Is Corporate fidelity foolishness?

I have been working with the same organization for the past 7.5 years. Multiple reasons:

1. No confidence in the rest of the IT companies.
2. 10% fidelity to the company that offered me the first job.
3. A conservative IT professional who outweighs risks to opportunities.

But lately I am realizing that my risk-taking ability is on the downward trend. I have been just thinking about how can I grow in the same ladder that I stepped into 7 years back. Is that good or bad? I don't know. Is it a good strategy to root your career on a single company, no matter how good the company is?

I really don't have an answer. What do you think?

Managers and Moms

I work with a lot of managers, who just TALK or RANT. They are so impressive with their theoretical palaver that sometimes you feel they are there in that position for some good reason. Now, 2 days later, when the tsunami effect subsides, that's when you realise what they left behind in your mind is what a tsunami would leave behind. A pile of litter. What happens now is that you need to clean what they left behind and again have to crave for what you were looking for.

I will give you an example. Lets assume your day starts with a catastrophe. Going to work. And you want to come over this noxious pattern. So you decide to approach your manager. You have done the first mistake. Why? Simple. When you are sick, do you go and tell your mom that you are sick or does she automatically find out you are sick? Rarely the former happens. A manager should be able to figure out that his or her team member is going through a tough phase and should proactively come and talk. If they didn't, then you are approaching a person who doesn't care till you are completely bruised.

Now that your manager doesn't have his sensory glands on his high priority list, you decide to walk up to him and call for a quick meeting. So you both enter into this meeting room and when your eyes meet, you carry that nasty smile which tells that you are not happy and you need some help. So you start pouring out your angry magma. Now its the time for our manager to show that he cares for you and he will bring back the euphoria that you lacked in your work life. What he does. He starts ranting. He would rant from his experience or from SELF-HELP books that he would have read when he was like you. He would bring all his management degree lessons into play. And then finally he would quote so many examples, that you would feel wow.

Now, try this. After 2 days, go back to him and tell him that you are in the same state as you were previously(you would be most of the times). See what he does. If he pushes off saying "I am little busy. Will catch you later", you know whether you approached the right person or not.

Is it sane to expect a manager to be so empathetic? Yes, why not.

Let me know your opinions.

Bureaucracy Unlimited

Over the past 4 weeks, I have been writing a document that measures up to 90 pages.
Value: Nothing. Reason: Somebody's Pleasure from Size. Profit: Pleasure from size. Loss: 4 weeks. And the stress from writing a MS Word document.

I often find myself in a position where I need to do stuff to satiate somebody else's pleasures. Why? Bureaucratic nature of the organizations that we work for. Why cant you say "No" when you want to? Why are we threatened by the feeling that if I say "No" today, I might be looked upon as a "Non-leverage able resource" tomorrow? Do you work for an organization that gives you the space to say "No" and still appreciates you for saying that? Do you spend a lot of time doing stuff that really doesn't matter? Are you wrong or the organization that you work for is wrong?

Are you working for an organization where Bureaucracy is unlimited, where you work for quenching somebody else's thirst and not yours? If you are, then it is time for you to wake up from the deep sleep.

Even a stopped clock is right twice in a day.BS.

How many of us rule out not-so-good (corporate term for BS) programmers from our projects after our first encounter with them? A lot of us. I did. There was this programmer who asked me how to calculate ratios & percentages. I didn't want him in my second project. Was my decision correct? Probably right at that moment. And I would argue that it is correct today also.

One of my bosses argued that we should give time for him to improve. Why? Wasn't he given 12 years at school to learn basics & fundamentals? If he didn't learn that time, he will not learn now also. He might learn ratios & percentages now. But he would miss on some other fundamental.

A stopped clock is right twice a day and is wrong 1338 times.

Arrogance is okay

"I want to travel on site, else I will put in my papers".
"I don't want to take up this project, because it is not my interest"
"How can I work on a support project? I am a creator"

We hear these often from our own vocal chords. I am a big proponent of letting your tongue speak your mind. I encourage people who openly tell what they want, even if it means it would cause a 1000 m deep crater in your heart. I encourage them to be arrogant. You never know if it is arrogance or self confidence. In my perspective, it is a fine line.

My reasoning to this argument arises for a simple IF-THEN-ELSE clause statement. Let me explain it below.

IF (WANT_TO_TRAVEL_ONSITE=TRUE and REQUEST=IMMEDIATE and TELL_IT_OUT = TRUE)
{
IF(REQUEST = ACCEPTED)
THEN YOU_ARE_HAPPY;
ORGANIZATION_IS_NEITHER_HAPPY_NOR_SAD;
ELSE
{
YOU_THREATEN_TO_RESIGN;
IF(YOU=EXCELLENT_ASSET)
{
RESIGNATION = DENIED;
YOU_ARE_PERMITTED_TO_TRAVEL_ONSITE;
YOU_ARE_HAPPY;
ORGANIZATION_IS_NEITHER_HAPPY_NOR_SAD;
}
IF(YOU= NOT_SO_EXCELLENT_ASSET)
{
RESIGNATION = ACCEPTED;
YOU_QUIT;
YOU_ARE_NOT_HAPPY;
ORGANIZATION_IS_NEITHER_HAPPY_NOR_SAD;
}
}


}
IF (WANT_TO_TRAVEL_ONSITE=TRUE and REQUEST=IMMEDIATE and TELL_IT_OUT = FALSE)
{
YOU_ARE_NOT_HAPPY;
ORGANIZATION_IS_NEITHER_HAPPY_NOR_SAD;
}

From the above funny logic, it looks like the probability of you being happy is when you tell it out and demand what you want (arrogance might be a corporate term). Because the organization is neither going to be happy nor sad by your demands. The logic can be hacked in many different ways, but I believe to explain something very abstract, a simple rule can highlight the most probable event. So arrogance is okay, demanding what you want is okay. Because the end result should be the one that makes you happy.

Having attrition problems? Try a nice gesture

Last week, Airtel sent me a personalized calendar. I felt special. I know that I would stick with Airtel services for the rest of the year. I started thinking when was the last time I showed a nice gesture to my team members. I wasn't able to recollect. Long time. Probably never did.

My contemplation was if I show a nice gesture all of a sudden, wont it be too artificial? Wont it be too corporate-ish? Probably yes. But who cares. I knew that Airtel sent me to make me special and also to make me glued to them for one more year, although I have been enjoying their services.

A nice gesture could be anything. I know of a manager who picks his team member and drops him regularly (though it is off-route from him). Show it regularly and probably you don't have to worry too much about attrition or productivity loss.

Is cribbing good?

"Man, the job sucks!!!"
"My PM is God's revenge on humanity"
"What is the status update?"...2 hours later..."What is the status update?"...
"I slog. WTF, I get just 15% hike and he gets a 15.5% hike"

"Not possible..."..."The problem is..." "The issues are...." "The estimates are screwed up...".... the morning sermon from the majority of the IT population.

Aren't we so used to this cribbing? Aren't we so diligent in taking tea breaks to vent our frustration on the system, people, strategies, processes, etc..? Yes. We are. I do. I do a lot.

But one fine day (today), I realized, that cribbing does help you to squeeze out the stacked up grief from your system. Its a good thing. Do it everyday. Allocate time out for cribbing. Keep squeezing out till it empties out (just like a toothpaste). One day, you will be so bored of cribbing, that the natural tendency is for you to start thinking about solutions. You have to crib. If you don't crib, you wont even know what you are unhappy with.

My suggestion would be for organizations to have scheduled cribbing sessions/meetings. It might work. The reason is because as techies, we hate these meetings so much, that we would start hating these cribbing meetings and soon we might not crib at all or if we are super-cribbers we would start cribbing about the cribbing sessions...Who knows...

I am going to give it a try.

Help, dont scare

Unusually, my inbox was flooded with "alert" (spam) emails from the Performance Appraisal system. The system demands that I fill up my objectives of the year before I start the year and get it reviewed with my Appraiser at the closure of the year and assess where I stand. Decent logic. Does it work? It hasn't worked for me. And I am sure lots of my colleagues would agree with me. So, what is the problem? One of the cases where a theorem failed to deliver a concrete proof, but was still awarded a Nobel prize. I will explain it in detail.

The theorem is "Penning down your goals at the start of the year/project and assessing at the end of the year/project makes your company understand your performance better and helps you grow in the corporate ladder". Decent theorem, though I am not fully convinced.

The proof is "Use a system which keeps alerting (scaring) you saying that you dont fill up, your increments/hikes are screwed". The solution is paralyzing. What you end up doing is copy some default objectives from somewhere, customize it to what you know you can do or did (rather than what you want to do) and at the end of the year/project, proudly claim that you have done it. The appraiser appraises you, gives you a rating and the system normalizes and then you get your increment. You step up in the corporate ladder.

Isnt it scary? Did your Mom ever use such a system to bring you up? But still she knew exactly what you wanted to do, what you did and what she wanted you to do. There wouldnt be any formal session where you would sit and review your progress at the end of the year. Argument could be my mom never had 10,000 kids. Counter argument is "Then design one, which solves, not scares". Design a system which mimics a Mom's nurturing mechanism.