Quitting My Job

A perfect workplace, does not exist. There are few perfect managers and there are no perfect employees. However there are near perfect environments. In a near perfect environment the needs of employees are met and the concerns of management are also met. This can happen in an environment of communication and consideration.

I was wondering that whether I have quit in anger but the answer is 'no'. There are areas of concern which I have addressed in my blog. I have even requested my business head to read it. I have addressed the concerns in written and verbally, without effect.

Things have only been noticed when the water has flowed above the head and mind you this was not a flood but a Tsunami. Quitting is often not the best solution, however. Addressing the problem in an adult manner, accepting my part of the blame and allowing others to admit their imperfections, and I did try with a clarifications document. Though my business head read it...she said that she does not require any clarifications.

My question is why should critical feedback only be given during periodic reviews? Why should assumptions be made rather than taking the bull by the horns and taming it.

"The best reason to quit should be that you found something that pays well, is in your area of interest, and will provide you with a fulfilling reason to want to go to work, all the remainder of your days."

Now where does my scenario fit?

-Communication skills- clarity, timeliness

-Knowledge and skills

-Resourcefulness

-Reliability

-Leadership

Keeping these aside is the consideration that how much I can value add to an organization and how difficult it will be to replace me...am I really worth retaining?

I don't know who will answer these!

Is My Job Miserable?

There is a lot of difference between the two words ‘bad’ and ‘miserable’.

Anybody doing any type of job can be miserable. Suffering from severe Sunday night blues or feeling disgusted coming to office are all symptoms of this. You come home defeated, not wanting to go back and dreading it.

What causes this feeling of miserableness/ unhappiness?

Absence of these 3 important things can make you unhappy at work.

1. Your manager/ boss/ reporting manager has no interest whatsoever in your work and life. Mind you, I have also mentioned life. It is really necessary to know a person in order to bring the best out of him/ her professionally. For example a worker may be sick or having some difficulty, say managing a new born baby. Your manager does not know you or cares about you and ignores you as an individual, as a human.

2. Knowing that your work makes no difference in anybody’s life. Irrelevance, which is a killer. We may not be a doctor or a teacher doing a service to society but even if we know that we are helping others- customers, team members, subordinates, seniors. Not knowing this will make us unhappy.We have to think how our work can value add?

3. When you suffer from, 'Dunno where I am goin syndrome'. No feedback on how we are doing at work. We cannot wait for appraisals just to know how we are doing. Praises and Criticism are required on a regular basis. If we have a mentor figure at office who always gives us an unbiased opinion of our work and who knows what we do and how we do it. Now the question lies how do we get this feedback?

There may be other things as well but statistics reveal that more than 75% people quit jobs because of their managers and not for other reasons like money, better job profile etc.

Tips for Becoming a Gentlemanly/womanly Executive

I read a very nice article which I am copy pasting here. It is on gentlemanly or gentlewomanly manners. I agree 100% with the author and yes I give a lot of importance to quality flirting.

In a recent article in the London Times, William Drew asks, “Is the gentleman a dying breed?”In the piece, Drew quotes Yann Debelle de Montby, brand director at Alfred Dunhill, the tony men’s outfitter. “Being a true gentleman,” he says, “means being gallant and generous. One can be gentle but remain firm, determined and retain a great sense of humour.”
But does the gentleman have a place in today’s go-go, go get-’em business world? Drew thinks yes. “Old-fashioned good manners — holding open doors, standing up when someone enters the room, asking questions of others rather than talking about yourself, ensuring that you compliment your host generously and so on — are an entry point for respectful behavior,” he notes. “But it’s more about your overall manner towards others: how one conducts oneself not only socially, but also in business, in relationships and in public.”
But being a modern-day gentlemen in business is about more than just being nice for nice’s sake, especially when the chips are down. Says luxury goods retailer, Trevor Pickett: “When your back’s against the wall in any industry you fall back on the relationships that you have built with people. You can’t do that if you’ve just screwed them on price, for example. That’s just not the way we do things.”
Drew offers 10 tips for the aspiring modern-day gentlemen (which go equally well for the modern-day gentlewoman):

1. Some things don’t change: say please and thank you and ask questions about other people rather than talk about yourself. I would like to add that, also have the guts to say sorry sincerely if you really are at fault.

2.Be punctual. Tardiness does not make you look important, it turns you into an arrogant incompetent who thinks that his time is more important than other people’s. Avoid giving excuses when you are late, apologise.

3.The modern gentleman cares about the planet. Be environmentally aware (but not obnoxious about it).

4.Open doors for people and stand up when they enter a room, but do this for men as well as women. The modern gentleman doesn’t treat women like porcelain.

5.Be modest. Bragging is distinctly ungentlemanly. Talk about your achievements when required like in interviews.

6.Be a good father. Nothing is less charming than a man who leaves childcare to women. Be a good mother too, office can't be more important than your child.

7.Be honest about wherever you have come from in life. Pretension is spineless.

8.Flirt — with everyone. Good flirting is a form of politeness. Pay compliments and put your companion at ease.

9.Do not phone/text/check your BlackBerry incessantly.

10.Dress tidily. Whatever style you are going for, scruffiness just isn’t in. Also make sure you smell good.

I, for one, shall be doing my level best to flirt with everyone much more often.

Me, myself and Saturday the 9th…

We went on an office outing few days back to Manas Resorts, Pune. I wrote an article on it...and my boss who took the entire training session did not let me take a single pic of hers...very bad!!!


The weather was pleasant with the charismatic breeze blowing all over the water, occasionally becoming strong and gusty. I felt like being on a cruise on a river with the greenery all around fading away into her eyes.

Wake up… wake up you are in the middle of a team building session at Manas resorts. HKPPL is in the growing mode and therefore it is important for the team to realize the dynamics of teamwork and leadership.

It started with the ‘introduce your partner’ session where everyone was provided with a partner and 3 minutes to know about him or her and 1 minute to introduce that person. This was followed by some very interesting games like ‘stepping on the paper’ where it was necessary for a team to move forward and keep their foot on pieces of paper which were very difficult to hold in place.

‘Identify the picture’ again demonstrated the different perceptions scenario. The ‘animal game’ found us all doing ‘bow wow…moo moo, kaa kaa, quack quack’ to identify our team members. Well I was a horse so instead of saying anything I listened to find out that there were only two horse team members including me.

There were two blind- folded games among which one of them required to keep dumb and then how can I forget ‘passing the ball’? The aircraft crash scenario discussion saw us crashing into each other with our opinions.

But we soon settled down to get mesmerized by one of my coworkers playing ‘Zara zara behekta hai’ from ‘Rehna hai tere dil mein’ on the flute.

Soon it was time to leave and we extended our team building sessions to boat paddling and go-karting. Though I missed her presence, she had left lasting memories of a day conducted so well with perfect time management.

The importance of the day and the significance of the training session will stay deeply etched in my memories as I aspire to follow whatever I have learnt which I can pass to others. And yes I have taken a lot of pictures, but then you don’t always need a camera for it.