Parting

The last post from this system, from this location, from this office! Sigh....

As expected, getting out of this organization was in not the usual "will miss you my workstation, laptop, my tea cup, (or ocassionally) a colleague" drama style, but the last few pangs of separation pain are slowly making their presence felt.

Technology Glitches

I am not so proud of my incapability in understanding technology. But I dont have to worry too much. I guess I am not so unique in this category and that makes me happy. Considering I am working for an IT company, (though my professional background has no connection to IT whatsoever) I should at least pretend to understand the latest gadgets, the facilities that information technology has made feasible. Recently, a friend of mine had a catchy tune in her mobile which I wanted transferred to mine. She asked if I had Bluetooth in my mobile. I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about Bluetooth, but I have at least heard of the name, and the wonders it does to people in transferring pictures and songs from PC to mobile, vice versa and similar other options. I said I didn’t have it in my phone. She gave me that saintly smile which translated to you-dunce-are-you-for-real type. I had a brainwave just then – I asked her:
“Could you transfer it to Potter’s mobile? He sure has Bluetooth”
“Yeah, sure”
“Ok, I will give you his number; send it to him right now”
“Okay… but, where is he?”
“Where else, in his office”
At this point, she looked up and I swear, what I saw was horror in her eyes. She then struggled to keep a straight face, and slowly said “the mobile has to be within a range of a hundred meters to transfer any data”
And all I could do was smile back at her, thinking “a thousand apologies*”


( *a reference to a dialogue by a Punjabi character in the serial ‘Mind Your Language’ whenever he made a stupid mistake; something I had always found quite silly)

Conversation with a TBC

They are exotic.
They are TBC - true blue consultants.

Me: Hey what happened to your transfer plan? Getting your L1visa?
TBC: Kind of...
Me: Oh Yeah? Cool!...
TBC: No, Will be done soon.
Me: Oh, thats great, when is the interview?
TBC: No, the documents are not yet done.
Me: Oh, so have you applied for it?
TBC: No, will do it now, I have to get approval from the boss.
Me: So, have you spoken to him for the final go?
TBC:No, but will be discussing it in a week or so..

Me: Oh! umm.. that's great!...(totally stumped and searching for a change of topic)

The lessons learnt...

A team meeting involving the super boss around always reminds me of my college days – more specifically, times during group discussions (GDs). I can draw parallels at every point.

Talking continuously, ignoring what the others are saying and going ahead with one’s point, those points being completely pointless, trying to impress no one in particular and every one at the same time, and redoubling efforts at appearing intelligent at the cost of other’s mistakes – all in the hope that the guy-who-matters noticed the efforts.

Of course, I was talking about the GD that occurs when campus placements are made.
It definitely differs from the one during a project completion in college that is hardly alive with one’s blank stares, doodling in note books and hoping some one else does finishes the work for them. Same goes for internal team meetings.

People (read MBAs) never grow up, do they?

Thoughtlessness - It's Official

I know, it’s Monday morning. Nobody wants to come early to the office. As I wait for the bus at another location of our office, I wonder how the bus will accommodate these many late comers (that includes me today) There are loads of them – brand new Nike shoes, Esprit bags, oodles of make up and bleached manes.

After two false starts (they were vehicles of other organizations) our bright red office bus appeared. All this while, people were in various stages of trance – blank stares, mobile games, and mumblings on the phone. The red devil seemed to have an invisible power shaking every soul out of slumber. Chaos reigned.

As if propelled by rocket fuel, every employee rushed towards to board the bus that has just one door. There were gentle, not-so-gentle, downright rude pushes and shoves. Made up faces lost their delicate sandals, resulting in high pitched screeches and an outpour of audible curses. Bags were pulled, pushed and some even went through the danger of snapping. The stylish accented English came down to the ugly lashings of Hindi and the vernacular. The cultured men turned to hooligans in spilt of a second sparing no thoughts towards the PYTs they were humoring. Traveling in a BTS bus would have been easier.

I am zapped. Amazed at this sudden turn of the events.
Everybody knew they are heading towards the same destination. They also knew there were limited seats. Despite the rush, most people had to stand since the bus was already full. Is it worth all that commotion? So much of an inconvenience to one and all. Would it not make sense to apply breaks to the enthusiasm one shows in finding that unavailable empty seat?
It appears education and propriety come into picture only in conference rooms, meetings with clients or when one is in a situation favorable to self.

Of Responses and Responsibilities

The art of pitching for new projects has always fascinated me. I mean, there must be really an element of luck that each IT company is blessed with, when handling these RFIs (Request for Information documents) or RFPs (Request for Proposal) from the prospective client. How else could one explain the miracles of clinching deals with the kind of information that people provide in these pages?

The people who pitch in for new projects are the ones who know the least about the requirements and yet talk most about them. The 'gyan' that goes into the RFP documents comes from an unknown, and till then, unwanted entity sitting in a cubicle trying to act busy. Typically, the Field Force person (in simple words – sales guy) who will be 'leading' this initiative would sleep on these RFPs for the major part of the deadline and wake up the morning before to whip up the offshore people. These harried souls in turn hurry up to fill up the document with unnecessary details that no one would believe except the duds sitting in the prospective client's place. (That is, if we are fortunate to have them strategically positioned to handle these situations)

I have learnt that a seemingly ‘routine’ task such as this has helped the poor souls in interpreting and understanding bigger and more important things in life. You don’t believe it? Ha!! Then take a look at this.

Ethics. How wonderful it is to learn the art of balancing the shred of truth with the loads of lies and yet feel good at the end of the day! "Hey, we did not lie outright! We just didn’t give the complete picture, and it’s anyway not possible in an RFI." As regards to facing the consequences of these incomplete pictures that one has painted, it would a brave "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it." This is of course, if and when one does manage to squeeze into the next qualifying round.

Networking. Information seeking becomes an all time absorbing activity. This would mean calling up unknown strangers in the role of project managers, consultants and leads in every verticals and horizontals for an itsy bit of data. You would be lucky if they have just finished their lunches and are in a benevolent mood. God help you if they have just come out of a losing argument with their bosses.

The so-called soft skills. "How come you are answering this RFP? This is completely our domain. We should be getting involved at this point of time." By the time you convince them that you are handling only one aspect of the RFP and the rest 'may' be already with one of their own, you would have perspired enough to flood your cubicle.

Negotiation. The skill of extracting maximum information from others while providing minimum in return (that too most of the time, irrelevant) can be developed only when one is dealing with the fellow company men. You would be surprised at the level of resistance to part with information that is not even personal! Wait, don’t crib, the same goes for parting with your side of information. The already harassed seeker is given strict orders not to pass on anything (as if they are national security secrets) and still gain immense insights from the other.

After all the circus, one finally gets to send out the document working overtime, overnight. It is another issue altogether that the sales guys blooped the process of addressing it to the 'right' contact person, offending their sense of hierarchy and costing you the project.

That’s ok! Tomorrow is another day with another new beginning to the old process.

The fate of a skilled worker

I happened to read this post discussing on ever increasing demand for skilled workers. In the post, the blogger writes about how other industries can benefit by nurturing skilled workers and creating opportunities for them so as to keep this more as a long term benefit.

Considering the examples were taken, let me speak about the industry that I am associated with - the IT industry. Yes, people here are skilled; the working part, I am not so sure. Of course, this is not generalizing the entire population of this industry but a surprisingly sizable chunk of them. I am ready to put up a fight against those who would say this does not apply at all.

I have seen enough instances of skilled workforce sitting idle for lack of projects, lack of direction in the work, lack of 'space' and yes, don’t be surprised, lack of desktops. And these are not in some struggling, small firms. The idea is to hoard. Whether they are required or not at the moment, we have people who are doing nothing yet highly skilled. The general argument is that a healthy reserve is a must for all company and its the norm in the industry. I would agree to that. But how long should that reserve go on in the 'reserve' mode? And how are these skilled people who are in the reserve, contributing to the general growth of the industry?

Unfortunately, the work environment in most of the companies does not promote creativity during idle hours, for the very reason that I mentioned above – 'lack of many things' that would enable doing any kind of work. There would be people no doubt, highly ambitious, who would make use of this time to come up with ground breaking ideas. But let me assure you they are few and far between.

I guess the benefit occurs in the initial stages of development in an industry. Hiring skilled force is not a big deal but utilizing them, nurturing them and creating opportunities for them is the problem. As the industry grows, the inefficiencies grow too and at present, it's the opportunity creation that is lagging behind. And an idling skilled workforce is one of the manifestations of the inefficiency.
Yes, this is just one side of the argument, but an argument it is.

"Medaam, life is so costly"

Sometimes, one does wonder about the time, situation and the appropriateness for having a "sensible chat". The time and the situation change the condition accordingly – it could be absolutely horrendous or perfectly sensible. Life Insurance taught me that.

Scenario: Me getting hounded by an insurance agent disguised as our photocopier assistant.

The line was growing longer and longer every time I peeked into the admin room.
Reason: one working photocopying machine with an assistant to help out.
Time: Last day to complete the investment proofs for tax purpose.
I, belonging to the greater population that believes in Just In Time concept, gingerly joined the queue. Every time I heard a groan in the line I feared for the life of photocopying machine. Finally after forty minutes of PTIO (productive-time-in the-office) spent on shuffling legs trying to avoid insensitive sods that moved back and forth like fourth standard kids during prayer, I got a glimpse of the machine. And the man.

If you are in a tearing hurry, fearing your monster of a boss to appear out of nowhere, what would you do? - Give the man your document, avoid eye contact and ask him for 2 copies phataaphat. I did EXACTLY that.
Sigh.. I don’t know what part of my sentence provoked him to start a conversation with me. Looked like he had the faculty of divyadrishti to identify the potential bakras.

He: Medaam, ee varshaddu tax papersaa? (Papers for this year's tax?)
Me: (Avoiding his gaze) Umm…
He: Full amount aitha medaam? (Have you invested for the full amount?)
Me: (Highly embarrassed) Umm no…
He: Medaam, our life very important no? Life is so costly (I am sure he meant precious, but I didn’t have the gall to check), we working so hardly for our family...

I was growing confused - have I met a Socrates Reincarnated?
In an instant, it became all too clear.

He: Medaam, insurence madidra? LIC policy thagondbidi (Have you insured yourself? Take an LIC policy)
Me: Sir, I am getting late, can you give my copies?
He: Medaam, thumba easy (very easy)... Jest one form filling medaam..
Other JITians are already getting restless - some whispering curses in a not-so-low tone and some stifling giggles at my condition
Me: (Going red in the face and almost begging) I have to run for a meeting now; I will come back and collect the form ok?
He: (With knotted eyebrows and curled up mouth) Eveningaa medaam? I meeting you here only medaam..
Me: (Almost running) yes yes...
He: Medaam, See you at 5..... I waiting…

I could see scandalous assumptions that the growing group of JITians was making, having heard only the last sentence. I wanted to jump out of the second floor at that instant and end it all, but for the 'Life is Costly' statement.

Ever since, I sneak around with furtive glances scanning the horizon before I leave my unit.