Jasmine Fragrance

What a strong Jasmine Fragrance, Someone must have been to a religious ceremony this morning," I told myself this morning. Where I come from, you only come across such strong scent of Jasmine in religious ceremonies or funerals. It is strange that such a romantic scent is associated with such unpleasant situations in my mind, The fragrance definitely changed my mood this morning.

An hour later, he walked into my room, pristine white shirt with that strong fragrance of Jasmine. I was unable to make up my mind, which one I preferred, the usual strong body odor I felt in his presence or this unbearably strong scent of Jasmine. I said “Yes?” Indecisive about my feeling in that moment. In response to that bewildered reaction, he said, “we were supposed to have a meeting today at 11!” I sighed, “Oh yes, have to talked to boss?” He replied, “Yes, it all went well!” I thought to myself “liar, it can't have gone well, I know it for fact, it is not gonna work this time, I know your game plays, so better stop it right away before I change my mind and fire you right away.” Yet, I held onto myself and did not utter a word. He asked, “I had a long discussion, can we discuss in the afternoon?” I accepted.

Yesterday evening, I informed him that our boss is disappointed with his performance and I have managed to secure him one week, under special conditions, so can prove that he is worthwhile for the company. In this week, he will directly reports to me and will follow specific instructions to make a specific deliverable, and if this practice turns out to be successful, (which I doubt it) he may still continue to work with us. This will totally change his work dynamics and will bring him down to the position of engineer from a manger and will corner him to deliver rather than talk. This will strip him off the privileges of management and will ground him down to do the work himself rather than having it done by someone else.

Now, here is my dilemma, he does not seem apprehensive of the situation, and its seriousness, or he pretends not to be. I am unable to make up my mind about him, however, I am aware that he is much more mature and experienced than I am, and he comes from a multinational corporate background where he has been playing tricks and tactics for over 10 years. I am sure he has mastered technique, I have hardly been bothered to utilize. In few occasions, I noticed, he acts like a junior with managers, very timid and very obedient; and yet he can completely change his attitude in a second when interacting with subordinates. He becomes bossy, demanding, self-centered and intolerant. All that change in a matter of few seconds, needs a master mind behind it, yet, I do not want to use a single observation to form a strong opinion about him.

It is going to be a challenging afternoon, today, to decipher the messages he will communicate and to tackle games he will play. This is a challenge of the kind I am not looking forward to. I wish I knew Aikido. A friend said once, it is the art of neutralizing without a fight! How I wish I knew few techniques …