People at Work & Play

Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which manages immigration and resettlement services for the Canadian government, has asked employees to observe a BlackBerry Blackout.
The department’s deputy minister, Richard Fadden, sent out a memo asking employees to implement a BlackBerry “blackout” between 7 p.m. and 7  a.m. and on weekends and holidays.

Interesting idea. I mean just see how addictive the BlackBerry is. Leave alone at work, it has virtually become to many an extension of themselves. Apart from at meetings and the workplace, the BlackBerry has us in its hold at the park, at the gym and on the beach. I won’t be surprised to hear that a mountain climber announces his success by dashing off a message on his BB!

Years ago, when I first saw someone speaking on his cell while driving I thought this wired up guy was talking to himself.  I thought he was pretty animated for one one thinking out aloud! Later it was evident that he was driving, speaking to his team mate, listening to music, pulling down his email and sending a message at the same time. Ok, he was breathing and humming with the music, too !

The BlackBerry is a fascinating convenience. But it has no magic. If you don’t control your use of it, you allow it to soon take control of your life.

The most popular resolution made at the end of each year is probably: ” I will make and stick with my New Year’s Resolutions this year” !

Many of us make resolutions, few get to keep them.

Here are the Top Ten Resolutions made according to a survey of over 300,000 respondents world -wide conducted by The GoalsGuy :
1. Lose Weight and Get in Better Physical Shape

Physical activity builds physical vitality. With every year of your life, you have more to gain from being physically active; as your age-related risks of chronic disease increase, regular exercise generally slows or reverses that trend.

2. Stick to a Budget

It’s been said that the best defense is a good offense. Developing and sticking to a realistic budget is a brilliant offensive move as it prevents overspending and ensures peace of mind.

3. Debt Reduction

One of the first things you have to do before any debt can be eliminated is to stop using charge accounts. If you continue to use the accounts, you are only fueling the problem, and building on it, not solving it.

4. Enjoy More Quality Time with Family & Friends

More and more people are resolving to spend more quality time with family and friends this year. This means you must consciously decide to actively and purposely work on improving your family situation every day.

5. Find My Soul Mate

Romance is alive and well as more and more people are looking for that special someone, their soul mate who lights their fire, the ONE whom they love unequivocally and who shares their worldview.

6. Quit Smoking

Becoming a non-smoker is probably one of the best decisions you can ever make, and is a life changing as well as a life saving decision.

7. Find a Better Job

A new year provides a sense of getting a free do-over, so you can try again and get it right. Many people resolve to find better jobs or to take a new approach to the jobs they’ve already got.

8. Learn Something New

People throughout the world are realizing that a strong resolve to lifelong learning is more than just education and training beyond formal schooling. A lifelong learning framework encompasses learning throughout the life cycle, from cradle to grave and in different learning environments, formal, non-formal and informal.

9. Volunteer and Help Others

A popular, non-selfish New Year’s resolution, volunteerism can take many forms such as spending time helping out at your local library, mentoring a child, or building a house to name a few.

10. Get Organized

Resolve this year to plan your days, reduce interruptions, clean off your desk, say “No”, and make detailed lists. The benefits of getting more organized include being able to save time, as you no longer look for the same things over and over again or need to replace things you can’t find at all.

Gary Ryan Blair is the inspiration behind New Year’s Resolution Week. This annual event was founded on the premise, that a single resolution can positively and profoundly create lasting change in your life and help to make the world a better place.

I am sure most of us would see ourselves in these resolutions. My top resolutions, not surprisingly for my age, all seem to be health related!

1. Drink more water
2. Walk Everyday
3. Keep my temper in check
4. Go easy on the fried snacks
5. Spend less than I earn

Do something different this year.  Don’t just make resolutions. Keep them.

My post today in the A Step A Day series was titled: Not saying “No” means “Yes”.

By co-incidence, a few hours later, I came across this article in the Washington Post which I found quite interesting. Laura Sessions Stepp asks “ Why is it hard for adults to say No?“.

A few things caught my attention: “In order to say yes to what’s truly important, you first need to say no to other things,” says William Ury, a social anthropologist by training and a professional negotiator based at Harvard Law School.

Ury who wrote ” The Power of a Positive No” this year says the significance of saying no is a recent epiphany for him. “It’s the defining challenge of our age.” he says.

Secondly, the actual word “no” — as well as “yes” — starts appearing when a child is about 18 months old, as signaling between parents and children becomes more complex.

Third, by age 15 or 16, young people possess virtually all the cognitive abilities to make good decisions that adults have, according to Baruch Fischhoff, a professor of social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

Like adults, they must know 3 things to use those skills well:

• what they really want as opposed to, say, what their friends want
• what their options are
• what will happen if they choose one option over another.

Looks like these skills are best learnt during childhood. Can they be learnt later in life? I am sure they can but it would take that much more effort and time to master.

What seems to matter is not where you work from or when you work but what you eventually contribute to your job. Organisations are coming forward more readily to provide employees with more flexible working arrangements.

A recent article in the Times of India says that men are opting for flexible working hours in increasing number. HR managers in firms that offer flexi-timings, say they have seen a rise in the number of men opting for it. “At IBM an equal number of men and women ask for flexi-timings,” says Kalpana Veeraraghavan, Asia Pacific leader for IBM Global Work Life Fund. At SunGard Offshore Services in Bangalore, nearly 90% employees have opted for it. Of these 70% are men.

Interestingly, unlike women, when men opt for flexi-timings they prefer to come in late and stay back late. They like to be at home in the day and come towards the evening. “And as businesses go global, many prefer to take calls from home as well,” says Jayantika Dave, director HR, Agilent Technologies.

They feel if they take the calls from home, at least they are physically present at home. And that makes a difference to the family. HR managers say it helps them save valuable office space and cut on HR costs.

As Akila Krishnakumar, CEO, SunGard Offshore Services sums up, “With increased accountability and a positive view to the organisation’s flexible policies, flexi-timings have only proven to increase productivity through engaged and happy employees.”

If you thought that CEOs in Bangalore worked all the time, here is some news for you. Economic Times reports an interesting CEO Cook-out.

Wim Elfrink of Cisco, Martin Dlouhy of Metro Cash & Carry and Jean Marc Delpon de Vaux of SABMiller - protagonists for the expat edition of the ET CEO Cookout in Bangalore - shared their recipes and toolkits for the Great Indian Adventure to a rapt audience of 50 CEOs.

Cisco chief globalisation officer Wim Elfrink, who is from the Netherlands, has moved to India from California. Mr Elfrink’s task in India is to create the second hub for Cisco outside the US. Metro Cash & Carry India managing director Martin Dlouhy, who is Czech, has worked in Russia and is working to expand the footprint of Metro in the country. And, SABMiller India MD Jean Marc Delpon de Vaux, who is from France, has sub-continental prior experience: in Pakistan, where he worked with Unilever. Mr de Vaux faces the challenge of capturing market share in what could potentially be the largest beer market left to tap in the world. While Mr Dlouhy moved to India four months back, Mr Elfrink and Mr de Vaux have spent around a year in the country.

Our city of Bangalore is now home to many expats and indeed to people from almost every part of our vast country. Over the years Bangalore’s culture has changed very rapidly. From a typically conservative society, Bangalore has become the “with it” place and a melting pot of different cultures. We have cuisine to suit every palate and dishes from every nook of the globe.

But what about a recipe for Bangalore itself?

My “recipe” for Bangalore:

1. As the base, take the essentially good natured outlook of the people of Karnataka
2. Add the spirited aggressiveness of people from other parts of the country which has changed the dynamics of Bangalore’s society
3. Stir the international nuances brought about by the many global companies here who have influenced cross-cultural norms
4. Toss in the spice provided by the unreliable political environment which could spoil the dish if it is allowed to boil over
5. Temper with the strengths of every individual’s commitment to making our city a better place.
6. Garnish with the leaves of the few trees left in our city ( thank God for them)
7. Serves: our population of 5,280,000.

Don your apron and chef’s cap. Do your bit to think of a better recipe to make our city the best place to live in for its citizens.

We are grateful for many things-yet often take what we have for granted.  Sometimes, we become grateful only when we get back something we have lost or get something for the first time.

Being grateful, not just once a year on Thanksgiving Day or when you have come out of a crisis, but on an on-going basis has many benefits.  Keep a “gratitude journal” suggests Henry Fountain in the New York Times.

According to Dr. Robert Emmons, a psychologist at the University of California, Davis, and a leading expert in positive psychology: “There are really tangible, concrete benefits to being grateful,”. Dr. Emmons is the author of “Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier” (Houghton Mifflin).

Health improves, relationships get better, people are more active and enthusiastic. There are benefits for others, too, as happier people are more creative, productive and easier to be around.

To set you thinking, here’s a wonderful post by Gretchen Rubin: “Today is Thanksgiving. Here are four questions to ask yourself, to help you feel grateful for your ordinary life.

1. Do you suffer chronic or intense physical pain?

2. Have you recently received heart-breaking news?

3. Have you done anything that makes you burn with remorse?

4. Is every member of your family safe?

It’s easy to forget to be grateful for the most important foundations of daily life.”

I realize that keeping a journal does not come easily to every one. But hey, it’s the thought that counts. If you find it tedious to keep a journal, at least count your blessings. Every day.

Interesting comments follow a post in the Wall Street Journal titled ” Stamping Out the Chaos and Turning Homes Into Sanctuaries” by Emily Friedlander .

I gave my view through this comment: “As a coach I would give maximum importance to spending quality time together. It’s not the amount of time you spend but how you spend that time. 10 minutes of dedicated time means more to a kid ( or indeed any one else) than half an hour of distracted talk while doing many other things at the same time.

Just to listen to each other. To make them feel we are there for them. To share the ups and downs that everyday life brings. I believe these make a house a home!”

Many comments followed.

To clarify my comment, I added this today:”Interesting to read this thread. I don’t want to belabour the point. I gave an example of 10 minutes of dedicated time meaning more to a kid ( or indeed any one else) than half an hour of distracted talk while doing many other things at the same time.

I certainly did not mean that 10 minutes is adequate for a kid! I still maintain that time “dedicated” for any one activity -including for the kid- has more value for the recipient of that time.”

To me, dedicated time means “quality” time. Your views?

At a time when Work-Life Balance has become a major issue for many professionals in India, it is encouraging to read in The Hindu about the Flexible Work Options used by IBM.

IBM’s flexi work option for employees has bust three myths at one go: first, that one needs to work long and regular hours to be considered a ‘performer’; that flexi working shows ‘lesser commitment’ and could therefore jeopardise one’s career growth; thirdly, and perhaps the most interesting, that more women prefer to work from home than men.

That does not mean that men are not choosing this option. They are and are using the extra time saved from the commute etc to devote to furthering their career by studying for programs like their MBA.

IBM prides itself on its employee-friendly programs. Globally, 42 per cent of IBMers work in a mobile environment (i.e. work from home, at a customer’s office or alternate location, or are ‘mobile’ and do not have dedicated office space).

The grass, as they say, always looks greener on the other side. Working from home is not as easy as it is often made out to be. However, if you are able to discipline yourself and stay focused, there are huge benefits from working at home.

Is too much of hard work making you a workaholic? In the New York Times article ” When Hard Work Becomes Overwork”, Diane M. Fassel, author of “Working Ourselves to Death” and chief executive of Newmeasures, which conducts employee satisfaction surveys, describes a workaholic as one who is “addicted to incessant activity”.

Most workaholics are either perfectionists, have a need for control or a combination of both, said Gayle Porter, an associate professor of management at the Rutgers School of Business in Camden, N.J., who has studied workaholism.

Hard work becomes over work when no boundaries are set and relationships are effected. When people close to you feel neglected.

Habits are easily formed and becoming a workaholic is one of the easiest habits to get hooked into!

I met a young couple at one of my recent workshops. Both work in well-known IT companies in Bangalore ( or Bengaluru as soon it will be called) where I live. She is from Chandigarh, he is from Kolkatta.

They are amongst the thousands who have flocked to this fast growing city in the last decade in search of better career opportunities. Like many, they met and got married at their place of work. No, they did not get married in their office. They got married when they were working in the same company. After their child was born, she moved to another company which she believed would be little less demanding when it comes to work hours. Presently, they stay in a rented 1BHK (“1 Bedroom, Hall, Kitchen” in Bangalore terminology) house which is on the first floor. Their ambition is to get an apartment of their own, as soon as they can afford one.

Both have grueling work schedules. They earn well but they need to work very hard to keep earning well. They leave for work by 7.30 a.m. and on a “good “ day, depending on the traffic she makes it back home by 7.30 p.m. For him, the average would be closer to 8.45 p.m. because his place of work is even further.

Their child is 2 years old now. They are fortunate that their landlady who lives downstairs has time on her hands. Junior is left in her care/custody. For the little boy, the old lady plays several roles. She is the “acting “mother, companion, story teller, nurse, friend and play mate. He knows her better than almost any one else in the world. Unfortunately, she knows only Kannada, the local language and the child is fed a staple diet of Kannada TV programs from morning till evening. It is not surprising therefore that he knows more Kannada than the Hindi (his mother sometimes speaks to him), or the Bengali (his father sometimes speaks to him) or the English (both parents always speak to him).

Communication is stilted because his parents cannot understand a word of what he says in Kannada. In a sense, they are very close. In a sense, they are drifting far apart. His parents work extremely hard to get ahead in a dog-eat-dog world. They are driven by ambition to succeed. They don’t mind the strain, the long hours, the stress.

Here is the irony. Ask them ” Why are you guys working so much?” They look at their kid with pride and say they are doing this for him.