The Story of a Crazy but Awesome Boss Who Changed My Life

And made me lose 18 Kgs, in the process

He hired me into my first organisation. He was a reclusive boss who worked harder than any of us. He would almost never leave before we did and was a hard task master.

So much so that he made me cry almost first month into the organisation. I was a post graduate from India’s top communication college.

And he simply told me, “Are you an intern? Why are you behaving like one?’’ with complete bitterness in the middle of a high pressure job.

I instantly regretted my decision to take up the job. I felt like a loser. However since I was just starting out, I decided to not quit before I gave it my all and proved him wrong. And so I set out to turn the tables. With sufficient amount of hard work, I conquered the impossible. I had managed to be a step ahead of him in knowledge of my clients and products. And I elicited responses such as “Wow! How do you know that? Even I don’t know about it” from him. That, by the way was equivalent to hearing ‘I love you’ from a stone. I am not kidding.

But my determination to prove him wrong was all that was needed to turn the tide. And how!

Once I won his trust, his behaviour towards me changed. Oh no! He still remained the hard task master, but he gave me a chance to speak out before lunging for my throat. On one such scary job discussion days, he paused mid-conversation and asked me, “ Don’t you want to lose weight?’’

“What!”, I exclaimed, gaping at my colleague to verify the question. I was flabbergasted.

“Are you serious about losing weight?’’, he asked again calmly. Oh yes, he was asking me about my weight. Yes, I was overweight, but not particularly bothered about it. My parents had kind of given up their efforts to get me to be serious about it. And I was quite enjoying my binge in the new office, eating burgers and coke every morning.

“Umm.. yes.” I replied. Because, it was the most logical thing to reply to your boss.

“Then take my dietitian's number from me and go to her. She is good.”, he informed in a matter of fact manner.

“Okay”, I responded, mentally resolving not to do that. I was just humouring him because, well, partially I was scared of him.

That evening before leaving for home, he popped up on my desk. “You din’t take her number from me?’’, he asked, flustered. Busted! I thought.

“Oh! I was going to come to you! Please give me her number.” I said nervously. He shared her number and headed home.

Secretly I resolved not to call her. But then my mind reasoned that I was dealing with this mad hyper detailed boss of mine. Who’s to say he won’t interrogate me again? So I called the dietitian the next day and took an appointment for assessment. As anticipated, he asked me about it and I was able to answer truthfully that I had taken the appointment.

The day of the appointment was a Saturday. I landed at the dietitian’s office. The moment I stepped off my car, I got a call from my boss. “Did you go to her?’’, he quipped suspiciously.

“Yeah! I am here!’’, I replied with some annoyance. What was he? CCTV camera? I thought out of frustration but also admiration for his level of follow-up for a simple 9 rungs lower junior like me.

I had my assessment done and the dietitian declared, “I don’t know what to do with you. Your eating habits are so bad! Now if you want to do this, you will have to listen to me.” I nodded my head. When I left, I checked on her consultation fees. They were double my monthly salary. Chapter closed, I thought to myself and walked out worry free.

“So what happened with her?’’, my boss interrogated me first thing in the morning in office on Monday.

“Yeah, she said it was bad. I needed to work hard at losing weight.’’ I said.

“So when are you starting?”, he asked.

“I can’t!” I exclaimed. “I don’t make much money and I am paying my education loans. How do you expect me to pay that amount?’’

“Give her half right now and half later.” he continued as if there was no problem at all.

“I will see!”, I exclaimed, now thoroughly flabbergasted. How much longer was I supposed to endure this? After that I thought this chapter was over.

But pretty soon my boss hovered around my desk like a ghost looking at his phone and quipped, “Hey look, the salary is here! Can you go and pay her please?”

I looked up in exasperation. What was this man!! Even my father never chased me so much in my entire life.

But I was aware that he was (literally) pushing me into the right direction. He meant well. And I wasn’t used to that from many people. It was oddly unsettling but fascinating.

Despite 100 reasons why I couldn’t spend that kind of money, I signed up with the dietitian.

I decided to have faith in myself for the sake of the man who was a Vice President in my company, and went to such great lengths to ensure a junior like me, wasn’t going to lose out to health.

Once he heard I had joined the diet programme, he moved mountains to make things happen for me.

“In the evenings, let her go for a walk around here. If her dietitian calls, let her go early’’, he instructed my transfixed colleagues. They looked from him to me as if they were just discovering that I was his daughter or something. I had a hard time justifying the sudden concern.

From then on began my amazing transformation journey towards weight loss. Everyone in my team kept a watch on what I ate. My boss, needless to say was personally taking reports of my well being from my dietitian. They practically left no excuse for me to not lose weight.

As a result, by the end of 8 months, I lost 18 Kgs of weight! That was insane. I couldn’t recognise myself. My parents almost had tears in their eyes and my this particular boss was GOD for them. He had done something, they had never been able to do. And I could see a transformed life ahead of me, whenever I looked at that mirror.

With that kind of contribution to my life, I could’ve given my life for my boss. And I was insanely inspired and I thought to myself, Could I ever be that kind of a boss when I go up the ladder?

Even after when my boss changed, he remained a mentor to me and he still does. I write to him to take a career advice almost every time I make a switch. He makes it a point to be blunt, honest and upfront about what he has to say.

And it makes me realise the power you have, as a boss. You can change lives, you can shape minds and you can influence people.

Always use the power of being a boss, to make people better.