Karma Boomerang

Krish & Ayra were elated to be back at the penthouse, home sweet home. The jet lag, settling back & Ayra's school admission were taking a toll on him. At work, it was no less chaotic with an in-house product launch around the corner. Luckily, Tara handled everything at the office, & Krish has some wiggle room.

The in-house product launch was seamless. Leadership has begun the beta testing of the product. The product testing was running smoothly until everything came crashing down on a Tuesday. Krish, along with Parmeet, rushed to Tara's desk.

Krish called, "Tara..."

Tara was so immersed in her work that she softly uttered, "Huh."

Tara peeled her eyes from the monitor & turned towards the voice. When she noticed the duo, her eyebrows knotted.

She questioned, "What's wrong?"

Krish chortled, "How do you know something is wrong?"

Tara raised her shoulders & logically explained, "You both at the same time, at my desk can't be good news."

Krish barred his teeth & explained that leadership had raised a major escalation on the product. Tara's forehead furrowed & she wondered what was missed by her team.

Tara calmly asked, "Okay. What is it about?"

Parmeet explained that the reports & dashboards had crashed.

Tara was taken aback, "What...? Why...? How...? "

Parmeet continued, "The dates in the reports are incorrect, so everything is crashing."

Tara challenged, "We tested everything end-to-end for a month. We did not face any such problem."

Parmeet explained, "In the lower environment, we entered valid dates. We noticed that users left the date column blank. Such dates are showing up as '00-00-0000', which is invalid."

Tara exclaimed, "What?"

Parmeet jumped, "I cannot fix date values across reports or dashboards. It gets complicated & impossible to cater to future users' requests."

Tara agreed, "We shouldn't fix it at all. Source team can set up a default value as '01-01-1900' & it will work."

Krish & Parmeet sighed with relief at the solution.

Tara smiled, "Chill, guys. Once the source team sets a default value, the report & dashboards will work."

Krish & Parmeet walked towards the other end of the floor towards the door where the source team were seated. After half an hour, the beaten duo reached Tara's desk. They explained that the source team pushed back, saying they cannot fix it at their end.

Tara scowled, "That's strange. Salesforce is a pretty good product & there must be an option. Let me talk to them."

As the trio walked across the floor, Krish tried to explain to Tara about the resistance from the source team. Tara dismissed those pointers & was confident the source team would help.

When Tara couteously addressed Naveen, he lacked the basic professional courtesy to make eye contact. She explained in detail the challenges & the ease of the default date at source. Not once did Naveen look up; he bluntly declined that it was impossible to change the date logic at the source. Tara persisted & requested him to help.

Naveen arrogantly said, "That's your issue, not mine."

Tara looked at Krish & Parmeet with dismay. It dawned on Tara that the source team belonged to another department & did not have to help Krish's team.

Tara declared in the presence of the source team loudly, "Krish, give me 2 days, and I will fix it. Tomorrow, if the source team needs anything, anything at all, then I'm not helping them."

Tara continued, "Parmeet, you need not worry. As there are no changes required at your end."

Krish & Parmeet were too stumped to react. Naveen smirked with a look, 'That day is never going to come.' Tara walked away with determination & it echoed with the loud clicks of her stilettos on the floor.

Tara worked actively to default all date values in her code. She completed the task in 2 days & deployed the changes on Friday morning. Krish mailed the leadership to test & validate the reports. In the afternoon, Krish rushed to Tara's desk in panic. She looked at him coolly.

Krish mentioned, "We have another escalation on the dates. Naveen mentioned it was your code causing the issue."

Tara ground her molars, took a deep breath & inquired, "What is the issue?"

Krish replied, "I mailed it to you. Can you please check?"

Tara read through the mail & grinned.

She grinned at Krish, "I will respond to the mail."

Tara mailed the stakeholders & source team with the evidence that the issue was with the source data. She locked her laptop, picked up her cigarette case & lighter to celebrate the win. Anyone on the floor could see a hop in her walk, especially when she neared the door. The mail with evidence arrived at Naveen's mailbox around the same time she walked past the source team. She sneered at him & his jaw dropped. After that email, leadership bombarded the source team's mailbox with issues. The source team spent the weekend fixing their code & processes.

The product beta testing completed & rolled out to the rest of the organisation for use. A few months passed & on an afternoon, Krish approached Tara with a new requirement. Tara listened to the requirement & asked a few questions. She removed the specs &B pinched the bridge of her nose. She leaned forward on her desk and repeated the requirement to think through.

After a few minutes, Tara donned her specs & mentioned, "We can do it."

Krish questioned, "How long will it take for you to build it?"

Tara swayed in her chair & replied, "Build should take a couple of hours & an hour to test & validate."

No sooner did she say it than a thought crossed her mind.

Tara curiously asked, "Why... would you need this data extract?"

Krish grinned, "Source team's request."

Tara's calm face turned stone cold & stressed, "I've told you, I will not help them."

Krish smiled, "Source team reached out to me to ask you."

Tara snarled, "Even if Naveen comes to my desk & pleads. I will not do it. Period."

Tara fumed & Krish walked away with a suppressed laugh. A few minutes later, Naveen came running to Tara's desk.

Naveen requested, "Tara, can you please generate the data extract?"

Tara extended the same courtesy as Naveen had. She focused on the monitor & curtly said, "No."

Naveen continued, "Please, Tara, it will take you 2 hours to extract it. If I have to do it, then it will take a weekend."

Tara sarcastically responded, "So? That's your issue, not mine."

Naveen had a flashback & immediately regretted his actions. Tara was the only one who could help. He did not want to work on the weekend & stomped his ego.

Naveen pressed, "Please, Tara. Can you please, please extract the data? Otherwise, I will have to spend my whole weekend on it."

Tara did not even bother to look towards him & curtly replied, "No."

The next Monday, as Tara was leaving for the day, she passed Naveen's desk & noticed Krish talking to him.

Naveen commented, "I had to work the weekend because Tara did not help me."

Tara's hand was almost at the door handle & she stopped mid-air. She turned back to face Naveen in a swift motion. Naveen took a step back & Krish suppressed a giggle.

Tara responded, "Well, when I asked you to set the default date, you did not. When you asked for an extract, I did not do it. Let's call it even. So, the next time I ask for something, do it."

Takeaway: As per Newton's 3rd law, "to every action there is an equal & opposite reaction."