Arun's onboarding email arrived at 8:12 AM.
Subject: Phoenix Oversight Integration – Initial Steps
Sender: Oversight Support
A polite line at the bottom read:
"You will be added to the core clusters today. Please attend the introductory sync."
Attached was a meeting link.
He clicked it.
Host: Aditi
Co-host: Some guy named Sameer
Topic: Phoenix Oversight Induction – Internal Engineering
Rahul peeked over Arun's shoulder.
"Bro… Aditi? Directly? This isn't induction. This is judgement day."
Arun replied dryly, "It's just a meeting."
"Just a meeting?" Rahul whispered dramatically. "You're being welcomed by a woman who makes Rajiv rehearse breathing."
Arun didn't bother responding.
THE MEETING
The call opened at 10:00 AM sharp.
Aditi's camera was on.
She didn't make any introductory speech. She didn't greet everyone cheerfully. She didn't smile for effect.
"Let's begin," she said.
Efficient.
Expected.
There were six people on the call:
Arun
Two DevOps engineers
One analytics guy
A documentation specialist
Aditi, who looked like she had already reviewed three reports and fired five vendors since sunrise
She went through slides for structural overview, data flow, escalation paths. Every explanation was clean, simple, and fast.
Then she said, "Now let's do a quick assessment."
Everyone froze.
Not literally — Arun didn't freeze time — but figuratively.
An "assessment" from oversight never meant MCQs.
It meant: Let's see who here understands anything.
Aditi continued, "I'll present a scenario. You give me the simplest correct reaction path."
She looked at Arun first.
Unexpected.
Unavoidable.
"A region mismatch results in Phoenix node echoing usage from the wrong shard. The client sees inflated minutes. You have twenty minutes to respond. Walk me through the steps."
Arun didn't panic.
He didn't even feel pressured.
He answered calmly. "Verify divergence with local logs. Freeze billing. Redirect feed. Rebuild the differential summary. Remove inflated minutes. Push corrected block. Then publish."
There was silence after he finished.
The analytics guy looked impressed.
One DevOps guy looked like he wanted to take notes.
Aditi only asked, "And if redirect fails?"
"Fallback data route," Arun said. "Manual merge."
"Good," she said.
No praise.
Just confirmation.
She moved on to test the others. Most stumbled.
One DevOps guy said something that made even Sameer squint, and Sameer wasn't expressive.
Aditi remained polite but direct.
"Incorrect. Next."
Arun muttered under his breath, "Tough crowd."
Unfortunately, his mic was not muted.
Aditi blinked.
The DevOps guys stared.
Sameer coughed to hide a laugh.
Aditi paused for half a second — not annoyed, not amused — then said simply:
"Let's continue."
Arun decided to keep his commentary internal for the rest of the meeting.
AFTER THE CALL
The moment he left the conference room, Ritesh appeared with the timing of someone waiting outside intentionally.
"So," Ritesh said with a fixed smile, "big shot now."
Arun kept walking. "No."
Ritesh followed. "Come on, Arun. Joining oversight? Special treatment? You must be enjoying this."
Arun replied, "I enjoy working quietly."
Ritesh scoffed. "That's not how oversight works. They'll expect miracles. You ready for that?"
Arun answered, "I already delivered one last month."
Rahul, walking behind them, choked on his coffee from laughter.
Ritesh didn't appreciate it. "Jokes aside—don't get too comfortable. These things come with… expectations."
Arun stopped and looked at him calmly. "Expectations don't scare me."
Ritesh looked annoyed but forced a smile. "Good luck then."
He walked away, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "arrogant Chennai fellow."
Rahul whispered, "Bro. You just out-sarcasmed a man who has sarcasm in his blood."
Arun said, "It wasn't sarcasm."
"That's what makes it even funnier."
BACKLASH BEGINS
The rest of the day was a comedy show performed entirely by insecure seniors.
They didn't insult him.
They didn't confront him.
They did worse.
They congratulated him.
Passive-aggressively.
One senior said, "Wow, oversight recruited juniors now? Times are changing."
Another added, "Enjoy the spotlight while it lasts. Oversight cycles people out fast."
A third said, "Be careful. Once you join Aditi's cluster, she won't let mistakes slide."
Arun replied with his usual deadpan:
"I don't plan to make them."
Rahul whispered, "Bro, stop. Some of these people cry easily."
Arun answered, "I'm just speaking truth."
Rahul replied, "Yeah… that's the problem."
Aditi's Unintended Humor Moment
At 5 PM, Arun received a message from Oversight Support.
"Aditi has added you to the Phoenix rapid-response Slack room."
He opened it.
Dozens of channels.
Thousands of messages.
Half of them arguments about logs.
Sameer greeted him first:
Sameer:
Welcome to the chaos, Arun.
Arun replied:
Thank you.
Seconds later, Aditi sent a message (to the whole room, not directly to him):
Aditi:
Since we have Arun onboarded, he'll take primary ownership of anomaly tracebacks.
Rahul saw the message over Arun's shoulder and whispered loudly:
"PRIMARY OWNERSHIP? Bro, she made you captain of the Titanic."
Arun muttered, "Phoenix is not sinking."
Rahul pointed at the Slack feed. "Look at these errors. The ship is halfway underwater."
Aditi sent another line in the channel:
Aditi:
He resolved the last three issues faster than expected. Use him for critical paths only.
Rahul's eyes widened.
"Bro. Did she just vouch for you publicly?"
Arun didn't know what to say.
Aditi rarely complimented anyone.
Her praise wasn't verbal.
It was assignments.
This was practically a standing ovation by her standards.
Rahul slapped his back. "Congratulations. You're officially her favorite problem-solver."
Arun shook his head. "I'm not anyone's favorite."
"Lie to yourself," Rahul said. "But don't lie to me."
END-OF-DAY MEETING WITH THE SENIORS
Ritesh called for a team sync at 6 PM.
Rahul whispered, "He's going to throw tantrum."
Arun replied, "He's welcome to try."
The meeting began with unnecessary formality.
"Team," Ritesh said, "since one of us is transitioning to oversight—"
Arun corrected, "Partially."
Ritesh forced a smile. "Yes, partially. But let's clarify conditions."
He turned to Arun.
"You'll need to keep us informed of oversight's expectations. You can't just disappear into their team and leave us clueless. We're the foundation here."
Arun stared at him. "I'm not disappearing. I'll share what's relevant."
Ritesh replied, "Good. And remember—you represent us in oversight."
Rahul whispered, "I'm going to die trying not to laugh."
Arun simply said, "I'll do my work. Nothing more."
Meeting ended.
Ritesh left frustrated.
Rahul left struggling not to giggle.
Aditi's Final Test of the Day
At 7:10 PM, Arun was packing up when a new message arrived.
Aditi:
Before tomorrow, review the escalation chain for timestamp anomalies and identify the weakest link.
Arun typed back:
Arun:
All of them? Or a specific cluster?
Aditi:
Start with the chain you joined today.
Arun:
I'll send the report tonight.
She replied:
Aditi:
Good.
One word.
Surgical.
Rahul peeked again. "Bro… you're doing night shifts for her now?"
Arun shrugged. "I don't mind."
Rahul joked, "I'm telling you, one day she'll ask you to debug the moon, and you'll just say 'give me ten minutes.'"
Arun didn't laugh—but a faint upward breath escaped him.
Humor was a survival tool in this office.
And today, he needed it.
LATE NIGHT — THE REALIZATION
Back in his PG, Arun stared at his laptop screen while Rohan ate chips loudly.
Rohan asked, "So, new team treating you well?"
Arun didn't look away from the code. "Mostly."
"Any villains?" Rohan asked.
"A few."
"Any heroes?"
Arun considered. "One."
"Who?"
Arun said nothing.
But he knew the answer.
Not Rahul.
Not Neha.
Not Rajiv.
The person who gave him the hardest tasks, highest expectations, and no unnecessary words.
Aditi.
Not because she favored him.
But because she trusted his competence long before anyone else had the nerve to.
Maybe that was humor in itself—
A quiet engineer from Chennai being handpicked by someone who intimidated half the office.
Arun closed the laptop.
Tomorrow would be harder.
But he didn't feel dread.
He felt… aligned.
Like gears clicking into place.