Not a good post

Not a good news to share, but I wish everyone should understand the difference between loving your job and loving your company. People may recall Mr.Narayan Muthy's speech regarding this.( For benefit of those who haven't gone through that , I have attached it at the end of this blog). This blog is all about the real incident which I underwent recently.

I am with my current employer (Just to ensure no one from my company gets hurt if they read it) for the last three and half years. I was awarded 4 times as best employer by the company based on my work and also promoted to senior level during my first year of service. This is not to boast but to let you guys know the background of this. I was promoted as " SMS administrator" two and half years ago. During that time there was no professional training given to me as there was no training center in Chennai which offered that. But I managed using books and internet. I had few downfalls but I made it high. Even customer was very happy about my performance as " SMS Administrator".

I travel onshore (UK) sometimes to finish project work. last Feb, I was in UK for such project work. This time my customer insisted my management to arrange "SMS administrator" training for me in UK as it is not available in India. Fortunately / Unfortunately my management suddenly decided to act on the 2 and half year pending training and they did arranged it for me in UK. Everything went on well and I came back to India. later due to many reasons and for career growth I decided to move on and in no time I got offers from EDS, CSC etc.. I chose EDS because the position was in Chennai and profile is perrfect - " SMS administrator " for specific packaging module. Once I put papers in my company they very shocked and offered to increase my pay (an increment which was pending for one and half year).

I was firm on my decision and did not accept this offer. Since I was the front up and backup for me, I immediately got a backup arranged for me and started training him. I did even sent mail to few best friends about my resignation from the company.Everything went on well until the last 5 days of my notice period. My HR sent me an email to reimburse the full training amount ( not much just 1715 pounds , around 1 lakh and 25 thousand rupees)which happend in UK, since I am leaving the company before one year from the date of the training. Honestly I did not even remember signing a contract regarding this when I joined. Even going by the contract I actually served the company for more than 2 years on the profile without any professional training. Ethically I did my part, but as per papers yes I am person who is leaving the company after the company invested so much on my training. I explained my situation to the HR and to the management. My view was considered for few days, but the answer reminded the same.To pay and get relieved or the company will not relieve me at all.

I was given no choice about the payment also. As a last resort I explained the situation to EDS and requested them to consider my employment without a relieving order. As a process oriented company they did not accept this. I just tried my luck as few other x employees of my company did not get a relieving order but they joined other companies by explaining the situation. So as the last choice I am staying with my company. I am doing what I was doing with no increment.

There is one I this should have done. I wanted to resign before six months. If I would have done that I will not be staying with the company because of the recent training. I did stop myself because I loved my company and my work. I did not wanted them to suffer since I had no backup.Out came a valuable lesson -love the job not the company.


Now here is the extract from Infosys Naraya Murthy.

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Infosys' Chairman and Chief Mentor Officer (CMO) - Mr. Narayana Murthy's
Speech on Late Sitting:

Hope that many of us start leaving early for home after reading this...

I am not relating this to the present scenario.
I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more.
Some people do so because of a work emergency where the long hours are
only temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I
don't know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are
in the office this long. Others put in long office hours because they
are addicted to the workplace. Whatever the reason for putting in
overtime, working long hours over the long term is harmful to the person
and to the organization.

There are things managers can do to change this for everyone's benefit.
Being in the office long hours, over long periods of time, makes way for
potential errors. My colleagues who are in the office long hours
frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue.

Correcting these mistakes requires their time as well as the time and
energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday through Friday to
correct mistakes made after 5 PM on Monday.

Another problem is that people who are in the office for long hours are
not pleasant company. They often complain about other people (who aren't
working as hard); they are irritable, or cranky, or even angry. Other
people avoid them. Such behaviour poses problems, where work goes much
better when people work together instead of avoiding one another.

As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave the office.

First and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I work
with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His words
quickly lose their meaning when he sends these chiding group e-mails
with a time-stamp of 2 AM, Sunday.

Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives. For
instance, here is a guideline I find helpful:

1) Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2) Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3) Go home.
4) Read the comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the dirt, play with your
kids, etc.
5) Eat well and sleep well.

This is called recreating. Doing steps 1, 3, 4, and 5 enable step 2.
Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They are
hard for some of us because that requires personal change. They are
possible since we all have the power to choose to do them.

In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my eldest son.

When he was a toddler, If people were visiting the apartment, he would
not fall asleep no matter how long the visit, and no matter what time of
day it was.! He would fight off sleep until the visitors left.. It was
as if he was afraid that he would miss something. Once our visitors'
left, he would go to sleep. By this time, however, he was over tired and
would scream through half the night with nightmares. He, my wife, and I,
all paid the price for his fear of missing out.

Perhaps some people put in such long hours because they don't want to
miss anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this is that
events will never stop happening. That is life! Things happen 24 hours a
day.

Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap.
Things will happen while you're asleep, but you will have the energy to
catch up when you wake.

Hence "LOVE YOUR JOB BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY (Because
you never know when it stops loving you)" - Narayana Murthy