Hanging out with office colleagues may not be a good idea!

It's time for me to reflect on my own thoughts again. I am revisiting one of my previous posts: Friends at workplace? Not Done! Also I'm reminded of an e-buddy's question which I found really absurd then: "Do you hang out with your office colleagues?" I now concur with his opinion "You should avoid it." Sad that I had to wait for a personal experience to come to an agreement. But, as I keep testing my own judgments and re-evaluate the lessons I learn, I still believe things can change. Because it's people we're talking and people are capable of learning, choosing their actions and becoming more competent and mature to mend their ways! Ever hopeful for the best..

Satyamites, are you on a higher ground to condem Raju?

I'd received this email on Jan 17 from an old friend from college which says it was supposed to have been written by a female employee of Satyam. Don't know whether it's true or not, the mail has few truths which reflect facts about the IT & ITeS industry in India. I keep hearing similar such stories happening even at TCS (mostly).. I'm sure there' are many others! Please do read through.

It gives a nice perspective on gratitude, and how pathetic our own mindsets can become for once when we are seemingly condemning someone as if we stand on a higher ground! As the title speaks, the question it brings us to is: Satyamites, are you on a higher ground to condemn Raju? To generalize it further, the question facing you and me is this: "Employee, are you sincere enough to condemn your organizational practices?"
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Written by a woman employee of Satyam..

At a time when almost 90% of my Satyam friends are cribbing about the fraud and betrayal by Ramalinga Raju, I have a slightly different opinion. It's bold of me to write this in black and white, but this comes straight from my heart and experience.

Let me start by quoting an example of 2006. Most of my friends were unemployed with 50-60% plus marks in B.Tech, with a degree from an average university and hunting madly for a job. Whether people accept it today or not, but the truth remains that Satyam was the ONLY saviour and the only mass recruiter who was ready to accept students who had back logs but had cleared them and also it did not put a very strict minimum marks criterion. And this was true not only for my small college at Lucknow, but also those across India. Satyam is the fourth largest in IT company in India. Looking at India's population, I really want to thank Raju for giving some 54000 Indians jobs atleast for all these years. He was the reason for the revival of confidence and the reason for the bread and butter for many a families.

Satyam training was renowned all over India. Their STC training centre created numerous love stories and unexpected rekindling of a youthful environment where girls and boys were more indepenent than their college days. I remember most of my Satyam friends felt that they made better friends at Satyam's three to six months training than those in the four years of B.Tech.

Unfortunately, people forget to thank God in sad times. I understand that what Raju did is deplorable and unpardonable. He should have treated business more formally and not dealt with it like a family affair. He should have been strict a couple of months or years before itself. Why did he hire so many non-potential candidates and keep them on bench? When were the managers and the team mates last told that if they don't work hard, they will lose their job? Business cannot be run lousily.

I have been staying with some 200 odd girls for the last 2 years and many of them are from Satyam. Moreover I network a lot and I have lots of male friends at Satyam. I have seen how people tail gate to Satyam, how they give their swipe cards to others to swipe it on their behalf , how female employees have gone home sharp at 6 am irrespective of when they landed at office, how employees sit at home for months at a stretch, prepare for all kind of post graduate entrance exams and still enjoy a full month's pay, how often they went for movies at local theatres at office hours, how often employees went to office just to sign on registers in the morning and at evening, how often they faked their certificates , how often they put unlimited fake medical and house rental bills.

How can we blame just one man when EACH AND EVERY person was disloyal ? How can we exclude auditors like PWC ? How can we exclude the Board of Directors who have washed their hands off so clean? How can we exclude banks who gave hefty loans without true verification? How can we exclude the Chief Minister of AP who allowed leniency for Raju's fellow businessman? How can we exclude managers who were never able to trace which bench employee under him had been away from office for how long ?

Yet how can people forget this is the same man whose ideas and potentials gave them an identity for the past several years? How many couples found the right match at an IT industry , courtesy Satyam and how many Andhra farmers benefited from their crores of investments in Satyam shares. How can people forget that Satyam launched its offices right at the doorsteps of a residential colony, where people can simply walk to work ?

The most gruesome experience that I can recollect was when a Satyam tag wearing person was waiting to attend an interview and I overheard him saying that he was in a business meeting at the My Home Satyam (Madhapur) officem when he was sitting right in front of me at a totally different company. When employees themselves show such a lousy attitude and don't care a damn for the brand that they carry around their neck, how can they expect others to care?

I am not saying that all Satyam employees are bad. I have known very dedicated people too, but my point is very clear, before pointing fingers at others, introspect .There are thousands of people who have completed certifications at the cost of Satyam, got trained at Satyam. Satyam made several freshers stand on their feet to get better jobs elsewhere across the globe and attain onsite exposure through Satyam.

What Raju did was to keep the business of Satyam going at any cost. I see a very smart man in him when he understood that he should rather accept his mistake than be caught by the USA laws . I see a selfish father in him too that he put a lot at stake for Maytas. However, he resigned with a lot of dignity and his letter of resignation shows humility. It takes a mammoth amount of courage to accept your mistake in public at a time when the media is ready to blow everything out of proportion. If humans dont make mistakes who else would ?

My last salute to this man is for creating such mass employment in India for 57k employees and 57k families when even opening a beetle (pan) shop in a lane in India is a challenge !! Thanks to him for creating income for all the thousands of families who benefited through food chains, the tiffin wallahs, the transport people and all those who made money by renting their houses.

I read he donated Rs 12,000 crores from his personal pocket to give the January salary of his Satyam employees. Today, Satyamites call Raju a FRAUD. The true and loyal Satyamites surely have all the reasons to say this word. But all the rest who sucked every rupee out of Satyam without doing any value addition need to understand - who was a bigger fraud?
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Any Opinions, friends?

When Bosses play God!

Being a manager is quite a privilege. You're in authority, you've got the power to influence... and most importantly you've got subordinates to manage, get work done, groom and develop. But, is it that simple? Being an HR professional, I get to interact with Business Heads, Sr. Managers, Managers & TLs who play a significant role in shaping people in organizations both at strategic and operational levels. Apart from work and styles, what strikes me most, is the 'God' like feeling that these people fantasize.. Ugh! It certainly gets the HR loathing..

Here's what my few experiences of Boss playing God have been--

• They'd like to enforce a certain career path (change in role / domain / department) with a negligible attitude towards individual consent. They feel the individual will see the benefit later (how they wish the employee stays after such humiliating act)
• Overriding a senior's instruction to be carried out, or manipulating the same at own discretion to influence the outcome (and expect the juniors' support if it gets screwed up)
• The biggest show-off comes when the bosses talk about how they can, in a positive or negative way influence the appraisals, progression and salary increments (as if an employee's future is in his/her hands)
  

As I write, and ask for some examples from Joy, she says, "It's little virtual, but they think that ways all the time." Well, the above mentioned are few actions manifested in different forms when it comes to practical application.

However, if we talk of the end, in a world like ours, when we're questioning the existence of God Divine, can we really expect little ones as our managers and bosses to play god with us really? At least with the class of 'somewhat' self-aware people (including myself) I hang out with, they perform miserably, and lose whatever little credibility they have in sight..

Condoms and Corporate!

Crazy idea, eh? Well, it came to me through corporate folklore about a person whom I've never known. Here's the exact statement made by the victim in the narrative: "These bastards have used me like a condom."

A little thought o'er the statement makes me recollect the famous Madhur Bhandarkar's Bollywood movie 'Corporate', where the so very beautiful Bipasha Basu transformed into a similar use-and-throw thing... For that... well, condom makes an excellent metaphor.

I've seen decades of 'valuable' experience being debased with one letter (obviously, here I am not talking of non-performing employees). Oh yes, e-mail these days do a better job and also can help avoid a personal confrontation. And if it's to be done sooner, an SMS comes in handy; Even the chat messages on MS Communicator, or other clients do a good job by leaving an offline message if one doesn't want to take the pain of writing an e-mail.

What to say? I can only recall these wise words of another businessman turned Chief Mentor of "Love your job not your company, because you never know when it stops loving you." What I admire most about it is, the essence verbalized out of, God knows how many years of corporate experience.

If you want to follow the Leader speak, here's it in Narayan Murthy's words "Love your job not your company", at least if you don't want to be treated like a Corporate Condom!

What's the ROI of your Non-Billable time...

How are you spending your Non-Billable Hours?

I'm inspired by my boss as to how keenly he monitors his employees' activities so he's sure that every minute of his employees' billable hours are accounted for. That, for sure justifies his existence. But, the sad part, however, is that the employees aren't that evolved or mature to account for their non-billable time.

I'm sure many of us have read stories of how employees at a breaking-point write testimonials of this sort... "I've been working so hard, day and night all the time for my family, but, I now realized that I've earned so much, but I've lost all the precious time with my family"

It's a very subjective matter, though. "What's the trade-off?" questions Nadeem, a Gung-ho sales professional. Sounds like a session with Dr. Phil McGraw on Oprah, but yes, that's true. For the ones which think the least about planning career and life, they have some set priorities. Rest just spend (or waste) their lives blown with the wind.

Get some ROI on your non-billable time! My friend Vikram , Manager with a leading event management company utilizes his non-billable time to be energized, revived and de-stressed which are also very important. Ashish Pandey, another Sales Manager with India's leading bank says, “the moment you feel you're being asked to stay in office for the sake of it, just shake it off ’cos you’re being taken for granted! Get a life, live it out!”

But for those 'business', 'cost-focussed' people, invest your non-billable time into something else that can get you achieve something. Anything! Just don't let go it waste.

It all boils down to having an objective for your life. Having a Dream to drive your purpose of existence. Find that first, then the usage of Billable and Non-Billable hours is semi-Sorted!

Compensation makes you feel unconfident?

A picture is worth thousand words... so, I won't write anything!

Presenteeism: Clear and Present Danger!

‘Body-present, mind-absent?’ – remember that school-day reprimand from that strict class teacher? Well, even if you don’t, you could probably look around your workplace to understand what exactly that means. In most offices, you will invariably find someone or the other who is “feeling down” with either a headache, a stomach disorder, grogginess or just feeling out of sync with the rest of the world. Outwardly, everything seems fine, but give them a chance to speak to them, and you’ll hear it all. Welcome to the world of a growing breed of professionals – the sort of who are present in office, but not at work! Of course, there is the other type, who’d rather not see the workplace (that could worsen their present condition!), and take a day off at the drop of a hat ;-). The trend of presenteeism is sweeping over India Inc.

Well, nothing to be surprised a great deal about, ‘cos it’s a global phenomenon, and it’s plaguing countries all over Europe and other western countries. But, what’s concerning is that while absenteeism can be easily identified from attendance records, “presenteeism” is not easily discernible. Keeping the differences aside awhile, the point to be driven home is that: In both cases, productivity at the work-places gets drained – visibly in case of absenteeism, invisibly otherwise. Traditionally, absenteeism and such related behaviours are seen as indicators for reduced employee morale and low motivation.

While absenteeism may be dealt with by placing an attendance policy in place, the solution for presenteeism ain’t that simple a formula. A greater problem on that front yet unaddressed is that managers are not ready to probe into the details, and just dismiss them. One of my friends from HR fraternity, Sanjeev Sharma, Zonal Manager, i-Process Services (India) Limited, feels that the reasons for presenteeism can be “stress at work, relationship with the boss, relationship with colleagues, noisy workplace, family problems... and sometimes there are genuine reasons like accidents, sickness etc.”

However, organizations need to become sensitive to employees’ work-life balance and deal with stress and health issues at the workplace.

So, who’s managing you now-a-days?

Well, well, well, that’s quite a thought to ponder over for a little while. We all were managed by our parents when we were kids. Similarly, our school and college life was managed by our teachers and professors respectively.

Of course, when we have had a little freedom we’ve all done some mistakes and learned lessons the hard way.

But what of our career and daily operational issues in work life? Are you the Captain of your career cruise, or, some one else is?

On a positive note this week, let’s reflect on our attitude towards our work, career and life. Ask yourself the following questions—

1. Am I giving my 100% to my work?
2. Am I serious about progressive learning on the job?
3. Am I asking intelligent questions to my seniors?
4. How does my boss rate my work and the quality of it?
5. How do my seniors perceive me as an individual?
6. Have I ever asked for feedback from my boss, seniors or colleagues?
7. Am I so involved with my work that I am ignoring my work relationships?
8. Am I so busy making friends and chatting that I’m ignoring my work?
9. Am I proud of at least 3 contributions to my company?
10. With the current situation, where do I expect myself to be in the next year?

It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and, in a highly dynamic sector like ours, it is an imperative that we’re abreast with the current market scenario, and continuously improve ourselves.

Make your choice today, do you want to manage yourself? Or are you content with others managing you.

Have a productive week ahead!