200. Between the Timelines

Budget preparation was an annual exercise carried out in that company.

At the end of February of every year, a meeting of all the departmental managers would be convened, in which the income and expenditure for the next year would be finalized.

The meeting was scheduled for three consecutive days.

The meeting was held in the conference call of the company's corporate office. The meeting was presided over by General Manager Prabhakar and all the departmental managers were present.

Shalini, the Personal Secretary of the General Manager was also present, for taking notes of the discussions. 

"All of us are men. Having a lady in the room provides a semblance of balance!" quipped one manager. Some people laughed, enjoying the witty remark.

Shalini was sitting expressionless.

For the next few minutes, the participants were talking about various matters like the agitations going on in various parts of the country, the political developments, the recent entry into politics of a popular star etc. 

It was only after Prabhakar said, "Gentlemen! let us begin the discussion" that the participants began to discuss the preparation of the annual budget. 

The exercise was completed at the end of the third day, as scheduled.

The next day, Shalini typed out a report, detailing the discussions held during the three days and kept it on the General Manager's desk.

After a while, Prabhakar summoned Shalini to his room. 

He pointed to a particular part of her report and told her, "I think we took some other decision on this matter."

"No, sir! I had taken notes of all the discussions. This report is as per my notes" said Shalini .

"Let me see your notes" said Prabhakar.

Shalini went out and returned with her notebook. She showed him the place where the particular point was noted by her.

Prabhakar read the notes and said appreciatively, "Ok. You are right. You have done a neat job of taking detailed notes of the discussions." 

When Prabhakar was about to close the notebook and return it to Shalini, he noticed something and asked her, "You seem to have marked the timeline at some places. What is it?"

"That is nothing, sir. Just for my reference" said Shalini, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Why do you need timeline references? I am curious. Tell me about it" persisted Prabhakar.

"Don't mistake me, sir. I am ding a course on time management in the evening college. I had a lesson on Time and Motion Study. So, I just wanted to see how time was utilized in this meeting" said Shalini, in an apologetic tone, apprehending how the General Manager would view her action.

"Interesting. let me see this... I see some gaps here. For example, after 11.20 to 11.25, the next timeline is 11.55. Why have you not noted down the discussion between 11.25 and 11.55?" 

"There was no discussion during that period, sir!"

"Why? There was no break at that time. Did some people leave the room for a while and was the discussion stopped for a while?"

"No, sir. Everyone was in the room. But, they were talking about some other matter."

"Oh, I understand. You have noted the times whenever there was a discussion on the budget, leaving out the times, when the discussion wandered to some extraneous topics. Time management is a tool for managers, But you have used this tool on the managers!"

"Pardon me, sir. I did it for my own understanding of the concept I had learned in the classroom. Since you asked me to show the notebook, I showed it to you. Please don't mistake me, sir" pleaded Shalini. 

"No, Shalini! I appreciate it. I want you to do one more exercise. Please calculate the total time spent on budget discussion."

"I have already done it, sir. The total comes to five hours and thirty five minutes."

"My goodness! The meeting was held for a total duration of eighteen hours, spread over three days. But, only about six hours had been utilized for discussion on budget preparation. About twelve hours had been wasted. We had spent two third of the time in vain talk. If we calculate the cost of the executive time of all the managers wasted, it will amount to several thousand rupees. Such a huge loos to the company! How did I fail to realize this? Causing such a huge loss to the company is a kind of irregularity. It is a grave injustice to the company. The exercise done by you has been an eye-opener to me. In future, I will cut down the time for budget discussion and regulate the discussion. Thank you very much, Shalini" said Prabhakar.

Thirukkural
Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 20
Avoiding Vain Speech

Verse 200 (In Tamil)

solluga sollil payan udaiya sollaRka
sollil payan ilAch chol.

Meaning:

Speak such that what you speak is worthy; speak not,

if what you speak is not worthy.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'nEram nalla nEram' by the same author)

Verse 201 (Soon)
Verse 199