Posts Tagged ‘ajax’
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Shocked by the decreasing average age of men getting heart attacks, IT industry is realizing the brutal effects of a sedentary lifestyle. There have been cases of young men aged 24 to 32 experiencing cardiac arrest. And so software industry in India is waking up to several health trends in order to prevent itself from heart diseases that creep into their lifestyles uninformed.
The health trends have come in the form of big and small initiatives from IT companies that are now suddenly very concerned about the health of their staff. Obesity is a common health condition among software professionals. It is the biggest drawback of a sedentary routine that eats into the physical activities of people. What are these health trends? And how healthy are they? Let us have a look.
Health Classes: Compulsory health classes have become quite a routine in many IT companies. The biggest advantage is that they are organized in the company premises an hour or so earlier than the usual work hours. As a result, most people have to attend it as the hours are made to count in their pay roll system. This has been by far the most practical way to achieve better health of the employees. These classes include Yoga, dancing, aerobics or simply some stretching exercise. ALW has been doing Office Yoga as part of the compulsory stretching among the staff for the last few years. We make it compulsory for each of the employees to choose a certain time of the day and do some stretching for at least 15 minutes.
Personal trainings: Personal fitness training packages have also become quite in among the IT circles. Many IT companies are tying up with local fitness centers to create packages exclusively designed to suit the work timings of their employees. Some companies have these fitness professionals come to the premises and do the training while others are providing separate fitness vouchers to be used by each employee during the month.
Sport activities: ALW ensures that at least twice a month, the employees get to really sweat it out in some kind of sport activities. Trekking is our favorite way to do that. In the past, we have trekked quite a few hills located around the city. Every member thoroughly enjoys trekking and most members look forward to it every month. During company or festival celebrations, we have cricket or races organized to make people work hard physically.
What started as a corporate health trend is slowly taking shape as a health revolution in the IT world. ALW has been quite proactive in keeping the health of its employees and is keen on setting newer trends in the times to come too.
Tags: ajax, ALW fitness blog, ALW health initiatives, anylinuxwork blog, avoid sedentary life, corporate fitness trends, corporate health, corporate health at ALW, everybody says we're fine, fitness, fitness blog, health, healthy life, healthy trends, IT gets health-conscious. Health-conscious ALW, IT health trends, Magento, mfit, software professionals health, stay fit
Posted in Everybody says we are fit | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
In theory, most national-level IT companies have gymnasiums that offer fitness facilities. However, their work schedules rarely give the employees opportunities at a regular level to really take good advantage of these amenities. The concept of Corporate Health has helped to combat this problem to some extent.
Corporate Health has not been such a new concept abroad. In India too, it has been gaining momentum steadily for the last few years. Corporate Health is a concept of keeping the employees of a company fit and healthy. This involves a fitness company providing group health facilities to employees. The idea is to be able to keep people motivated for fitness and health. When you do activities in group, you are more motivated and inspired. Peer pressure plays a key role in really making people work hard on fitness.
So why must we embrace this concept? If we take a look at a few health reports, we have every reason to go for it. The World Economic Forum noted that 60% of deaths worldwide, in 2005, could be attributed to non-communicable diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. This figure was projected to increase to 77% by 2015.
The reason why more and more companies are buying corporate health programmers is because these help in increasing the work productivity of the employees. Software professionals, otherwise, lead a very unhealthy lifestyle. This, in turn, affects their fitness and finally their productivity. Many companies have found that employees, after taking the corporate health package, had less number of sick leaves during a month.
For the software professionals, however, this can be a two-fold challenge. They must balance their work hours and keep up with the regimen provided by the fitness company in charge. And here’s where the corporate health package comes handy. Each such package is designed to suit the needs of a particular company, hence, it is more feasible for the employees and more practical.
Observations have shown that employees who took up a corporate health program have reduced blood pressure, reduced cholesterol levels, reduced obesity, better posture, decreased stress levels, reduced coronary problems.
AnyLinuxWork promotes the concept of corporate health for the benefit of its employees. It has been running several work place initiatives like Office Yoga during the last two years. The Office Yoga has helped our employees combat body conditions such as bad posture and backaches. Everyone has testified to having a better energy level after they have undergone a few Office Yoga exercises for a few minutes.
Tags: ajax, ALW fitness blog, ALW health initiatives, anylinuxwork blog, avoid sedentary life, corporate fitness trends, corporate health, corporate health at ALW, everybody says we're fine, fitness, fitness blog, health, healthy life, Magento, mfit, software professionals health, stay fit
Posted in Everybody says we are fit | No Comments »
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
One of the much hyped IT trends has been the ‘flexible work-hour-system’. No one cares what you do in the office as long as you complete your work within deadlines. Sounds pretty good in theory. However, in reality this exposes most software professionals to a work schedule which is practically not fixed. A practical implication of this is that most such professionals do not have a certain routine and they often find themselves doing only one thing – work.
The unscheduled lifestyle often takes its toll on health. And no one seems to notice this until much later when most people find themselves taking blood pressure pills. Here’s where AnyLinuxWork stands out. We have been following a fixed work schedule for many months now. And it has proved to be pretty successful so far.
Our objective is to ensure that our team members lead a stress-free life. We want them to have a positive personal life too. At the same time, professionally, it is so important to be able to learn time management in a way that you are able to have time for every priority. Thus, our team members hit work at dot 9 am every day and leave it at 7.30 pm. That way they learn to manage their time well while in the office and get to spend time back home too.
ALW has always believed in having its own ideas and work methodologies. And this system is one such idea that has struck a chord with our developers. People at ALW are more focused towards time now and are learning to manage their priorities well.
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; time management skills; IT trends; ALW changes IT trends
Posted in Company blog | No Comments »
Friday, February 11th, 2011
The latest gossip on the IT-insel world has been what? No prizes for guessing. Stress of course. And the recently released Harvard Business Review has made it all the more clear that stress ‘needs’ a handling. It cannot be dismissed as a mere gimmick or fashionable gossip. It needs to be addressed. If the review were to be believed, stress has a direct effect on an employee’s productivity. Ofcourse, the doctors have been telling us since long that it severely affects our health.
So what’s so much to discuss? Well for one ALW has been following quite a few tips that the Review has recently posted. First, the Review cautions against worrying alone. Instead, it suggests, an employee must talk to peers or someone he/she trusts. Share the burden by talking. And that’s what we do at ALW. Our team members and seniors are like a family. We can spill our heart out to anyone around and this keeps us going through a rough day.
The Happy Working or the Hi5 initiative of ALW has been making a positive difference towards creating a stress-free environment. The latest offering is to bring smiles on everyone’s face. The HR cell recently invited childhood pictures of employees to be submitted at the cell and displayed. The most interesting part was guessing as to who was who. The exercise eventually burst into a riot of laughter as team members cracked jokes about childhood. It was almost unbelievable as to how a little thoughtful deed could make everyone’s day.
ALW work culture has yet another characteristic that sets it apart. We believe in logical analysis of things instead of getting too personal with work. What Harvard has suggested now, we have been practicing for ages. This means that one can easily avoid or beat stress if he/she gets the facts right. Often our worries our not logical. They stem from incomplete pieces of information. At ALW, we never believe anything at first sight. We always try to find out the what, where, when, why and how of a situation to avoid stress later, something that the Review also suggested.
Lastly, ALW team is a happy team. Why? Because we accept disappointments the way we celebrate successes. We usually let it go when it is gone. We don’t regret or worry about it. For us, every experience is a learning experience. And so there’s nothing like a failure at ALW.
Tags: ajax, amazing working environment, AnyLinuxWork, beat stress, bust your stress, client, client delight, desktop exercises, 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, great work culture, happy days, happy employees, happy hours, Happy Working, happy working hours, health, health and fitness, health comes first, health of employees, healthy food, Hi5 initiative, Hi5 minutes, Hi5 moments, how to relieve stress, human resource initiative, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, keep fit, keep healthy, office infrastructure, office space, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular timing, stress free work., stress-busters, stress-free office, work happily, working environment
Posted in Everybody says we are fit | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
It all begins with a small idea. Idea that is a culmination of the then unrealistic imagination and that takes off for a shape and size that get bigger with implementation.
One such idea struck us recently and what timing- the New Year’s. It’s the same old spirit of innovating newer work practices but it’s the newest way to practise the practice.
The newest news in the new at the much new spirit-filled AnyLinuxWork is the Happy Working Campaign kicked off with much zeal on January 4th. It is an HR initiative to maintain a stress-free work environment. More importantly, it’s a campaign to make people love their work, workplace and live a stress-free life in general.
In the words of ALW CEO Vivek Singhal, “I want to see my people enjoy work like never before. I want them enjoy it like it’s their life and enjoy it like it’s their love. I want them to enjoy it without stress. That’s our Happy Working Campaign for the year 2011. “
For older teammates, however, this is not very surprising as we have always believed in and have encouraged a culture of healthy work and healthy life. The only difference this year is that we are going to see it get implemented in deeds and activities. We are determined to ensure that our people are happy at work, not just working for the sake of it or under pressure. The entire year will witness programs on the theme focusing and making people really implement a stress-free work life. Doesn’t that sound exciting?
Well it already generated a lot of enthusiasm among the team mates. The first activity started with the writing on the wall. And what did they write? Well, answers to an interesting question. ALW team mates geared up to think of witty replies to ‘Why a cycle can’t stand alone?’ and painted the ALWS wall with their thoughts. The Happy Working Campaign would have more such events and activities during the year. Watch this space to get more updates.
Tags: ajax, amazing working environment, AnyLinuxWork, beat stress, bust your stress, client, client delight, desktop exercises, 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, great work culture, happy days, happy employees, happy hours, Happy Working, health, health and fitness, health comes first, health of employees, healthy food, how to relieve stress, human resource initiative, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, keep fit, keep healthy, office infrastructure, office space, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular timing, stress-busters, stress-free office, work environment, work stress-free
Posted in Everybody says we are fit | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
The healthiest things in the world are often the simplest too. And the fittest things in the world usually require the least effort. All you need is a great idea and a bunch of ardent friends. That’s what we did a few weeks ago. The AnyLinuxWork Team got together for some real adventure with the organizing of two action-packed events.
The first was a super fitness challenge christened as Tandurusti Ki Pariksha (meaning test of fitness/health). This was a trekking expedition organized in town for the entire team. Since, trekking stimulates our body, we decided to give it a try. And well it wasn’t just a trial, as it turned out. It was quite an effort.
Thus began another great culture at ALW- the culture of adventure sports. The trekking expedition took off at 9 am sharp from the bottom of the famous Ralamandal hill in town. In scorching heat, not to mention the humidity, members truly got the taste of ‘heated trekking’ that day. To top that, there were many other fitness-challenge activities that didn’t let them rest even for a while. There were tugs of War, Skipping and Yoga positions. Team members enthusiastically participated in the event that left them feeling fitter than before.
The second was a picnic to a place of historical significance in the state called Mandu. But that definitely involved the best of all physical exercises i.e walking. The rains on ALW’s picnic provided the perfect setting and added to the adventure. We took care of the littlest details to ensure the trip went great just when it became perfect.
It was as if the weather was favouring us. It was rainy and foggy that added to the beauty and splendour of Mandu’s palaces. The next day we were all thrilled to read in the newspapers that it was declared by MP tourism as the best day to visit the place. During the trip, the excitement of our team members reached its peak as we played games, won prizes and dug into snacks.
While returning the only thing that we found ourselves discussing was the plan of the next fitness expedition! As always, ALW team showed its undying commitment to stay fit and stay healthy.
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 relieve stress, in-between meals, Indian IT company, IndiaSoft, Internet project, IT companies, IT companies in India, IT services, joomla, office infrastructure, open source software company, oversees business, php, physician check up, pleasant, recession, recreation games, regular timing, US client, USA clients, web development projects
Posted in Everybody says we are fit | 1 Comment »
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 »
