Appraisal - A Gripe

Are appraisals meant to motivate you or are they meant to make you feel that you haven’t been doing much at all? Just sitting around in office, drinking coffee, and warming your chair?
Appraisals are an assessment of what you have done. But then it should also focus on what you will be doing till the next appraisal.
The focus has to be on how best you have done your work, and not on some weird data that you cannot comprehend, and which would be difficult for even your appraiser to comprehend after a few days. Also please do consider the many many days you have stretched and stayed back to complete tasks. Its something I have done for my company, no personal benefits, and also that the company doesn’t pay me for overtime.
It’s actually very difficult for women to balance both career and family. I am not saying that it’s not possible, but I believe it’s very difficult. When there is a question about which takes precedence – family or your job, it’s obviously family (at least for a majority of the women folk, from where I come from).
The women have to balance both office and home. Work, work, work in office, go back home and find a host of things waiting for you; family stuff, babies, food to be cooked, clothes to be folded, guests… and trust me its one hell of a balancing act.
And coming back to appraisals please let it not be about crap data, learning curves, blatant blaming and the whole exercise, an intolerable gyaan session, about what you could have done. And please don’t show favoritisms. Do accept that people are different and we tend to work differently. She/ He may not be good at something I am good at and vice-versa.
I don’t need rewards, but please dont hold back on recognitions ….
Let me not continue to feel - enda deivamae, inganae oru jeevithamo !!!!

Mobile Menace

Mobile communication is something most of us Indians cannot live without now. Accepted that its one of the best things to happen. All fine. But then what about the fact that these companies actually sell our numbers to other companies, for us to be harassed by a number of callers ….. ‘’ Madam I am calling from ICICI bank / Citibank / SBI Cards (and what not)… and you number has been selected and you have been chosen to be one of our privileged customers, and have been allotted a personal loan’’.
These people trouble us all the time, any time of the day. Not to blame them, they have a mindset that the answer would be ‘’ no, not interested ‘’ . I guess of the 100 calls they make may be 1 person will be actually be interested. These calls are such a menace!!
So are the SMS’s. Free franchise, Brain Gym, Lose Weight… The list is endless. Try calling the number from where the SMS came, and you get to listen to the message that the mobile is switched off. Mobile companies offering free SMS services, is a major reason for this kind of advertising.
May be I can tolerate one or two calls from a bank or a few SMS’s. But when bombarded by SMS’s and calls, its natural to loose cool. Where are ethics? I don’t want to be disturbed means; I really don’t want to be disturbed. It doesn’t mean, please call later.

The English Language

Living in Chennai, we do come across a lot of people working in BPOs. Not to blame them, but sometimes its difficult to understand the ‘ English language’ the way they speak it. It could also be that we are used to hearing it differently. They seem to carry on with their accents even out of office. But then I guess people are people and not automations that you can turn on and turn off. To actually pretend to be a Rachel Anderson for 8-10/11/12 (?) hours and then to leave office to be Pavithra Vasudevan, is a very very difficult task.
English, not native to us, is taught to us differently at different points of life. I work as an instructional designer and I am required to write courses catering to the American audience. We have a person who teaches us how Americanize the way we write English. The spellings I learnt (its ‘learned’ in America!) are actually incorrect, and I have to unlearn what I learnt in school to write the courses I write. Analyse is Analyze, Colour is Color and a Jeweller is Jeweler. I wonder what I would teach my son :-)?
Talking about accents, I met a person last week, actually my husband’s friend/ colleague. He had a major accent and it was difficult for me to follow conversation. I had to ask my husband for clarification, when I didn’t understand. In total I felt like an ‘English Illiterate’. The incident reads funny:-), but actually, it was quite embarrassing. I was wondering, whether it was an English accent or an American accent and then I realized that it was a False accent :-).
People and their accents!!!.

born an original

You were born an original. Don't die a copy. ~John Mason

I was flipping through the pages of a book when I came across this statement. I liked the way it sounded and thought that I should put it up. It’s nice when people are themselves and don’t try to act, speak and behave like someone else. It’s boring to talk to such people. Be yourself... Its makes more sense to the world as well, as to you.

Share Autos in Chennai

Needless to say, share autos are a boon to travelers...but then the number of people forced into one auto is shocking. The norm is four, but the auto drivers actually fill up to 10 people. For the benefit of those who don’t know what a share auto is.... It’s an auto that’s slightly larger than the normal autos, and can accommodate 3 adults comfortably. You would wonder about the magical figure 10. Well, four people sit on the seat, four on the plank of wood fixed opposite the seat and one on either side of the driver. Also to note is that the driver is a little hesitant to take people who are a little heavy, because it would take up space and the auto would have to proceed one passenger less. The law permits only four passengers, but anyway, who’s bothered???
Bus services are bad, and everyone crams into the share auto, no ladies and gentlemen privileges... All are passengers and should '' adjust '' accordingly.

Everything, including your life, a precarious balance.

Life-Thoughts

It is not often you find people who can carry on a conversation, without getting stuck or without fumbling. Very few of them bother to keep themselves updated about the happenings around. I guess people have so much to do in office, that they can seem to find time to do anything else.they are so so busy, chasing their careers, chasing lives....
Enjoy life.. money comes and goes.. There is no point holding on to the money you have and leading a frugal life, and then way ahead in life, after age has progressed, to look back at the youth you didnt enjoy..
Lots of my friends have adviced me to get a home loan and get a flat and so on.... but then if i get one, i end up paying an EMI for the next twenty years of my life.. and in the end, would be the owner of a house, but the life i lead the twenty years
would not be the one i wanted.