Reporter's diary: The corporate tales of terminators, predators

CHENNAI: Apologies to the fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger. We’re borrowing the titles of his movies to narrate recent incidences in the city’s corporate world. First, the Terminator. Stories of pink slips range from the unfair to the unsavoury. At times, they are utterly bizarre too.

Recently, in Chennai, an upcoming marketing agency located in a posh address in Nungambakkam had hired a 20-year-old. On his first day at the job, the youngster was apparently aloof, and this did not sit well with the managing director who tried talking to him about it.

Irate over his sharp tongue, the MD gave him the pink slip on the spot and asked him to leave, which has led to the youngster uttering some unparliamentary words. Apart from losing a job on the day he was hired, the poor chap now faces a police case too.

Next, the Predator. A city-based pharma company (worth around Rs 5,000 crore) with business presence abroad, had filed a police complaint against one of its former directors for misusing the company information to form his own company in the name of his daughters.

Chennai police have invoked many sections of the IPC, copyright act, and trademark act on the company’s complaint. From the company’s perspective, their former director is a predator, but an unimaginative one at that. Let’s assume the director’s last name is Kumar and his daughters are Audrey and Frankie. The names of the companies are Maraud and Fraud.

Fortunately for Kumar, it’s not a crime to be unimaginative while naming companies.