I Fired my Driver…..A matter of Loyalty!

I generally do not fire my employees/ servants. It pains me greatly, because while working together one starts living like a family. In fact , even in my Army life I was known as a very considerate senior, who would hesitate to punish his subordinates unless it was extremely essential. I believed more in corrective action than taking the extreme step.
However sometimes the situation turns so ugly that one has to take the extreme step. I remember that being a Commanding officer, I had to dismiss one soldier since he had absented himself for a long period of one year from duty and prior to that had assaulted his superior. This was about 25 years ago and I had definitely felt sad about it.
This driver of mine was also a retired soldier who was on my pay roll for about 4 years. I am also a Veteran having retired from the Army. I always treated him like a member of my family and generally looked after him. He was paid his salary always on time. Whenever he drove us outside the city and it was meal time, I would let him eat in the same place and pay for him. In fact whenever I went visiting my kids in USA, he would continue getting his salary in India for my absence period, though he was free to do any part time job then. When we returned from abroad, we would bring small gifts for him and his family. He too behaved in a good manner and sometimes did odd jobs for me besides driving. In fact at times I even helped him with some temporary loan for his son’s education. Once he told me that his son wanted an iPhone which he could not afford. So I purchased an iPhone through an online portal and gave it to him on the condition that he would pay me in instalments. Perhaps we could have carried on for some more time but some events changed the relationship somewhat.
My driver managed to send his son on education basis to Singapore and would have borrowed some money from here and there. So now he started looking to earn more and more money besides salary being received from me and his monthly pension. He started going early from my house and in the rest of the day would ply a taxi. I did not mind it initially but told him that his extra work should not interfere in his duties towards me. So whenever I needed him he had to adjust his other work. To begin with this went on satisfactorily but later he would miss a day on some pretext or the other and yet claim his full salary. My wife was getting quite irritated with his behaviour, but we somehow carried on. Then an incident happened which was the last straw before my patience ran out.
I had to host a party to Veteran Officers of my Corps at a restaurant in the city and it was quite some distance from my house. The time of the party was in the evening from 5 PM to 8 PM. Though my driver used to leave my house at 1 PM every day after his driving duty but the understanding was that whenever he was required in the evening, he would be available. I had told him about this event about 15 days ago so that he does not accept any additional tasks on that day implying that he adjusts his taxi duties accordingly. In between one of my relatives ( sister in law ) also arrived and my driver had to drive her for which he was given additional incentive.
On the fateful day of the party, my driver rang me up that he cannot come in the evening to drive me as he has picked up a passenger to be driven to Shimla hills and he is getting paid a good amount of Rs 2500. So he wanted me to drive myself and go to the venue of the party. Well, I can definitely drive but here was the occasion where other officers would see me having a driver, which is a kind of status in India for a senior retired Military officer. Also I did not know the route to the venue of the party and had to use Google map. Anyway, my driver did not report for duty and I had to drive myself along with my wife to the place. While returning it had become dark and I lost my route at one or two turnings before correcting it with GPS. I remembered our association of 4 years where I had looked after my driver’s interest so well. In fact I had guided him how to send his son abroad for studies, and here was the fellow who for the sake of some additional amount forgot about the bond and the loyalty towards his master.
At about 9 PM , I returned home and at 9.30 PM my driver rang up to know if I had reached home safe and sound. This infuriated me further and I told him that since I can drive myself, I do not require him. He showed no remorse and replied that he would not be coming for duty from the next day.
That was it, no good byes, no farewells and a bond of 4 years broken in a day. Just a greed of some additional amount took the toll on a good relationship. I also wondered on his loyalty which could be swayed by lure of additional earnings. May be the guy had requirement of additional funds; he could have easily asked me for help, but ditching someone on his crucial day was most hurtful.
Anyway a week has passed and I have become more self reliant. I drive myself and each day the confidence is increasing. The last hangover of the Army Life (a General being driven by a driver) is also over.
Guchi.