Archive for the ‘Office Space’ Category

Five must-haves for all employees

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Wonder why someone gets promoted and you don’t? Or why that guy has a spark that no one has. Why is it that two people who work in the same capacity almost differ starkly in their approaches and eventually their performances?

The key lies in understanding  a few things about ourselves as humans and a few things that are must-haves for all employees. No matter what kind of person you are, you have to accept that in a company you work in a team. There’s no discounting the capacities of each team member. Given that all of us have our backgrounds to give credit to when it comes to learning and adapting. Yet, over a period of time we all have a human trait of adapting to circumstances. As a result, no excuse is valid enough to not try harder than what you already are.

Employees who are great performers at work, regardless of their personality types, have the following six traits. Have a look:

Get it straight in your head: Forget what your boss thinks of your task or what your subordinates expect out of you. Is the task, duty or position that you are assigned with, clear enough in your own head? This can be the difference between winning and losing. Most successful performers have two things very clear in their heads: their own goals for themselves and their company’s expectations from them.

Corporate attitude: Imagine visiting a government office to get a document done. What are the responses? I don’t know. It’s not my job. You wait for a week. You came at the wrong counter. Do you ever get the answers you want? No. Well, that’s why it’s a government job. Understand that this government-job attitude will not help you in a corporate job. If you are a person who gives excuses for not getting things done, you can never really get things done. A good employees will find out whatever it takes to explore alternatives when Plan A fails.

Value v/s effort: A good performer is aware of his own value for a certain work and if required would be willing to fight his rights. Don’t be a people-pleaser. Do the right thing and you will see things turning your way. Understand that if you are doing your job well, nobody can ever replace you or fire you. Follow the rules and make new when recognized. Be ready to show your work/presentation to whoever and whenever essential.

Networking: We don’t mean online social networking. We mean networking with real people at your workplace. A good employee has ‘contacts’ in nearly every department of his office. He does this through talking to people. It doesn’t mean you have to invite people of every department for dinner. It only means you use coffee breaks to know people and pass on a kind word or two.

Do your thing: Try not replicate or follow your successful colleague. Think of your own ways of solving a problem or tackling a situation. Know and explore newer ways of doing things more creatively. If you want to be different, you have to think differently from the rest of the crowd.

If you are in IT, you are an introvert!

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

A techie is asocial. If not that, he is an introvert. And why is that? Noted psychologist Dr Laurie Helgoe says it’s because the work of IT professionals suits the introverts best. For instance, they mostly sit before a computer and not people. They interface more with technology than people. They are mostly hooked to cubicles. And hence they are happy in their own worlds.

So where’s the problem? Well, quite a few times, organizations want people to be team players and introversion doesn’t help. What is ironic is that IT culture promotes introversion indirectly and expects people to be with others. The fact remains that quite a few number of extroverts are also IT professionals. Does that mean they prosper more in their jobs? Absolutely not. Research has shown that a great team is a mix of both introverts and extroverts. And getting a label of ‘introvert’ is not harmful at all. It’s a personality type and no introvert must try to change that.

Introverts have a distinct advantage. Since they don’t usually seek out the approval of the people, they are focused on their tasks. The fact that they are introverts doesn’t mean they are not good in communication. Whenever required to speak, introverts turn out to be very good communicators too. The idea is to change the perception of people around them about them.

One good thing about IT industry is you will not go unnoticed if you are good at your work. Your work speaks for yourself. So introverts must never feel insecure about their counterparts for their networking skills. In a typical IT set-up, an introvert can do networking online if not face to face. He has an equal chance of influencing people through his networking. All he probably needs to learn is a few points of courtesies to show at the right places. Other than that, he is good enough to compete with extroverts.

Introverts must keep in mind that they don’t need to talk to every person in their company. They just need to be cordial with people who are directly related to their work, team or project. For the rest of the staff, they can get by with some basic courtesy.

Dr Helgoe says that introverts do not have the opposite qualities that the extroverts have. For example, extroverts are described as energetic. This doesn’t mean introverts are lethargic. The whole perception that extroverts have a quality and introverts have the lack of it, is false. An introvert is also an energetic person, he or she just doesn’t share the excitement with others.

The bottom line is introverts must never feel that they have to be extroverts to get ahead in their careers. IT world may be brutally professional but that is also something which goes in favour of introverts. They will always be rewarded for their focus and accuracy. They need to learn to enjoy their introversion and instead of trying to copy the extroverts, they must adapt to change and be open to learning.

IT leadership: Women need aggression!

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

IF you are a girl working in an IT industry, you ought to know some facts. These facts would make you appreciate the industry better, look out for leadership opportunities and be a little more aggressive about your career goals.

Know that you are working in a $100 billion industry in the country. And today, IT working has come out clean towards encouraging good and efficient professionals, regardless of the gender. Smart work is being paid off. Gender biases have almost disappeared from the top while are on the verge of extinction at the individual levels. Women are accepted as leaders, if they work efficiently and act objectively.

Isn’t that all you need in an IT industry? Yet, the only thing that most women in India lack is the will. Many women leaders in the IT industry have advised the women against this attitude. On one hand, men are ready to change their age-old perspectives on women leadership, on the other, women in India don’t seem be prepared. They still think that if they display their aspirations, they would be dubbed as desperate or ambitious.

What exactly is wrong in being an ambitious woman? You cannot go ahead if you don’t have ambitions and aspirations. And in order that the rest of the world takes notice and lets you pursue your goals, it’s important to make them known. Office Space gives all the women out there in the IT industry, a little insight to change attitude and to go for it.

Start well: If you see yourself as a leader ten years down the line, start taking initiatives right from the time when you are a trainee. These initiatives may be as tiny as an HR task of organizing birthday parties or a big one like writing weekly team reports. Cultivate habits of leadership from the beginning and soon they become your personality traits.

Be professional: Don’t’ give your colleagues a chance to excuse you for being a woman. If you made a mistake, own it and try to correct it. Never hide behind a male senior or a female colleague. Always come out clean and show that you don’t want sympathy and wish to be treated equally.

Develop a no-favours attitude: Try to avoid or directly refuse any favours that come your way because you are a woman or new in the city or a fresher. Develop an attitude of saying a direct No to favours. These favours, once taken, become both your attitude and your general impression at work. This is detrimental to your growth and will always keep you dependent on your male counterparts.

Be aggressive: What if your male counterparts think you are too aggressive for a woman? How does it matter? Why only a woman should try to be less aggressive and never the men? Thus, always be frank about where you see yourself, where you wish to go and what exactly you wish to do. This will evoke not only respect but also camaraderie and will go a long way in developing your leadership skills.

Be objective: You don’t need to wait to become a team leader till you start being impartial. Even while dealing with your colleagues, try to be objective and impartial. You cannot expect the world to accept you as a leader when in most of your career life, you never tried to be objective. Stop favouring friends or female colleagues. Develop accountability at a personal level and see it become a trend.

Women have a natural skill of multi-tasking. Only that they don’t show it. This is such a great asset in IT leadership. So keep that in mind and soar in the skies.

A techie’s 2013 resolutions!

Monday, January 21st, 2013

NEW Year is boring without resolutions regardless of their fulfillment. We, at ALW, believe in making lots of resolutions not only one. That is because when you have plenty, you are bound to work on at least a few of them. That would help in prioritizing and makes you really think what is more important, what is not. Two, it gives us a renewed energy to work towards bigger goals. Here are a few suggestions as you make new year resolutions this year:

One positive personal goal: Ask yourself this question: What is the one thing that I so desperately want to change in me this year? What is that urgent need that demands a change? These questions will help you come up with quite a few smaller goals, which in turn, would help you get that one thing that you want to change.

Professional goals: Make big and small professional targets for yourself this year. Make deliberate efforts towards them. These targets may not be necessary. Make them nevertheless. That’s because among these targets, you will have achieved a few professional goals that you were not able to do last year. Make lots of them so that you achieve some of them during the year.

Team goals: Whether you are a team member or a team leader, set some targets for your team. Share them with your team. In the process of accepting or rejecting your targets, the team would come up with a common goal. Bingo! You got a resolution for 2013!

Fun goals: Every year, note some such goals in your diary that involve things to be done just for sheer fun. It may be anything – learning a new language, learning a new skill, or a vocation like dancing; going to places; exploring city; making more friends. Just about anything. Fun goals will keep you going throughout the year and give you something to look forward to.

Technology goals: You should read a lot about your industry. This year, try to learn about one new technology or one new technical skill to keep yourself abreast with the rest of the IT world.

Collective goals: Make some collective goals with your family or friends or siblings that are close to you. A collective goal may just be taking a trip to a certain place or going to disco every week. But this adds a lot of fun elements and since you make them collectively, you are able to keep each other motivated.

Romantic goal: If you are married, plan a trip with your spouse to a romantic spot. If you are single, plan a trip alone to a romantic spot. You deserve romance. Make it a goal this year.

If you think resolutions should not be made out of fear of failure, you are not adventurous enough. Resolutions and goals give us something to look forward to. They add a lot of meaning to a drab life. So go for them.

Say NO to bribery in day-to-day life!

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.

See, I told ya!

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!

Is there a counterpoint to attrition?

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?

Making time management a reality

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.

School of Leadership

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.

Live life IO size!

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.