proceeds to change the entire flow of work in the office.
Coffee orders will now flow from J, R and K, not J, K and R like previously.
On the second day, he asks K who her boss is. It’s me of course. But no, Rewaj is trying to emphasise that it is always customers who are boss. He tells her he’s taking over. Will she work even if I were to leave Black Baza Coffee? K has tears. I am secretly chuffed but I hold a straight face. But I am asked to leave the office and take a walk around the neighbourhood. He wants to talk to the team alone. I hear my mother’s voice in my head saying, “Why can’t I handle my own team?” but I’m enjoying watching this scene too much to get triggered. I am summoned back to the office.
There is a problem, Rewaj says. Your team feels answerable to you, not Black Baza Coffee. “You are doing fake empowerment”, the cherub tells me over coffee. “Real empowerment would be if J, K and R were totally immersed in their work and in the vision of where BBC could go”. The cherub is convincing.
On the third day, we visit Biligirirangan Hills and I have my revenge by making him trudge through leach infested coffee farms. On biodiverse coffee farms, there are lots of leaches and snakes and spiders, I say with a “muhaha” in my head.
Now, the cherub has left but there are many things in the office that are running as though he is still here. The abbreviations have thankfully reverted back to lovelier names. Kavya has put a poster on the wall with our company values. Renuka is happier with her refined set of responsibilities and Jacintha is holding team meetings these days.
What truly is empowerment, is a question I have been thinking about. And how the contexts and life histories of the people we work with matter in how they might see empowerment differently. The cherub has a point though and we will be ready for him when he returns!
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