All Gyaan and no work makes Jack a Manager

I really am excavating all my old writings.... Here's another.

I have all along worked in Indian Companies of small-moderate sizes and have taken it for granted that the manager's - Technical and Administrative are great guys who play the game in the fair spirit possible, whose Technical Expertise could always be called upon at any time of problem. So my respect for managers was great and i always looked up to them for their sense of fairness and sound-judgement and thats where i wanted to be.Maybe the greatness of a few of my previous managers (mis-)led me to the belief.

However one stint at an MNC quickly brought me to reality. I realised all that a manager says and does is to be taken only on ACTION rather than on WORDS. Like when a manager empathizes with an employee with his work-content/salary/ anything else, 99% of the time it is to extract the frustration that is hidden in the Employee ( Rest Assured the Action taken during this motive is NULL ), Rest 1% is when he really wants to take your feedback and implement a change ( It is here that his real intent comes out based on how far he takes the feedback and gets it implemented ).
Most of my previous Managers at that point in time belonged to the 1% category and i conviniently assumed that the Industry is full of such people and the Other Type are very few. I was so WRONG.
Maybe that is where my inner sense of frustration at things not going the way i think it should go ( read WIN-WIN situations ) stems from.
But then Darwin's Theory of Natural Survival - Only the fittest survive - kicks in impulsively and the transformation begins.
The Contemptuous way with which any Problem/Individual needs to be seen is built and so is the Undying Confidence in your work ( ANything Wrong is not done by me - It must be done by the other guy in the cubicle or the one sitting across me - IT CANT BE ME ). Naturally with so many pre-judiced opinions and thoughts, the productivity has to be affected. Consequently with such kind of behaviour being applauded, the learning continues and you end up doing no work and only Gyaan.

Quick Self-Appraisal:
Spent half - 3/4ths of the day today dishing out Gyaan.

WOW!!! I am on my way to being a Manager.

Honesty...

Driving down to work in a busy Bangalore traffic Monday morning is quite painful and today wasnt any different. However at one of the traffic junctions i noticed a little boy - must be 10-12 years old, trying to sell those cloth pieces which are used to clean the cars. One of the car fellas bought a couple of them, bargained for 2 @ 25/- and gave him 50 rupee note. The kid happy to have got his first sale of the day, ran around trying to get some change for the 50/- to return the balance to the man in the car. He managed to get the change and hand over 30/- but still was waiting to recieve the 5/-. As soon as he got that, you could make from his body expressions that the 5/- was his earning for the 2 pieces of cloth and he so joyously thanked god, kissed the coin and pocketed it.

Led me to think - Where else have i seen this kind of honesty and sincerity to get a job done and feel happy after recieving the profits? When was the last time i saw/felt something like that ?
Not in a long time i would say.

Somehow, The most deprived sections of our society ( the poor) are the ones who are the most honest in their everyday lives. We trust the Watchman, Maids with our houses, Drivers with our cars, Shop Keeper trusts his boy with the daily cash deposits in the bank.

Contrast this with the "Richer" section of our society - They break the rules, Kill people, Swindle money, and still stand up straight and say they are honest. ( Obviously i am generalizing here ), but the point is isnt this something noticeable about the two stratas of society.

Couldnt the kid who earns 5/- for two pieces of cloth run away with the 50/-. He would have pocketed 30/- for his effort instead of the 5/-. But yet he ran around earnestly asking for the change, getting it, completeing the transaction and getting his due ( 5/-) - Nothing more.

Somehow Honesty seems to be the solace of the poor and money seems to substitue that for the Rich.

Wonder Why Napolean said this -
"The Surest way to remain poor is to be honest"

Must confess......Wrote this post a while ago...

How Weird am i

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right? But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?