Archive for the ‘Office Space’ Category
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
THE whole world is talking about it. Reveling in its success. Participating in candle marches. Presenting notices to government officials. Indian Social Activist Anna Hazaare’s 97-hour long fast finally compelled the government to budge and modify the LokPal Bill (Anti-corruption bill) for good.
After the proverbial win of the Indian Cricket Team, this was the second time when the people of India stood up, shouted and cheered for the right reasons and for the right cause. The youth of India particularly showed enough enthusiasm to participate in Hazaare’s movement and supported him morally. Cities witnessed organizing of candle marches and rallies in support of the right implementation of the Lokpal Bill. And so when the government agreed over a lot of terms and suggestions listed by the activists, it was indeed the victory of the young led by a much older Hazaare.
However, this triggered a buzz at AnyLinuxWork premises. We asked each other: Was this a happy ending? Was this really the climax of the story? After much introspection, we realized it was not. The real story must begin now. What if the government does pass the bill and corruption gets checked realistically in India? Are Indians prepared to be honest in filling up registration forms, admissions, concession certificates and so on without bribing the officials?
Are we prepared to follow the entire process of legal system of administration without short-cuts? And so the battle has not ended for the Indians yet. It is time to say NO to bribery when a traffic policeman catches you without license. It is time we get used to standing in a queue for filing the electricity bill. It’s time when we get accustomed to really giving a driving test before securing a license at the RTO. It’s time we do not bribe an official at the country and town planning department for passing a building map. Team AnyLinuxWork pledges to say NO to bribery whether or not the government officials are corrupt. We believe by doing this, we would be truly supporting the great Gandhian Anna Hazaare in his movement against corruption.
Tags: Anna Hazaare, Anti-corruption bill, anti-corruption wave in India, anylinuxwork and anti-corruption view, corruption in India, Hazaare’s fast, India unites against corruption, Lokpal Bill, say no to bribery
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Hello from the HR desk. Hope you missed us. This month we are so excited to share with you an interesting research conducted by the Stanford University on management practices. We definitely have a reason to brag now. But before that, lets find out what it was.
The said research has measured an increased productivity rate in a company if it adopted good management practices. The research found out that the core set of practices increases the profit and productivity in an organization. During the study, the researchers compared textile industries which adopted few ‘best’ practices to those which didn’t adopt the same. There was an improvement in productivity by 10 percent within a few months of adoption.
And what were these practices? Yeap, almost the same as we do at AnyLinuxWork. Things like incentives based on the performance, clear job assignments and preventive maintenance were also encouraged in an organization. The research even suggested little things like observing, recording and meeting. Ofcourse there can never be a comparison between a textile company and a software company, yet, the principles of good management are quite cosmopolitan and pretty much the same. The practices adopted by the ALW management are well thought-out and properly implemented.
First of all, our team really understands and truly values time. We have encouraged them to smartly work their way up to their targets instead of sitting for late hours or taking work at home. We follow the five-day work module so that everyone gets to have a good time with family and friends. And so an average ALW employee is excited to come back to work on Mondays and that too with a fresh mind and loads of energy.
Secondly, we believe in encouraging our team members to improve quality of their life. We conduct personal grooming sessions from time to time, invite their family members to attend office functions and parties and encourage them towards cultural or creative activities.
Thirdly, our monthly ‘Meri Fitness’ adventures evoke the sports side of our team. We go for trekking, picnics, swing resorts etc so as to make our team keep fit and healthy. In addition, there are desk top exercises being practiced right at the work place apart from educating them on Yoga Asans and other health tips.
And the latest in the list is our Hi5 initiative that deliberately and consciously ensures that our employees are stress-free and they enjoy their work. The Hi5 team keeps organizing fun events at work place to create a friendly and warm environment.
Only last year, we shared with you our several management practices. And now the research seems to only ‘authenticate’ them. Yet, we were the first to know. Yay!
Tags: amazing working environment, AnyLinuxWork, client, client delight, culture, desktop exercises, Employees, Everybody says we’re fit!, fight stress, fitness, fixed office timings, forget boring days, fresh and happy employees, future endeavours, get rid of stress, global meltdown, good management practices, great work culture, happy days, happy employees, happy hours, health of employees, healthy food, Hi5, Hi5 moments, how to fight stress, how to relieve stress, Human resource, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, management practices, meri fitness., nutritious food, office infrastructure, office space, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular health check up, Stanford University Research, stress free work.
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Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Tech town looks pretty upset lately. The obviously visible reason is the rising attrition rates. The attrition rates have gone up to 20% in a quarter’s time in giants like Infosys, HCL, Wipro and others. Organizations are forced to redefine stability. Employers feel cheated. Ironically enough, attrition has entered IT industry during prosperous times.
Even as the worries of attrition keep increasing by leaps and bounds every day, AnyLinuxWork prefers to look at the other side of the picture. Says ALW CEO Vivek Singhal, “There were two options available to organizations during recession. One, staff cutting to save costs and adjust with losses. Two, refuse lay-offs and focus on employee productivity. We chose the latter one.” Instead of resorting to lay-offs, ALW chose to face the situation by employee encouragement through pay hikes. And today most people who have stuck with it are those who value this.
The message is clear. We must adjust and customize depending on the situations but we can never afford to ignore future. We cannot refute the effects of global recession during the past few years on Indian IT industry, being worst hit. Yet it has risen above the troubled waters in record time. Ever since the industry has been sailing on an optimistic ship with the workforce as its strength.
In the midst of this, with attrition hitting the scene, it is difficult to imagine how fast loyalties can shift as a major chunk of workforce leaves for greener pastures. And this is happening to organizations that refused lay-offs during recession and stood by their employees. So here’s the deal. If people who can shift loyalties so fast depart from an organization, it leaves room for the new talent who are ambitious, fresh and open to learning. Attrition, in fact, is creating opportunities for the talented young people with clearly defined professional objectives.
Adds Vivek, “I feel attrition has forced us to reconsider the way we look at a crisis. Ironically, the seeds of destruction are laid in the seed itself. And every such destruction leads to something better. Destruction inevitably leads to construction.” This should be the thought to take home. Shouldn’t it?
Posted in Company blog, Office Space | 34 Comments »
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Those working on the Web World know for sure that time management is a myth, considering that over the web, an hour is almost equal to one minute. Alas, all they have is 24 hours out of which only 9-12 hours allotted for work.
Most of AnyLinuxWork employees too often have a hundred chores running through their heads. He or she has to constantly multi-task the work. Stress is the order of the day and there’s a constant pressure of keeping up with the deadlines.
So how does an average AnyLinuxWork employee balance time? Well, not so easily but intelligently. No cubicle of AnyLinuxWork is ever found with a stack of files or papers or too many diaries. That’s because each employee is taught to manage his tasks not only mentally but also physically. Here’s how:
Avoid Reckless Multitasking: Employees at AnyLinuxWork do not indulge in multi-tasking unless it is truly fruitful. They always keep in mind that multi-tasking without planning may affect the quality of their work. Abhishek Shrivastav, a team member, commutes from Ujjain every day, thus, he is left with no option but to race against time. He shares, “I always time my work so that I am able to finish my assignments by 7.30 pm. If I am before time, I help my colleagues so that we are collectively able to deliver on time. I use my traveling hours (four hours) for reviewing the day’s working and planning the next day’s schedule.”
First things first: Prioritizing comes only when you think about important tasks beforehand. It cannot come spontaneously. Thus, IO employees usually prioritize a Wednesday’s task on a Tuesday evening. This saves time. Says Ashish Zarkar, “I start my day with collecting all my work for the day. Whatever communication I have with the client, I save it in a word file and my daily report simultaneously. I usually pen down all my doubts first before discussing them together with seniors.”
Organize the To-do list: This is what Chetan does on a daily basis. As soon as he reaches office, he takes 10 minutes only to jot down things-to-do during the day. “It feels a different joy altogether when the list keeps reducing with each passing minute as I tick mark the task as ‘done’. Obviously, the top-priority tasks receive the tick sooner than others.” Since he is able to finish all his daily tasks by 7.30 pm, he never misses his gym at 8.30.
Check email on a schedule: If you’ve broken up your tasks into actions, then it’s easy to find the time to read email in between completed actions. Follow the rules: if you can get rid of the email in under 2 minutes, do it. Shares Dilip Prajapat, “I begin my day by checking emails and planning the day accordingly. After lunch I usually chat with clients and schedule any extra work if any. I keep my schedule flexible enough to shift things in case of exigency.”
Keep cross-checking handy: Another IO member Jyoti Rohom has learnt to keep her reference material handy so she saves time in searching it later. She says, “When I get assignment, I first study the related topic, then start coding keeping in mind the deadlines. During my free time at home, I study the reference book. This helps me being ready beforehand.”
This easily explains why AnyLinuxWork is able to meet all its deadlines despite a strict nine-hour work policy. Everyone seems to have adapted to making the best of the allotted time.
Tags: ajax, AnyLinuxWork, Human resource, jquery, office culture, php web development, time management, web develpment
Posted in Office Space | 3 Comments »
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Leaders, some say, are born and not made. However, yet another school of thought keeps fighting off this idea and so we have some real good B-Schools across the country. Most good leaders won’t be able to teach you leadership. That’s simply because more than flaunting leadership, they have practiced it.
Leaders at AnyLinuxWork have one thing in common- they are accessible to everyone. You can walk in to them with ideas, thoughts, doubts, complaints and clues anytime. IO leadership believes in encouraging people to discover their individual goals for their lives. This, in turn, widens the landscape of work at IO adding ever newer dimensions to work culture and work quality.
At Office Space today, lets explore some very interesting qualities of the leaders at AnyLinuxWork. And yes many of these, you will realize, are cultivable.
Effervescence: Leaders at AnyLinuxWork are full of life and have a knack for infusing their energy into others. They are people who have the ability to light up the environment around. All they need is a good joke to start a meeting or just entering a board room with a real good ‘Hello everyone!’.
Amour-propre: This is French for ‘self-love’. IO leaders, however, love work ethics and stick to them. They love the brand IO that they have created and developed over the years. This love translates into their efficiency in traveling any distance to making the brand successful.
Integrity: Jack Welch- the man behind initiatives like Six Sigma quality, e-business and former CEO of General Electric- has more than once proved that you cannot lead unless you have integrity. In his autobiography, Welch shares: “I stuck to some pretty basic ideas that worked for me, integrity being the biggest one.”
At AnyLinuxWork, integrity is almost synonymous to leadership. Our employees get inspired to work with integrity because they have seen our leaders do the same. Our leaders have always been people of strong values and honesty. It is thus no surprise that we see the same values being transferred down to the other levels of leadership. .
Organized life: Infosys Founder Narayan Murthy cautions- ‘workoholism’ must not be aped. A few months ago, IO leaders had shared affinity with this idea and had inspired the rest of the team. As a result, most employees have now cultivated a habit of working smart instead of working more. Our leaders lead a life that emphasizes the importance of inter-personal relationships. They are equally committed to their personal lives. Thus they encourage their subordinates in their personal achievements as well. They have successfully created such an environment at our office that each individual focuses on having a good life and not just professional success. In addition, it is our policy to be mindful of the health and personal life of the employees. Joint celebrations, fitness initiatives, recreation facilities etc are some of the most practical things we do at IO to ensure that each one leads a healthy and happy life.
Complimenting: How easy and handy it comes to point out mistakes. A heart of appreciation, ironically, doesn’t come so easy. However, the art of complimenting is something that is an integral part of the IO work culture. Nothing tastes better than a compliment right out of the horse’s mouth. Apart from an organized system of encouragement through ‘Employee of the Month Award’, IO leaders never miss out on showering words of appreciation to team members even in the smallest of achievements.
Self-domain: Most people keep waiting for ‘the big opportunity’ for exercising their leadership skills. This is definitely a mistake. A good leader leads a team of two as energetically as he does a team of 20. What really matters in leadership is not the size but the spirit of leading. Effective leaders love their domain of work and transmit this feeling in others around them.
We have tried to inculcate this habit of leadership in each employee by making him or her accountable for the work assigned. IO leaders give each member enough freedom to logically take decisions on their respective assignments. As a result, each team member never feels insufficient to deliver his or her best.
These are a few more visible qualities of our leaders apart from many personal qualities that they have like a good character, sportsman’s spirit and a generous heart. The good news is IO provides ample opportunities for cultivating these qualities and practice leadership right from where one is placed. If this can happen at IO, it can happen anywhere. There may be a great leader sleeping inside you. It’s time to wake him up.
Tags: ajax, amazing working environment, AnyLinuxWork, client, client delight, culture, desktop exercises, Employees, Everybody says we’re fit!, fight stress, fixed office timings, forget boring days, fresh and happy employees, future endeavours, get rid of stress, global meltdown, great work culture, happy days, happy employees, happy hours, health of employees, healthy food, how to fight stress, how to relieve stress, Human resource, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, nutritious food, office infrastructure, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular health check up, regular timing, US client, USA clients, web development projects
Posted in Office Space | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
An engineer was asked: How’s life? He said: ‘Oh you mean my life on weekends?’ Unfortunately, most techies in India live their life on weekends. The rest of the time they are practically, mentally and intellectually working their way up to their respective companies.
AnyLinuxWork recently came across an interesting survey that confirms this. According to Liz Ryan, former Fortune 500 HR executive in Business Week, there are many unhealthy HR practices that are prevalent today. But the good news is that IO happens to be an antidote to these HR faux pas.
The ‘Time-off policy’, in Ryan’s article, has been listed as one of the fatal HR policies as it ignores the personal life of the employees and expects them to think about the company 24 hours. At IO, on the other hand, we believe in creating an environment where each individual grows not only professionally but personally as well. The biggest check provided at IO is a strict adherence to working hours i.e from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm.
Employees and clients both have been made to understand the importance of this time that usually results into efficient work, meeting of deadlines and no extra working hours.
In addition, we encourage the employees to live a healthy life through including Office Yoga sessions, desktop exercise guidance etc. The ‘Nirvana’ at IO is an exclusive place reserved for the recreation of our employees who can take a break during the day and listen to music, play and read books.
Another culture that has been inculcated so well at IO is the importance of celebrations. The IO calendar is usually filled with birthday bashes, festival celebrations, New Year party and so on. The idea is to build a common platform and a sense of camaraderie where everyone gets to share his or her life with others.
Yet another fatal HR policy is the lack of right appraisal as per the list. Most HR cells in India would look at appraisals only from the point of view of increments. However, at IO, appraisals are a platform for a healthy growth of our employees. We focus on giving the credit to the right person while also providing him with more challenges to improve in the next tenure.
The overall environment here is filled with positive energy which is the essence of the IO family.
Tags: ajax, amazing working environment, AnyLinuxWork, client, client delight, desktop exercises, Everybody says we’re fit!, fight stress, fixed office timings, forget boring days, fresh and happy employees, future endeavours, get rid of stress, global meltdown, great work culture, happy days, happy employees, happy hours, health of employees, healthy food, how to fight stress, how to relieve stress, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, nutritious food, office infrastructure, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular health check up, regular timing, US client, USA clients, web development projects
Posted in Office Space | 17 Comments »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Hello and a warm welcome to the HR blog space of AnyLinuxWork.com. Human expression finds foremost place in Human Resource Management and we wish to explore this right as much as we can.
Corporate life is full of interesting observations about life in general and professions in particular. The two famous rules of bosses in general that are prevalent in corporate world are: Rule 1: The Boss is always right. Rule 2: If the Boss is wrong, refer to Rule 1.
That’s when the HR intervenes and creates its own set of rules. Rule 1: The Boss is always right. Rule 2: If the Boss is wrong, tell HR manager. Rule 3: If the Boss is still wrong, refer to Rule 1.
Jokes apart, HR happens to be one of the most sought-after careers today and an indispensable part of any organization. HR cell truly bridges the gap and balances the interests of the organization and the employees. Many companies ascribe their HR department with creating a positive environment within.
The HR cell of AnyLinuxWork is no different as it always strives to work in the interest of all. But what separates our HR department from others is the proactiveness of learning from sources outside IO. And that’s when we feel the need of sharing things that we learn from others. Hence, the HR blog space.
This is a platform where we will update our readers with what is happening around the world which might be influencing the Human Resources directly or indirectly. We are equally eager to share our own perspectives on this front with the rest of the world. We shall be back with interesting information, stories, anecdotes, experiences and tales next week. Watch this space!
Tags: ajax, amazing working environment, AnyLinuxWork, client, client delight, desktop exercises, Everybody says we’re fit!, fight stress, fixed office timings, forget boring days, fresh and happy employees, future endeavours, get rid of stress, global meltdown, great work culture, happy days, happy employees, happy hours, health of employees, healthy food, how to fight stress, how to relieve stress, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, nutritious food, office infrastructure, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular health check up, regular timing, US client, USA clients, web development projects
Posted in Office Space | 9 Comments »
