Don’t hurt others’ self-esteem

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”Dr Dhananjay (Jay) Datar is the chairman and managing direc-tor of Al Adil Trading.
”Dr Dhananjay (Jay) Datar is the chairman and managing direc-tor of Al Adil Trading.

Dr Dhananjay (Jay) Datar

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Published: Sun 14 Feb 2021, 5:49 PM

Last updated: Sun 14 Feb 2021, 7:54 PM

Once, on a holiday, one of our stores was extreme-ly busy and there was a crowd in front of the billing counter. At the end of the day, when the cashier girl was tal-lying the total amount against transactions, she found some money missing from the cash box. She was mystified as no one had entered her cabin and she also had not left her place. She was a sincere, honest worker.

Panic gripped her because the missing amount was not pal-try but totalled approximately Dh1,000. She reported the inci-dent to the manager, not know-ing how the theft occurred, and left nervously.The next day she came with her mother and spoke to the manager. She had remembered that a stranger had an argument with her just at the closing hour and this had distracted her at-tention for some minutes.


The manager disbelieved her and made a serious mistake. He al-leged that she herself might have stolen the money and was cooking up a story to cover the crime. The girl’s mother re-quested him not to scapegoat her daughter but he remained adamant. This infuriated the girl as it was a slap to her self-es-teem. She dragged our company to court. Since I was the owner, the court summoned me. I was unaware of the incidence until then. For the first time in my life I stood before the judge.

The court directed both parties to settle the matter amicably. I took the matter in my hand and conducted a thorough in-quiry. I called all the concerned persons to verify facts. The girl fearlessly pleaded her stand, but our HR Manager did not seem firm on his allegation. He began justifying his words in context of possibility. I imme-diately sensed his falsity. Mean-while I found out that similar incidents had occurred in other parts of the city. The theft had been committed by distracting the person in charge.


The girl was telling the truth. I apolo-gised to her instantly and at the same time reduced the author-ity of the HR Manager. The girl tearfully thanked me and began gifting me a cake and a bouquet every Christmas as a token of her gratitude. In another incidence, I had to sack one of my young salesmen for not upholding the prestige and honour of a woman. He had made some obscene comments and gestures towards a young girl who was his colleague.

Ashamed by his behaviour the girl complained about the in-cident, which was verified by a CCTV camera in the store. The girl thanked me from the bot-tom of her heart for giving her justice.Sometimes such small things teach us a lot. Relations are built upon two simple things. Never utter bitter words for any reason to anyone and never hurt oth-er’s sentiments and self esteem. Dalai Lama, the great spiritual leader, says: “Our prime pur-pose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

 


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