Statistics ...

Betaal moved with his infamous smirk on his face to Vicky's office.
There was a test on his head ! For sure and he knew Vicky this time will flunk !

Betaal - "How you doing Vicky ? Long time no see".

Vicky - "Could be better. A lot of engineers calling in Sick this Friday. I can not understand what is that on a Friday one would fall sick ? I am convinced 99% of them are healthy and just making it a long weekend by calling in sick. And with media reporting H1N1 at this rate, no one can really question it. One never knows if someone is really sick. But productivity and deadlines taking hit."

Betaal - "Good Vicky ! I have a story for you. Let me know what would you do in this case. And I am sure you would do the right thing"

The story goes like this -

"A modern busy executive with family and kids, employed a driver to help with household chores. The driver has a weekly off day, Sunday. One Saturday morning he called in saying his mom is doing some Puja and he needs a days off.

The next Monday he called in to say he is sick.

A week later he called in saying his grandfather died and needs the Saturday off and Monday too. All within a span of one and half months. "

Vicky ! What is your take ? Is the driver telling truth ? He can fall sick, he can lose an elderly relative and has to be there with family mourning. He has to be part of family celebrations too. Should the executive continue to keep him on job ? He has no way to verify all these things. And firing a help over seemingly natural and plausible reasons is not humane. What should he do ?

Vicky did not have to do a lot of thinking. He said - "The driver should be fired. Just because of one fact. The death of grandfather. This is 99.9% of time an excuse used by helps. And if he is fired for telling lies to take off most of the days, the executive would be 99.9% right. And 0.01% wrong. Simple statistics says that this is a lie"

Betaal - "But what if he is not telling a lie ? The guys entire living comes from driving his employers family around".

Vicky - "Yeah ! There is a slim chance of that. Very slim".