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The Hindu : Drivers at your apartment blockD. MURALIApartments have so many people getting in and out of every block that even guards seem to be losing control of who is authorised and who isn’tDrivers are among the most mobile employees, both literally and figuratively. Thus, when a friend tells me about his neighbour who has changed the eighth driver in the last six months, I asked him if the car was so troublesome. “It’s a mystery,” he says. “We see a new chap driving the cars and after a few days a newer face takes over.” I ask him, “That’s not your problem, is it?” He shakes his head to say that I could be wrong. How?“Because we’re having too many people getting in and out of our apartment block that we seem to be losing control of who is authorised and who isn’t,” he says. “Also, most of the time, we see the driver sitting in the car and watching other residents’ movements. When drivers change too frequently, do you think we can hold anybody responsible?” I don’t find it easy to answer his question.Common afflictionIf you come to think of it, a common affliction that affects drivers employed by most residents is underemployment. The sitewww.investorwords.com defines the word as “a situation in which a worker is employed, but not in the desired capacity, whether in terms of compensation, hours, or level of skill and experience”. While not technically unemployed, the underemployed are often competing for available jobs, it adds.So, it is not unusual for the driver to be viewed as Man Friday to help in anything ranging from fetching vegetables to watering the plants. No job is mean; but when skills mismatch, we’re only asking for trouble.A few years back a crime that shook Mumbai-ites was a murder in a Borivili apartment complex. A 45-year-old housewife, Sandra Clinton Franklin, was stabbed to death by a…More
