Posts Tagged ‘anylinuxwork blog’

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.

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Does skipping breakfast make you a typical techie?

Friday, April 27th, 2012

SEVEN bad habits of typical techies! This should be the next title of a bestseller. Unfortunately every software engineer who has a full-time job in India is caught in a cobweb of work-home-work-promotion-work. In the process, he cultivates some vices or habits that are anything but healthy.

Vices is technically not our department. So we shall head towards health. If you are a techie, you already know what we are saying. You probably have already started counting a few things that go wrong every day of your life. Time to face it dude!

Here’s a checklist of your bad habits that are wreaking havoc on your health, and you don’t even know it.

No breakfast mornings: How many of your mornings are ‘plain tea mornings’ or ‘black coffee mornings’? If their number is more than three a week, you are already in trouble. Breakfast, as most experts will tell you, is the most important meal of the day. It’s even okay to miss your dinner sometimes, but almost NEVER okay to skip breakfast. In the morning, your metabolism needs re-fuelling. If this doesn’t happen, it gives birth to acidity followed by headache. While tea or caffeine can prevent that headache temporarily, you are paving way for cardiovascular diseases in the times to come. Resolve today. Start eating breakfast. Go for a full glass of milk or a big jug of juice, if you are in a hurry. Add that by munching an easy-to-cook bread toast. Eat something in the morning. Your body needs it.

Unscheduled eating: Monday’s dinner is usually late, isn’t it? How late? Past 9? Bad. Do you lunch every day at the same time or does it vary? If yes, time to change that too. The reason why we are pushing for regular meal times is because it keeps the metabolic rate up. As a result, you don’t suffer from gas and acidity – something which is often the effect of keeping an empty stomach for a long time.

Dehydrated? : If there’s one golden health rule for a techie, it is this: drink as much water as possible. Why? It keeps you hydrated and keeps up the body fluid as you are having a sedentary routine. If you don’t drink enough water, it becomes a leading cause of indigestion, constipation, gas, increased hunger pangs, dehydration. And female techies, lack of water makes your skin look very dull. Visit the water cooler often. Avoid very cold water, as it does not quench thirst. And do not substitute water with a coke, it’s equally unhealthy.

Compensation on weekends: Of course you can hog once in a while but every weekend especially when you have had a very erratic meal times during the week can be very dangerous. All this accompanied by smoking and hard drinks add to the damage you are doing to your body. In fact, keep the weekends for sweet salads, juices, ice creams and home made less-calorie cakes instead of oily food and alcohol.

Two Cs: Coke and Coffee in access amounts are yet another typical of a techie. Long working hours sometimes make it almost impossible to survive without some vice. Since alcohol is not allowed in offices, people quickly turn to these two unhealthy drinks. These are leading agents of acidity, gas and lack of appetite. These can be very easily replaced with fresh fruit juices that are readily available in office canteens.

Easier said than done? Well then choose between doing and dying.

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Why we kick-start our day with Green Tea?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

CHAI. Refreshing as the winter wind. Tempting as a paani puri . An intoxicating aroma swims in the air. First sip oozes the ‘Aha’ moment. Such are the charms of chai.

At ALW premises, however, the proverbial Indian Chai comes in a green flavor. Start afresh is the protocol here. And that doesn’t happen unless we dip into the scented feel of Green Tea that travels all the way to our cubicle and hems it up.

Of course it never tries to woo the lovers of traditional chai, yet manages to convince them of its benefits particularly when they start their day with it. Green Tea, in fact, today has become a great substitute to many other unhealthy beverages like coffee, which is unhealthier than the much-loved chai. And since the latter usually is so readily available at homes anyway, we bring in some refreshingly healthy option every morning for the Team.

For one, Green Tea is rich in many health nutrients. Just like Chai, it has a direct connection with your heart. Here’s how. Green Tea has flavonoids (epigallocatechin ) gal late, or EGCG. A recent research has said that flavonoids EGCG extracts of green tea have a role to play in lowering the harmful effects of high blood sugar. And guess what? This EGCG can even prevent damage to the major organs like the coronary arteries lining of the heart muscle. That’s like a lot of contribution for the health of Indians who are foodies by culture.

In addition, this seemingly sophisticated drink reduces the respiration quotient and increases your metabolic rate, albeit temporarily. Moreover, people drinking Green Tea regularly have been found to be more energetic. This is interesting as our employees at ALW work pretty enthusiastically till 7 every day. On alternate days, they have English Workshops to attend, parties to go to and movies to watch over weekends.

At the same time, be aware that just like chai, it is not advisable to consume Green Tea in more than the required quantity. You can have it three times a day. But the good news is that Green Tea is any day healthier than chai, coffee and the colas.

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Exercise and be a smarter engineer!

Monday, April 9th, 2012

BEAUTY with brains may still be an unrealistic combination but exercise and brains are definitely connected. A new research conducted at the University of Hamburg, Germany and published in the Health Psychology comes as a good news for middle aged men and women who haven’t yet bothered about their physical fitness. The study suggests that if they start exercise now, they can still save their brains from becoming totally exhausted in their senior years.

As many as 68 inactive men and women aged between 40 and 56 were divided into two categories: the cycling group and the stretching group. In the meantime, the study also observed 18 non-active people who were to be compared with the studied group.

Before the assignment, a few tests were conducted including heart fitness test, measurement of memory and other thinking skills. The studied group did these physical exercises for two hours weekly for six months.

The hypothesis was that in late adulthood, a region of the brain involved in memory, the hippocampus, shrinks. While the cycling group’s heart fitness was improved by 15%, there were not many changes on this count among the stretching and inactive groups. But when a memory test of learning a list of items was conducted, both the cycling and the stretching groups did better than the inactive group. The increase in this test score was linked with an increase in fitness. Moreover, it turned out that the cycling group also did better in the recognition test of retaining learned material.

Also, there was a surprise finding. Both the groups were given a paper and pencil test in which they had to find and mark certain letters quickly. The stretching group actually improved more in a test of attention than did the cycling group.

Quite a few studies previously have also suggested a clear connection between exercising and brain power. This should particularly interest people in the IT industry as they constantly lose out on the exercising front due to work pressures. Ironically, this lack of physical exercise affects their brain power in the long run as they struggle to get to the top ladder of hierarchy in their company.

Stretching is something that Team ALW has been practicing right in the office premises through Office Yoga. We have pictures of Office Yoga exercises pinned in each of the employee areas so that people may find time during the entire day for some stretching. And now with this study, we are all the more encouraged to motivate our team to continue doing so.

Cycling is also something that we have been contemplating to encourage our team with. It is an exercise that can actually improve our heart’s fitness. Heart is an important health parameter and is related to the overall fitness of a person. What is interesting is that the targeted group was exercising and cycling only for two hours per week. Imagine if an engineer is able to take out only half an hour every day for cycling or exercising. It can have a wonderful impact on his brain power and overall fitness.

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Ageing miraculously!

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

EVEN as the ‘age miracle’ creams do their usual rounds in the market and attract you through ads, natural ways to stay young continue to rule the fitness roost. The twist? You get to not only look good but also stay healthy. This approach practically goes beyond the oh-my-I-have-wrinkles mentality and helps you to view a more logical side of ageing gracefully.

More than wrinkles, the few things that really tell you are ageing are:

• Muffin Top: That ugly abdominal fat can make you look you are in your late 30s even when you are only 25 years old. The same goes for people older than that. Cut that fat and you will find yourself looking at least five years younger.

• Heart problems: Do you already have a blood pressure or a heart problem while you are still 35? If yes, this is the biggest indicator of your ageing faster than usu

• Gray hair: Grays are often the results of a stressful life. Ever wondered why even the youth aged between 18 and 25 have now started getting gray hair? That’s because a lot of stress has gotten into their lifestyles.

And why exactly are we discussing this? A study conducted in UK recently talked about the effects of exercises like jogging and cycling on the overall looks of people. About 20,000 people were questioned many of whom were found to be doing mundane things like housework or gardening to keep themselves fit.

The survey found them to be ‘younger looking’ and more relaxed about their ageing than those who did not exercise or did any kind of physical activity at all. Muscle power is one thing that is a definite advantage of physical activities like cycling, jogging and trekking.
Many other findings of the report have obvious parallels in India. It is usually found in India that women begin to lose their fitness when they are about 35. The most obvious reason being they are married, have children and feel more settled. At this age, their husbands have better incomes, more comfortable lifestyle. It cuts down on their housework as now they can afford a maid. Men in India, on the other hand, usually attain a more settlement in their professional life. Since they have left college a long time ago, they have somehow also left any charms for physical exercise. However, a disturbing trend in the country is the presence of abdominal fat, blood pressure problems etc among the IT professionals who are barely 26.
What should they do? The three most practical things that one can do are: jogging, cycling and housework. These three exercises have been proven to have delayed ageing by as many as 10 years. The reasons are simple – they help to burn extra fat, increase your muscle power and hence stamina, improve self-image, rejuvenate and energize the body.
Apart from jogging and cycling, even house chores such as sweeping the floor, gardening, cleaning fans, coolers etc are great exercises that would help delay your ageing process.

Team ALW often engages in activities such as jogging and trekking quite regularly. Quite a few of our team member are regular gym goers apart from others are who are very particular about their daily exercises and Yoga. Quite a few of our women testify of doing housework at least twice a week while the team often goes for trekking expeditions on weekends.
The reason why we are sharing it here is simply because if it’s possible in an IT company like us, it’s possible anywhere. Keeping fit can never go out of fashion and anti-ageing creams can never work wonders inside your body. You have to work from the roots. Start today.

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IT industry gets health-trendy

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.

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Corporate Health: A new way to stay healthy!

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.

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