What is the Othello-Boss Syndrome?

Othello had murdered his beautiful wife, suspecting infidelity due to jealousy. An Othello-boss is an insecure leader, who feels threatened, if his subordinates come up with bright ideas because he feels he is the boss, so no one has the right to think or work in a way, which gets appreciated. Such people are cancer of the system. They harm development and public welfare – the reason for which they are appointed. Hemashri exposes a deep rooted ill in governance, in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.

Finally, Prema decided that she must take a break and  she applied for child care leave (CCL) for a year. Balancing her responsibilities for ailing parents, children and her  own job, exhausted her. However, the most tiring of all was to endure humiliating episodes in the work place, which had become a routine.

Prema Kondoly might appear to be no-nonsense person to some but deep within she is a very sensitive person, who tries to understand people and their behaviour. In her vast sea of vices, perhaps the only good thing is that she considers herself  to be a good soul, who treats everyone with due respect. It must be her  strict middle-class upbringing by her teacher parents that she was raised to be upright and fearless, so she does not know other ways of conduct. May be that is her strength and weakness in a world where networking and manoeuvring skills are crucial to forge ahead.

Often Prema found that inspite of her two decades of unblemished career, she never actually got to handle significant or challenging assignments. She would be assigned to do tedious and menial jobs, which other officers hate to do. She got used to it and took it as her fate. However, things would not end there and often she was completely sidelined to do purely clerical work. Her mother had always told her to go for teaching but firebrand Prema wanted to opt for public service so she chose th4 civil service as her career. Now, only she thinks was her mother right or is she a misfit for her chosen vocation?

Only Prema knew she had become a very confident officer. In some areas like  matters related to court cases or related enquiries, she delves deeper and her reports are always appreciated. May be she is doing the right thing at the wrong place. She often finds the resistance at her work. She wonders is it because the majority have developed dependency syndrome on subordinates? For her meticulous work, she is not liked by many amongst  her subordinates or her peers, though there are some that cheer her. When most officers are habituated to simply forward files with a comment, Prema examines things before her noting with her observations, justifications or suggestions. The world is too fast, so who has the time. But, Prema feels that every file involves someone’s life so it deserves due attention.

Once a fatherly boss had showed her noting of a senior lady officer, where she had simply forwarded the note of an assistant to recommend release of a huge amount of fund. The boss had told Prema, “Do not be such a careless and irresponsible officer. You are a good and always examine issues and write with due justification. You shall win confidence of senior officers.” She was entrusted to handle critical contempt cases by the boss and he was a very encouraging mentor.

However, now Prema knows some of her colleagues are her bitter critics for showing off “gyan” by writing detailed notes.

Prema was posted at a distant place during her first pregnancy. After delivering the baby through caesarean, her first official assignment was to do  a protocol duty at the airport. The road leading to the airport was in a dilapidated condition. She was determined to exclusively breastfeed the baby so she had taken the kid and the part time baby keeper with her. Later, she had told the friendly staff, “Dada, inspite of  having so many officers you all gave me this duty just after an operation.” The subordinate staff showed her the file noting, which showed that another officer was proposed but the boss himself assigned it to her. However, after joining office from the maternity leave when  even after two months she was not allotted any work, she was very annoyed and planned to meet the boss. The feedback of a well wisher had  restrained her. The brother-like family friend had told that the boss told him that he would give Prema work only if she pleads with folded hands before him. The boss considered Prema  to be an arrogant woman. She  decided never to approach her boss.

Prema was an active member of the lady’s club and came to know things about her boss so she never had the motivation to discuss her issues with him.

With two babies,  Prema and her husband had  joined a remote subdivision, which was three hours away from the district head quarter. On the very first day of her joining, the head of the office asked Prema in a sarcastic tone why a city-bred girl like her wanted to work in a remote subdivision. He had also narrated that the place is devoid of all civic amenities. At that time, staying with her husband, at the same place, with two small kids was  the greatest priority rather than enjoying city life. But, she had just smiled sheepishly.

Raijor Podulit Raijor Sarkar (RPRS) was an ambitious scheme to take administration to the doorsteps of citizens by empowering people to lodge complaints about non-functioning government institutions. Prema had conducted such programmes in the field. Her boss entrusted her to make a detailed report to address the gaps to make the scheme successful. Utilising her hands-on experiences, she wrote her report and power point presentation. Lack of awareness about government programmes in the rural areas was a core issue leading to poor implementation and so was lack of monitoring. When she made the presentation, Prema could make out that her boss and all present totally agreed with her observations. However, the very next morning  Prema received an order issued by her boss whereby she was relieved from her duty of handling the programme. After her dedicated work, she was a bit disheartened but she remembered what she read a few days back about a Othello-boss syndrome. Prema’s husband Mriganka had also told her the same thing. Mriganko had proposed to involve school, college and university students for  a programme meant to fight a social issue. Accordingly, he prepared reports, power point presentations and organised a meeting inviting the concerned parties.

Mriganko was confident that it would be an innovative strategy, which would take administration to people. However, just before the commencement of the meeting, his boss told him that he need not attend the meeting and he was sent off to attend something very mundane. Mriganko could make out it was his turn to endure Othello-boss syndrome .

Othello had murdered his beautiful wife, suspecting infidelity due to jealousy. An Othello-boss is an insecure leader, who feels threatened, if his subordinates come up with bright ideas because he feels he is the boss so no one has the right to think or work in a way, which gets appreciated.

Prema is planning that in her long sabbatical of child care, she would explore to find out what in her leads to such episodes. So she would not be contented only by identifying Othello-bosses but what actually triggers the syndrome. No one can perhaps even imagine how many organisations are losing out productivity due to the Othello-boss syndrome just the way none can estimate how many marriages are getting ruined due to the Othello syndrome of husbands.

How could Shakespeare conceive a character like Othello, when psychology or psychiatry were unknown domains. Oh Othello, thou shall live on for eternity!

©Hemashri Hazarika

Photos from the Internet

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