Tag Archives: office

The Changed Perspective

General 6 Comments

Hello my readers! So after a long time, here I am, again writing about office statistics. Office is a weird spooky home. Some enjoy and some not. Maximum people work for their living and some work for their love for work. Love for work? Huh? Yes, I have met just 1 person who said that he loves to work and doesn’t care about salary and he is not doing this for his living. Well, that person is rich and hence I feel that must be his attitude. Well, a very good attitude though. He is learning and also experiencing office life. So what’s there in experiencing office life? Just to learn how to work? Well, other than work we learn politics, bitching and most important color changing relationships and rising attitude towards our colleagues.

When I started with my job, I was told not to keep any close relationships with anyone. Not to make best friends. Just be neutral to all. Well, I didn’t work much there but in my second company, I somewhat made personal friends. Because my seniors used to get involved in everyone’s personal life. I felt that good because he helped not only in a professional way but also in a personal way. I even saw him helping financially when one of my colleagues got shocking news. And hence, staying with him, I too got involved personally with all other colleagues.

But the days were not good, when my senior resigned. He literally picked up only those people who were not married and took them along with him in the new company. This left me sad and angry because I was not on that list. Since I was getting married that year. Those chosen colleagues slowly took a step back because they didn’t want to reveal that they too will resign. This turned the relationships into just “Hi” and “hello.” That evening, I traveled back home holding my tears back. Soon, I too resigned from that company. That time I realized that keeping personal relationships with colleagues was totally wrong. Because I was not getting any excitement at work. I was not at all enjoying my work. Three things I learned. First, You help but see to it that you get your returns. Second, You help but don’t expect at all and third, Don’t help at all.

As it is rightly said by Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, “Love your job. But don’t love your company. Because you may not know when your company stops loving you”. Same is the case with your colleagues as well. Don’t love your colleague. You may not know when they will start changing their attitude because of work or appraisals or resignations. Well, In one of my company, I suddenly got someone’s handover and when asked upon, he said, “tomorrow is my last day”. Well that guy used to sit beside me. We used to go for tea everyday, almost 2-3 times a day. We laughed, cracked jokes and this is what I came to know just before his last day. I was like, “why hide from me? Though we are in one team yet your work is different from mine”. And his reply was, “Just like that.” I was, what is this “just like that?” What do you mean by “Just like that?” Aren’t we friends? We share a good relationship. If you are getting a bigger opportunity then obviously I will be happy. Then what is this “Just like that?”. So his last day and of course last day of our friendship. Till date, we are not at all in touch.

I have even seen colleagues changing their attitude just on appraisal. Truth is, back in those days our salary used to be less. I started working for 10k per month . But now freshers get 30k to 40K per month. So obviously when the appraisal comes, the older employees, who started with a low salary, even if they get a good hike, their salary is always low compared to freshers one. and here, the attitude changes. Sometimes the attitude of the senior changes and sometimes the junior changes. But when the attitude of junior changes then the whole team suffers because of the professional-turned-personnel fights.

So? What’s the solution for this? Well, we all have this solution in our rules or contract of joining a company. That DON’T DISCLOSE YOUR SALARY TO YOUR COLLEAGUE. We always ignore almost all the rules and regulations of the company. But if you think in a different way, then you will come to know the reason why this rule is implemented. When your colleague asks your salary, tell them politely that you don’t disclose your salary to anybody other than your family members. Even If you get appraisal, don’t show your appraisal letter, don’t disclose how much percent hike you got and don’t show your happiness. If you maintain this throughout your professional life, you will be neutral to all your colleagues. Some companies even have this rule of not sharing computer passwords. In any case, if you had to share then change your password next moment and keep all your work in some secret folder. Don’t keep that folder on the desktop. And never keep login details on the office laptop. If for some reason, you had a personal talk with your boss, please don’t discuss that with others. Colleagues will always take this in a negative way. So only important things should be discussed with your colleagues.

And last but not the least, work should be communicated through official E-Mails only. Not by talks. This is the most important thing. When needed, you can show it as evidence. 

So, try these things. Be neutral to all. Happy Work life. Happy office. Prayers that the needy get a job.

Interrogation to Connect

General 2 Comments

To face the real world, we have to come out from our houses. We have to see what’s going around us. Watching news channels, and learning about politics is not real world. To know what politics is, we have to join office. But to join the office we have to study or specialize in something. Then we have to give interviews. But now-a-days before going for an interview, companies do take tests like aptitude, technical, logical reasoning etc. Lucky are those who get clear in the first round and who get a job in their first interview itself.

I have done BE in IT (Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology).  So, I have to go through this aptitude and logical test. Very few companies were there, where they used to give importance to only technical interviews and not these tests. I was bored of this aptitude test because Maths was very perplexing . And I never used to try  to solve those questions and hence I never went for the second round. I was eagerly waiting for such a company who directly takes technical interviews because I am good in my programming language. Finally, I got one and luckily I got a job in the first round itself. Days, months , years passed and then it was time to change the job due to obvious reasons.

Then came the real interviews and the real interviewer in my life.  Rather, I will say Interrogation. Because I was a little bit experienced. The interviewer started asking tricky questions. and if my answer was right, then he used to trick that question again and again, till I didn’t give up. Yes, I gave up many times. 

All companies follow their format. and to be honest every company has work, no one is free enough to learn new things or to do new experiments in their work. If the work is set, then nobody wants to touch or re-construct the code. Everyone is scared to do so. What if something goes wrong? What if the code gives an error? Every programmer’s nightmare is the same. The code works till Thursday and suddenly stops on Friday making weekend worse and again suddenly works on Monday. Still I don’t know the science or black magic behind this. But this is true. So, As I said, all companies follow their own coding format and hence we do RnD in those structures only. But the interviewer of the next company is never happy and hence he always ask out-of-office-syllabus questions. Even though his company follows the same code structure, still he wants us to learn more and explore more. Many Companies passed, asking out-of-office-syllabus questions making me learn again from scratch.  But as I gave more and more interviews, I became more excellent in taking interviews rather than giving interviews.

Many years passed now it was my turn to be an interviewer. So I also started asking out-of-office questions. But to be honest, I was more lenient because all I wanted was logic. For syntax we have our god and that is Google. So whenever I ask a question, I always see whether the candidate is aware of the syntax or not. and if yes, then I don’t go in detail, I directly tell them ,Its Ok . for that google is there to help us out. What I ask is for logic. and yes, if the candidate is experienced then I asked tricky questions. I Trick the question again and again. till the candidate doesn’t give up.

But now-a-days the candidates are so smart they directly “ask” us to change the question and make us ask  questions according to their experience. Such was one candidate, I came across. I started with a simple question just to understand whether he has basic knowledge or not. But he refused to answer and said, “these are not my-type of questions. I am an experienced person, I don’t code and I manage a team.” to which I said, “ok. Will ask those questions too but you have to answer a few so that I can tell my boss that you are good enough to go for the next round. He agreed and I promoted him to the next round. But he was not aware that my boss was none other than the CEO of the company. So my CEO started  giving him scenarios where his team failed or for some reason the candidate didn’t check, thinking this is a simple one and it turned out to be a horrible nightmare. He gave a rubbish answer and said he will never fail to check the result. Still My CEO asked the same scenario but the candidate somewhat refused to give an answer. The CEO blasted him and rejected him at once. Later, through my contacts I found out that the candidate was not respected by his juniors and everyone wanted him to leave the company.

Years passed, and for some obvious reason I had to take a break from my work. But now the break is so big that the first question the interviewer asks is  – “What have you done in these years?”  I used to give honest answers. But then I came across this rude interviewer who started giving me lectures that I wasted many years doing nothing. I told him my current schedule and told him that I don’t get time to do the rest of the stuff. If given work, obviously I have to perform but since I don’t have office work and hence my mind is diverted to some other work. But the same question was asked again and again by other interviewers too. Finally, I got pissed off and told one of my interviewers, “I have studied my work. Please ask those or ask me technical questions and please judge me on that. Rather than judging me for not doing any work in these years”. Obviously my interview was not so good, But I was surprised to see the way he rejected me. He didn’t reject me based on my knowledge, He rejected me saying that you don’t have a helping hand? How can you handle both office and personal life. To which my reply was, “Thanks for wasting my n your precious time. Thanks alot”and I hung up the call.

The work culture in India is so bad that companies prefer men rather than women. If the woman gets married then the growth of women in professional life gets halted and hence many women go into business. I have seen this and experienced this too. One of my colleagues literally told me that he doesn’t want any women in his team because we women take holidays for obvious reasons. Here, I didn’t choose to fight but I told him to express this same view to HR. He was literally given the last warning by HR. Women were hired in his team, but they all resigned because he did not behave properly with them. But this guy was here, and HR only resigned giving the explanation that no women will be willing to stay here.

So this is the stage of women. Where we have to adjust and also have to give an explanation of why we adjusted. Where we have to learn new things but also have to give an explanation of why we chose to learn those things only. Where we have to teach others but also have to give an explanation of why we don’t teach the other things. Explanation! Explanation! An Interrogation with an Explanation. 

So dear interviewer, If we have taken a break from work, and want to take-off our career then please don’t go into the details of what we did in those years. Please ask questions related to work and see to it you chose the right candidate by asking relevant questions. After all, It is your work, your company’s work that we have to do.  It is our lookout how we will handle personal and office life. It is our look out whether to keep the baby with us or to keep them in day care. If we don’t ask for extra benefits, then please don’t judge us on our career-break. 

And please Respect Her. 

The comfort zone

General, Story Teller 10 Comments

This one is totally fictional. It does not belong to anyone’s life. Thought of writing a story today. So here it goes,

It’s been a long time, I haven’t met these two characters. Let’s call them as Himmy n Herry. Himmy n Herry was very passionate about their work. They were the best. No, they were neither lovers, nor husband-wife. They were just hi-hello friends. They used to meet for work, talk about their work, so completely professional.

My Last Day at work

My Last day at work

One day, don’t know what came to Himmy’s mind, he decided to quit job. So he gave his resignation. He didn’t met Herry at his last day of work, because they were just professional friends. But Herry didn’t had knowledge of this. After few days, Herry started searching Himmy in office and then she found out that he has already serve his notice period. Herry was like, “ok fine. Then whom should I ask for my work?” And she didn’t care about Himmy at all. But it was uncomfortable for her to work with this new guy. But Why?? Slowly, Herry started losing interest in her job. And then she too decided to quit.

While searching for the new job, she searched Himmy on professional social media. There she came to know that Himmy has started his own company. Though there was no vacancy in his company, still she applied for the job. Surprisingly Himmy gave her offer letter and that too without interview.

Here’s the question arises why we always want to work with known person n not with the new person? That new guy was not bad. His working style was different and yes, everyone’s working style is different. Then why she chose to work under Himmy n not with the new one.?

“Understanding n comfort zone”.. Right?? Yes, this is the actual reason. People will not see how big your company is. If there is a understanding n Comfort zone then surely no one will leave you and your company. Don’t keep your head down and work. It’s completely wrong. People out here easily take advantage. If you have that working skill, then no company will reject you.