On The Job

Thank heavens, I didn't personalize my workstation

Taru Bahl — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:20:00 GMT

When informal witty mails from the business head to bring order to the madness that existed on table tops did not bring desired results, a creative HR announcement came in the shape of a competition for the best kept workstation with tempting cash coupons as prizes. Printouts of power point presentations (often incomprehensible), pens (that never work), Post-its and markers sat uncomfortably with tiffin boxes, biscuit cartons (always empty) and random books (rarely read) on most desks.

Oh, there were eager beavers who bowed to the diktat. Pretty teddys, photo frames, crystal flower vases, colourful graffiti, crayon sketches by toddlers, feng shui bamboo shoots and aesthetic artifacts were brought from home to be placed at strategic angles for maximum impact. You suddenly knew the marital and familial status of colleagues – who was married, who had children and who holidayed where last summer. But hold on, there were some who insisted on letting their desks 'be'. Their rationale: It's a juvenile way of taming us. It challenges our intelligence and we shan't relent.

Anyhow, prizes were awarded and photographs of winning desks sent out on mail. Some felt sheepish, saying, "It felt as if one had surprise guests over and the house was at its messiest."

What did I do? I played it safe. Just kept the desk neat but did not personalize it. Somehow couldn't bring myself to doing it. No family pictures on the soft board, cartoons with funny asides that reflected my work style or inspiring quotations that created an impression about me. What was it that made me desist from doing so? It seemed like a fairly harmless thing and surely it would mean a brighter more vibrant work area. Maybe it was fear of exposing the person I was? Perhaps I thought by keeping it neutral, I was being professional? Maybe it was a reflex action that prevented me from hurt (!). Or maybe I was just too busy doing what I was meant to do – work, which is why I was there in the first place. The intelligent part of me wanted to go with the last option.

Well, whatever, it made sure that I did not hit the roof when management decided to shift our workstations to across an entire hallway. We knew we would be moved sometime – but where exactly one didn't quite know. So while a lot of folks were flummoxed with the move, some even going as far as correlating seating positions with a certain power structure, yours truly settled in asap. After the first few tentative steps to see where the new place was, all that I was interested was in seeing if my computer was operational and if mail ids were configured right. The attachment to the work place was confined to only that – to be able to work without interruption.

And somewhere I was glad I hadn't personalized my workstation. For then, there would have been some attachment to the physicality of the place that I had been allotted to sit and spend the better part of my day. Now, the way it is, its just a work area, nothing more, nothing less. No attachment, no hurt. Bingo.

P.S: Can you think of some interesting personalized objects that you have seen on people's desks. Let me tell you ones which I found, well a bit strange: A former lady boss had her husband's laminated 20X20 picture positioned, not facing her, but the door! So as soon as you entered her cabin, you saw it. And there was another of a former male colleague who pasted photos of his wife and kid, not on a beach vacation but on a sprawling king size bed in their master bedroom! Of course the bed was fancy, linen classy and the backdrop of the apartment stylish, but what was the point he was trying to make was a bit lost on me.

Adding to the post

As the discussion to workstations warms up on day 2 of this post, I am tempted to add Bilal, a dear friend's response. He has sent visuals of a Microsoft initiative (which part of the world, one is not sure) that allows employees to work while commuting to and from work. How welcome is the move and how much work actually gets done while people are all wired and connected is a question worth getting answers to.

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Twiddling your fingers on the bench?

Poornima Mohandas — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:05:00 GMT

One day at a time: the diary of an employee on the bench was fun to write, hopefully to read as well. Here’s a more sober side of being on the bench in a tech company.

-What to do when on the bench?

The day you get on the bench find out who the resource management group head is. He is the person in charge of allocating people to projects. Take him out for lunch and find out what skills are in demand. If your skills don’t match, can you re-skill yourself? Where does the company have open positions and past due positions i.e., positions in which a person was needed two days back.

-Don’t sit idle.

Whatever you do don’t sit idle and expect things to fall in your lap. Use your networking skills to find out about new projects etc. It always helps to have a good network with managers, a few mentors, other teams, the human resources team and even the finance team so that you know who to call. Market yourself.

-How long is too long on the bench?

Anything above 60 days is considered too long on the bench. It typically means that your skill sets don’t match your company’s requirements. It is time to job hunt.

-When attending an interview should one reveal that one is on the bench?

There is no need to volunteer the information but if asked it is best to tell the truth, in this age of methodical reference checks.

These tips have been compiled based on conversation with HR managers.

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… But Hari Sadu commands more respect

Taru Bahl — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:12:00 GMT

You wouldn't ever want to work for Hari Sadu (the character made famous in the naukri.com advertisement). Not even if he showered you with freebies and perks. "H for Hitler, A for arrogant, R for rascal..." is the kind of boss you'd like to permanently erase from memory, but is invariably top recall whenever you bump into old colleagues.

Journalist friends were recently talking of a resident editor of a media house 'gifting' Maruti cars to senior reporters and how the euphoria post such a generous gesture wore off real quick. The journos deposited the car keys and bid adieu to what they felt was a 'toxic set up'. The issue here was the editor, whose tongue-lashings had taken their toll. Fed up of constantly monitoring her mood over SMSs, they had decided to surrender the 'gift' and walk free.

Interestingly, there were two groups of journalists from the said organization -one that had been at the receiving end of her uncharitable largesse and the other that escaped it. Either way, they talked about incidents through the entire evening - animated and excited they laughed uproariously recounting moments when they nearly turned murderers.

A couple even mentioned how being part of her team taught them to "persevere", "push the bar of suffering torture", "muster the courage to say No" and the toughest of all - letting peace of mind win over practical realities of earning daily bread and being a slave to the EMI trap. A job was after all just a job, not meant to consume your whole life at the altar of a crabby and unreasonable boss to whom you were just a robotic body meant to perform and deliver, never an individual with feelings, family problems and sensitivities.

There is something about bad bosses-they may be lazy enough to pile their entire work on you, they may be shameless in walking away with all the credit for what you have done, they may be monsters when it comes to micro-managing and they may be pathological liars, conveniently backtracking on commitments made by them, but one thing they are not is being forgettable. Nah! It's the good guys - the ones who mentor, who are kind and considerate, who don't want their king-sized egos constantly pandered to, who nurture teams, who also work and not just "network" and who recognize what you are good at, assigning you tasks that tap that talent instead of thrusting things that are not up your street -who rarely find place in our conversations.

Now the question is, if good guys make good bosses why don't we remember them? What do you attribute this reverse psychology to? Is it because many of us, instead of counting our blessings, hone the meticulous habit of airing grievances and howling about them constantly? Or is it because we take the good boss for granted and lap up his good gestures as just rewards for our hard work? If you look carefully, you will see that most of our responses in the work environment stem from a 'fear factor'-fear of losing a job, of not being promoted, of not getting an extra increment and of being sidelined-all of which perhaps contribute in making us remember the person/s who put the fear of god in us.

Capturing this dichotomous situation is a recent survey by Ajilon Finance, a New Jersey-based accounting and financial staffing company that found 79% workers respecting their bosses a great deal. This inspite of 90% of the US workforce being subjected to abusive behaviour at some time! Experts feel that the respect, even if it be grudgingly so, is largely because the workplace tyrant has managed to not let his position be threatened. Since he was either never censured or was promoted inspite of his domineering ways, it added to his 'halo' of success. This only made the tales on the office circuit spin harder. You love to hate him but you also love to talk about him, almost all the time.

Our obsession with bad bosses is so deeply entrenched that a popular US website during its yearly 'Bad Boss contests' is flooded with entries recounting specific episodes of bad boss behaviour http://www.workingamerica.org/badboss

The outpouring seems almost cathartic, beating tales of horrid mothers-in-law and even the wife bashing that happens in the Santa Banta jokes.

Readers might recall the character of Miranda Priestly, the ultimate monster boss, played to perfection by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. An HR site has deconstructed the story and characters to come up with pointers on how the assistant who lands the job actually did not grasp the cues during the interview. Had she done that, she could have avoided the nightmarish situation she landed herself in. This and other Boss tips can be had through an interesting read on http://www.bigbadboss.com/DEVIL_WEARS_PRADA.html

Indians are supposed to be sincere workers making boss behaviour that much more central to our mental and emotional well-being. Go ahead and shoot some bad and good boss stories without naming organizations and individuals and sticking to episodic recollections. It might just make our workplaces more bearable.

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Missing my Amrikan Durga Puja...

S. Mitra Kalita — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:41:00 GMT

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd move to India, find myself in my favourite festive season ... and missing the US. Here's why: We NRIs have mastered the art of being conveniently religious. So we worship on Sundays, force our kids into Hindu and Hindi classes on Saturdays and schedule aartis and anjalis on nonworking days. This week, with Puja smack in the middle of the week, I just can't get away from the duties of work and home to do justice to dear Durga... This season, this looks like the closest I'll get. Last year, I went home to Assam, where you can't escape puja. The year before, I ventured to New Delhi's Bong Bastion of CR Park. But heightened security has dashed those plans. And no, I am not afraid of random bombs. But because time is precious, I will not stand in line for hours while my car's hood and dickey is checked to enter the parking lot... It is literally the security keeping me away. My mom, who lives in New Jersey, has the luxury of working all week and going to perform all the rites -- saptami, ashtami, etc etc -- in one day. Cheating, you say? What's an NRI without a little hypocrisy?

Anyone else worshiping their laptops this season? Say a little prayer for me...

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looking for a recession proof skill? Sell wedding clothes

Aruna Viswanatha — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:29:00 GMT

My sister is getting married next summer, but since she lives in the U.S. and I'm the only family member in India, I'm the one doing most of the shopping. I've spent months going to sari shops in Delhi and invitation printers in Bangalore. I've scoured Hyderabad for matching bangles, and visited and revisited tailors to stitch blouses. So last week, when I went to a showroom in Delhi's Khan Market, it was with the idea that it would be the last major purchase I would need to make. I bought one beautiful gold silk and lace dress for her there last month, and decided to get a similar one made for myself in a deep red or orange. The idea was an indulgence; for the fraction of the price a designer gown might cost in the U.S., we could have complementary outfits for her reception party. As soon as I got to the shop, though, I knew I was in trouble. The woman who runs the showroom quickly got the sketches for my dress out of the way. Within minutes, she was showing me new pieces that had come in, and those that had moved to the clearance rack. She knew my style well enough that, when I went to pick something up that showed initial promise, she told me not to bother. After trying on, and considering buying, tops that were well out of my price range, I realized I should go before I did much more damage to my bank card. It was then that she pulled out one last lehnga. It was a hush-hush piece she had just marked down by 50%, but didn't put out, she said, because she wanted to control who it went to. A day later, the lehnga also went on my bank card.

This is all just a really round about way of getting to my real point: being an ace saleswoman (or salesman) means you can probably coast through whatever economic turbulence is headed our way. I wrote a story earlier this year about sales being the ultimate recession proof skill. “In any company, you have to sell a service or a product,” said E. Balaji, who heads Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. “These skills are valuable irrespective of the sector you operate in, and any industry will need that kind of capability.” I can vouch for its value first hand.

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Ramadoss' ban can improve your CAT score

Aparna Kalra — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:18:00 GMT

Guess who health minister Anbumani Ramadoss had in mind when he pushed for a ban on smoking in public places? Not his bete noire Shah Rukh Khan, but those hard-working students toiling away to score high in the CAT test to be held in November. That's what some feel, at least on pagalguy.com, an online community for the business school set. A user on the site feels the smoking ban is a god-send for CAT aspirants. His tip: reduce smoking during test prep days, especially between 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon to avoid the urge during the high-stakes exam.

The CAT, which opens the door to the IIMs and several other top-notch institutes, has long been revered, backed by an industrious test prep sector. Most students have some rituals or the other. A friend who graduated from IIM Ahmedabad watched Bond films as part of his preparation. The interview panel was impressed with his score; and his varied interests.

A no to smoking seems to be a healthy ritual to follow. But a disgruntled colleague who is miffed by the ban says a smoking room in the examination centres is not a bad idea!

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When a superpower gets less super, less powerful?

S. Mitra Kalita — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:07:00 GMT

I, superwoman, am back but not feeling so super today. Jet-lagged is more like it. But as my column today discusses, the feeling of an America in decline is quite palpable. Everyone is talking about it. And there is a lot of fear in the air there.

How does this relate to our jobs in India? In a lot of ways. In the midst of my jet lag, a cousin called me at 3:30am and said clients keep deferring projects to Q1 or else making other excuses that seem stall tactics to him. He is really worried. Especially as wages in India's so-called back offices have gone up, he sees a threat in laid-off financial services workers willing to do jobs for a lot less, even $30 an hour.

The wage issue will bite India in the you-know-what. From what I gathered in my conversations with Americans this past week, a lot of them are willing to take a pay cut if it means job security and also health care. Remember, for a family of four, the only thing scarier than losing wealth is losing health (forgive the cliche). So tell me what your companies are doing to stay competitive. I think back to the experts over the last few years who warned India not to tout the wage wagon as much as the quality of workers and the ability to offer 24X7 services and scale up quickly.

I have only been back for 18 hours or so, thus can't speak to the feeling in this muggy Indian autumn... yet. So help me out and tell me what the buzz is on your job.

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B-school student? Then compete for a job

Aparna Kalra — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:21:00 GMT

Competitions and quizzes have always been around on b-school campuses but more recruiters are launching such competitions to identify talent, and promise a job. September seems to be the favourite month for these events and b-schools are buzzing with the competition rage. MTV, on campuses for the first time with a contest, has got a request to extend its deadline; another first contest -- by Mahindra -- has got a massive response.

A venerable and sought-after recruiter, Hindustan Unilever, also launched its marketing contest this month on 10 campuses including JBIMS, Mumbai and XLRI, Jamshedpur. 380 teams of 3 students each have signed-up. Students can access HUL's on-campus activities though its campus portal after an on-line registration.

If you are a b-school student, it makes sense to form a team and participate in your favourite recruiter's contest. Even when recruiters are not promising a pre-placement interview or direct job as a prize, these competitions are used to zero-in on the cream of a batch. Rememebr, recruiting companies are not flying-in their top brass to judge these competitions for nothing! Or flying-out winning teams to their headquarters, which in Mahindra's case is Mumbai. Most of the time, it is the ideal way to break bread with a company's CEO. She will remember you, and your CV, when she is down for the final placement season.

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Where spouses are vetted...

Aparna Kalra — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:56:00 GMT

Earlier this month, I wrote about impressing the boss's spouse in times where the personal and official mix. The New York Times has weighed in with jobs where not only candidates but spouses are also vetted (although in certain states like New York a board of directors must desist from even asking a job applicant's marital status). These are jobs with a significant 'social' nature where wining and dining are the norm. In what instances, I wondered, would jobs in India require a spouse to be vetted? Art gallery owners, event organisers, PR professionals, high-ups in the corporate side of Bollywood and entertainment come to mind when one thinks of jobs with a heavy dose of socialising. A colleague suggests lobbyists and arms-dealers as well though I have never schmoozed with them.

Here Neerja Birla lends support to husband Kumar Mangalam at one of his retail roll-outs in Mumbai:

(Photo: Economic Times, shot by PTI.)

But do companies ever think of compensating hard-working spouses? The NYT story gives an instance of a company which cossetted the spouse along with the candidate. I know a friend who got an annual phone-call from the company her husband worked in to choose household electronics for her home: the gadgets formed her husband's bonus. She also got something more intangible but much more important: assistance from her husband's employers in choosing domestic help; housekeepers and maids were scrutinised and kept ready for my friend's house. A 'bonus' for the spouse, I think.

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Wanted old hands!

Rajeshwari Sharma — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:23:00 GMT

The other day my father asked me if I could help him with creating his resume. It was a perfectly normal request but coming from a 63-year-old man, who has been really enjoying his post-retirement life- dividing time between Kolkata and New Delhi with my mum for company, was a bit of a shock. Before I could fully recover, dad shrugged his shoulders and said: "I basically want to check out what job options do I have at this age and with my kind of experience."
Soon I discovered that the germ of this idea came from his insurer ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. The company had sent a mail last week mentioning the launch of a job portal www.dignitysecondcareers.org, which provides placement and counseling services for senior citizens.
The job portal has been floated in association with Mumbai-based NGO Dignity Foundation, which works for the elderly. The portal has both part-time and full time jobs in the corporate sector as well as the social sector segment. Currently the jobsite has three employers- manufacturer of custom and branded playing cards TMCARDS DOT COM, law firm DSK Legal and ICICI Bank.
I am not sure whether dad would finally upload his resume considering that in the last one year he has expressed desire to join a dance class, write a book, take up cookery lessons among many other things only to move on to a brighter pursuit the very next day.
Do let me know if you managed to float your resume and crack the job interview too.

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Covet thy colleague's ... real estate?

S. Mitra Kalita — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:06:00 GMT

Today's column married what has been The Topic in this capital -- the global financial crisis and the DDA lottery. Although on the latter, I think we all submitted our cheques and have moved forward with life. The former seems like we will be facing a fallout for months,possibly years to come. Have been getting differing feedback (check out the comments below the story) but I do have a slightly offbeat question to relate this to this blog. Does anyone toil in a workplace that suffers from constant real estate envy? Does how much one paid for their flat, or even rent dominate meetings and discussions? Do you feel judged by whether you own--and where? If you are inheriting a tonne of property from your working-class parents who just happened to plan a little better, do you shirk from the spotlight when real estate is mentioned?

These are all things I noticed in the real estate boom in the US--andn have started to see in India also. There becomes this peer pressure almost to buy buy buy. But like I said in today's piece, let's hope we aren't kissing our money bye bye bye.

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IIM Ahmedabad: Sympathy for Lehman (or the batch of 2009)?

Aparna Kalra — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:59:00 GMT

Students at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, flooded by calls on Wall Street's bloodbath including two from this reporter, have issued a statement on the trouble at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, "to express our solidarity with two of our long standing recruiting partners and wish them well in their hour of distress". But behind the carefully-worded press release, which reveals that the two firms hired 11 students in 2008, 28 in 2007 and 20 in 2006 (in a batch size of 200-220), is the hope that placements (and salaries) in 2009 will be business-as-usual, an optimism that the tectonic shifts in the U.S. financial system do not justify.

An informal chat that I had with a business school student said campuses were abuzz on Monday, with several students joking about chucking the finance stream. Though it is too soon to panic -- Indian business schools, especially the top ones, produce too small a number of graduates for supply to exceed demand -- times will be tough as Aruna Viswanatha reported on the week-end in Mint. Business schools, including IIMs, will innovate to woo new recruiters.

Dynamic Sourav Mukherji, teacher in-charge of placements at the IIM in Bangalore, who never takes a stair at a time when he can take two, put a ban on students discussing salaries following a giddy placement season in 2006 when on-campus salary offers (including allowances) touched Rs 1 crore. Now that smaller, leaner investment banks, and scarcer jobs in finance come about, as predicted in the New York Times, students will be grateful that Mukherji's gag order is still in place. The teacher, who obviously knows about business cycles, has taught his students a lesson: It is never good to crow in the good times, because in tough times you have no choice but to keep quiet.

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Supermom, sexy or sexist?

S. Mitra Kalita — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:24:00 GMT

There's a debate waging over Sarah Palin on another blog run by an organization with which I am quite familiar, or at least used to be. One reader posted my last week's column comparing Palin to India's own Mayawati, which triggered this comment. Here's an excerpt:

"To call a working woman, a 'Superwoman' is almost insulting. Do we call working fathers a 'Superman'? I worked all the decades that I lived in the U.S... the 70s, 80s and 90s. I brought up children too. Let me tell you it was extremely rough. When Indian women called me a 'superwoman', I felt insulted. I felt they were just snubbing me because I was up before dawn and went to bed in the small hours of the morning and had no time to socialize as they did -- the lunch parties, the coffee parties, the dinner parties. I always worked as a professional. But did these people who casually threw a remark of a 'superwoman' understand what I was going through? Did they understand the sacrifices?"

I won't pretend to understand such sacrifices (although some sound very familiar) but her larger point is worth pondering... Is it an insult to call working women "SUPERwoman?"

Perhaps in the US, where the comment above comes from and where a handful of men might perhaps be equally liberated, but in India, I can't think of another word to describe almost every working woman I know.

In fact, until I moved to India, I did not know the meaning of superwoman. I assure you that if there one breed of woman who deserves the superwoman label, it is in India. And don't worry, there are very few men here I'd call "superman." Consider the words of Pritam Singh, the former director of the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon: “Indian men are not psychologically prepared to accept women as real co-working partners. In their mind, if women are working, they should still play the role of a housewife.”

Regular readers of my column know I have written a lot about this but here are some recaps:

Females here struggle to even get out of the womb.

Then they contend with second-class citizen status in the little and big ways: maybe they get less rotis one day, maybe they don't get to go to school. Even the wealthy ones deal with messages from Disney telling them to remain little Jasmines in waiting.

They are asked to define themselves early on -- and then constantly - as someone's daughter, then wife. Then they deal with sexual harassment on the job--with very little recourse in the law. They put themselves on parade to find the perfect husband. Then when they find him, they fast to show their gratitude. (There are a few exceptions, but even they need a good talking to, pretty often.) And while India has leaped so quickly to move from extended family to the nuclear system, marriage has yet to undergo the same makeover. Support and follow his dreams. Forget even talking about sex, baby.

It sounds like we're pretty beaten up but guess who our own worst critics are: Ourselves.

I found a handful of supermen--once. In the waiting room of the Mrs. India contest. But every day, I come upon a whole lot more women who are managing to do it all. That's worth celebrating. So call me Mrs. India or Superwoman, a feminist or feminine. I don't think that's the debate we need to have in India... I'm with the Confederation of Indian Industry's conclusion on this one: “The agenda should now be to work on the Indian man.”

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Premchand Palety here

Premchand Palety — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:02:00 GMT

I have gone through some of the mails that our readers sent regarding the survey.At the outset I would like to clarify that the prime objective of this survey is to elevate the standards of management education.We are not doing this to perpetuate brand myths but to create new brands based on their actual performance.B-schools have been evaluated against 55 broad and sub parameters .We give maximum weightage to intellectual capital which includes , number of permanent faculty and their research output.The detailed methodology is available here. Its quite possible that some B-schools have not done well against placement parameter but have done really well against other parameters like intellectual capital and industry interface, so they may be ranked above some 'bigger' brands.For those who give maximum importance to placements , we have given maximum , minimum and average salary figures of different schools.

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Discussion on MBA rankings - join us today!

S. Mitra Kalita — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:21:00 GMT

We have gotten lots of feedback to our MBA issue and welcome more of it. Check out the very long list of comments here and keep them coming. A reminder that Premchand Palety, director of C-fore, which conducted the rankings, will be online with me at 4pm today to discuss them at this link.

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