It was the last year of my college. It was that time of the year when campus recruitment process was supposed to commence. We all were excited and nervous as it would be our first experience at giving interviews, in order to get into a good company. We were about to enter the second phase of our life — Work Life, where we were just getting over with the first phase i.e. Student Life. We were going to become professionals. We were beginning to understand how important it was.

One fine Wednesday morning, as I entered college, I heard a lot of commotion going on. On enquiring with my friends, I got to know that the first company had been scheduled to visit our college for the placement process. It was to come on Friday. Having just 2 days to prepare, I first started with reading about the company as, till then, I hadn’t heard of its name. I soon came to know that it was, supposedly, the third best company in the world. If I got through it, my whole life would be set. The first round would be an aptitude test, so I started preparing for it.

Soon it was Friday, and students in thousands entered the hall where the aptitude test was supposed to be held. Seeing the huge number I really got nervous, as it made my chance of getting through even less. I decided not to back out and at-least give it a try. I had nothing to lose, and it would further help me be better prepared for other companies’ aptitude test. It would help me understand the pattern.

The representatives of the company soon arrived and distributed us the question papers, with all the instructions we were required to follow. The questions were well thought of, and I had to rack my brain and apply all my analytical skills to solve it, to the best of my capabilities. Soon it was time and we submitted our answer sheets. They informed us that they would validate it and inform our college’s Placement Department about the result.

After the test, on enquiring with my other batch-mates, I got a little disheartened, as everyone seemed to have performed like or better than me. I just left the result on God, believing he will do what is best for me.

On Monday, we attended college as usual. The day was proceeding as expected when one of my friends, came to me and said she had some news for me. I was clueless about what it could be and asked her. It was then she informed me that only 7 students had cleared the aptitude test and I was one of them. I couldn’t believe my ears and jumped with delight.

The days after this, passed swiftly with me clearing both the round of interviews that followed and was the only one to be selected from my entire college. My happiness knew no bounds. My parents were so proud of me.

College got over and it was my first day at work. The moment I entered the company’s campus, I fell in love with it. It was huge with large gardens all around. I even started dreaming of getting old working at the company.

The initial 2 years just flew by like a dream. I say like a dream, because, everything was so perfect and I just couldn’t have expected more. I loved working there and the people were good. Moreover, they even provided delicious free meals.

After two years, I was incorporated as a permanent employee and my salary was raised in many folds. It was then that the actual problems began. First, the project we were working on was allocated to another team, while my team was assigned a new project, which used a new technology about which I didn’t have any idea. My team members were reshuffled and I found myself with all new team members and a new manager.

At first, we were given an overview of the new project. It was difficult for me to grasp as the technology was very new for me, while the other team members had already worked on that technology before, so it wasn’t a problem for them. Soon after, the customer issues started pouring in and each of us were expected to close them at the earliest.

Finally, I decided to approach my manager and ask him to provide me with the training to understand the new technology, because with so many customer issues pouring in, nobody had the time to guide me. But the manager refused, and instead handed me a large module to learn and work on, all by myself, that too within a very limited time. I didn’t have any other option, so I started working on it based on what little I understood, but to no avail.

Gradually, the behaviour of my team-members grew toxic as they began to taunt me that I couldn’t contribute on fixing the customer issues and they were overloaded due to it. They looked down on me and made me feel I wasn’t qualified enough to be there. I was getting depressed by the day. I started to dread going to office every morning.

So, I decided to talk to the HR, to ask if she could help me, because the behaviour of the manager and the team mates were not justifiable. It was also the company’s policy to provide its employee with any training they ask for, yet I was being deprived of it.

The HR seemed to understand my concerns, and promised that she would get back to me. But, on the contrary, she, being close to my manager, told him everything and they together plotted to throw me out of the company before I could say it to anyone else. They called me to a meeting and offered me an only solution out, if I wanted to stay in the company.

I had already had had enough and I declined their offer. I believe mental peace is greater than anything else. The environment there had become too toxic to stick around and I submitted my resignation.

That day I learned something. No matter how good a company is, if the people or work is not good, it is not good for you.

As rightly expressed: