Camaraderie

Hello….again, but  before I begin let me tell you I have no idea what this post will turn out like. That’s because its based on simple observations which I haven’t had time / ability to substantiate or don’t know how to. This is more like me thinking out aloud ….. Well here it goes ……. 

I visit a lot of ‘working environments’ [offices], like our clients offices, drop by my friends offices, when I’m trying to get them to hurry up, and since I’m made to wait I end up noticing ‘the environment’ 

What I have noticed is that MOST offices are boring, with a serious atmosphere where everyone sticks to the ‘office code’. Now that’s ok, it’s more about these people and how people in different professions bond within the office.  

When ever I’m in some corporate / head office I notice the way the marketing/ finance/ ops guys [the ones with a decent designation] seem to interact with one another and it doesn’t seem ‘proper’. There is something missing – it’s too formal.  

Yes, formal compared to the way the sales / business development guys [amongst all hierarchies] interact with each other. 

The first set [marketing/ finance/ ops guys] eat lunch together, talk about work, crib about the management , discuss ‘plans’, and know about their colleagues family; like married how many kids, but thats all. Even while these guys are talking I can sense some sort of ‘unfamiliarity’ amongst them. They’re even insecure of each other at times, always trying to be too politically correct. That’s why I guess these guys rarely ever go out for a beer after work, unless it’s for team building! I guess that’s why they don’t meet each others family socially. 

The second set [sales / business development guys] appears to be far more ‘open’ about themselves amongst ‘their group’. The way they eat each others lunch and how they know whats going on in their colleagues life suggests that they actually know each other. This lot goes out to drink beer after work quite often and know each others family. Even after switching jobs they meet socially. This lot actually bonds and it’s evident!!!  

If I had to pick a bunch of guys to hang out with I would pick the second lot.  

Now this leads me to a very simple question. Why are these 2 groups like this????????? 

Is it because of their profession? The guys in the first set have ‘work’ locked behind passwords. They are far more secretive, hidden and sense of insecurity prevails where as what ever the second set of guys does is in the open, everything put up on the board for EVERYONE to see and KNOW.  Could this be one reason?   

Where have all the familiar faces gone?

Last week I went to my ‘old neighborhood’ after a looong time!. I went there because I wanted to see a ‘familiar doctor’. When I reached and was waiting outside for my turn I realized I had driven 25 Kms to consult a ‘familiar’ face. I could have just gone to any doctor [considering the problem], it was then that I realized how comforting and reassuring it to see a ‘familiar’ face when you are slightly bothered and don’t have your friends or family around – Kind of like social anchorage. 

 Now I had to wait outside for a very long time, and this doctor’s clinic is in the local market. A market I had been to so many times, for tiny little things, from books to food to simply killing time.   

I kept looking around and the only thing which seemed familiar were the buildings. Strange, seriously strange, no familiar people were to be seen. That’s when I realized that the 74 year old is the only familiar face left – scary. The hawkers had left the market, shopkeepers and attendants looked different. So I went for a stroll and asked some shopkeepers where I could find “Doctor Madam” [that’s how the locals referred to the doctor]. I was surprised that most people didn’t know who I was asking about, forget where to find her.  

I found this very sad, because in this market there is a 74 year old lady , that sees patient for free [ she has a knack of knowing hen ppl are short on cash] , sometimes doesn’t even charge money for medicine. And these people don’t know who she is – jeeeeeeeeeeees , this is sad.  

She’s the kinda lady that would stop kids in the market and give them a check up and send them home with a slip, telling their parents how negligent they were!! 

Now all this led me to think about something a friend of mine once said. When we were studying in Pilani, I had come back after the summer holidays [ completely charged up and happy I managed to scrape through ] and I found out that many students didn’t manage to make it – didn’t get enough marks. [Only 28 of us were left!!!]

 This is when my friend said “when a new place starts to seem familiar its ok but when old place starts to seem unfamiliar there is a problem and it’s sad” – I’m never gonna forget these lines.  

I travel a lot and often go back to old places and people / shopkeepers immediately recognize me, and start to talk, and don’t even let me pay for what I’ve had, they tell me how the place has changed, what people are  like now, where their society is heading and most importantly how they feel about it.  

Ok now getting back to what I was saying. I’m trying to imagine what ‘doctor Madam’ must be going through, she been practicing medicine in that market for around 40 years!! And suddenly people don’t really know who she is. But don’t misunderstand please, patients queue up to meet her. They value her existence and if she is late by 20 minutes people start inquiring [with a genuine concern, not selfish one], so I guess there are people out there who do care J , that makes me feel better.  

All this made me realize, how ‘closed’ or ‘walled in’ we are becoming as a society, seriously – earlier local market shopkeepers knew kids by name and what they were up to, now they don’t even know ‘who’s kid it is’. 

I really do hope we don’t become so ‘walled in’ because it’s so bloody nice and comforting to see a familiar face.

The ‘Month End Syndrome’

 

People always give reasons or excuses for not being able to do something or make it somewhere. But for the past couple of years I’ve been hearing a funny reason from young Indians, well at least I found it funny. This is what they have to say- ‘its month end’, so big deal the month is ending, right? [And I don’t think it’s an excuse] 

So how big a deal is it? Well extremely big if people plan their weeding considering whether it’s the month end or not, people postpone important meetings and work as if there is no tomorrow. Ok it is big!!

 So what happens towards the last day of the month, and why are we hearing more and more of this? Well it’s to do with work / profession. So have you guessed it? It’s judgment day for MANY professionals, the day their targets are counted, and they’re evaluated.  

What does interest me is that 5 years ago this wouldn’t have been such a common / mainstream reason for not being able to do ‘other things’. This just goes to show the types of professions people are opting for, or the WAY they work.  

And no this isn’t only referring to door to door SALES guys.  

I hear it the most from these new so called ‘relationship managers / wealth managers’ that most banks have hired [ 40%-50% of a banks staff] in order to sell financial services. I hear it a lot from the automobile industry guys. [FMCG sales guys always said this, they just weren’t so mainstream] 

So does everything you do, or don’t do for 25 days boil down to the last week or day?  

Is it the way people work? Like is there a lot of under reporting, just so a person can be seen to be working in the last week of the month? Some people don’t report actual sell through numbers etc till the last week, not that it would affect the final numbers, but just to show they too did something when it mattered the most. This is how important the ‘month end has become’.