My Last Official Message

Last Working Day

I am searching for words that would help me to make you understand what I feel right now. In another 7 hours time , I am officially out of the organisation for which I have served for more than 8 Years. Today, I am what Iam is only because of this organisation. Today when I pen down this post , I have the same feeling as if I am leaving some one very close to me and moving ahead. I have always taken pride when ever, I had got some chance to talk about my organisation. It hurts me to have taken decision against my well wishers who have taught me everything in this organisation but this toughest decision was to be taken at any cost. I did not want to wade with the tags of being the oldest guy in RBU.


I know for sure that people around me today are going to forget me very soon as per universal law statement " Out of sight is out of mind" but I am sure that I am going to cherish my golden moments in this company for long time ....

Following is the fact and figures relating to my tenure in this organisation

1) I am the longest serving member of the original RBU unit. I am the last to quit too.

2) Worked in 6 different Offices and 4 different cities

3) My Priceless possession : A coin given by RC

4) My greatest moment : When I got promoted as Asst Manager

5) My worst moment : too many .. but one which is worth mentioning is 1st Oct 2009 ..oh god i just wish to forget how insane that Gentle man behaved with me..

6) My Strength : I treated everyone equal , Could easily get along with people

7) My Weakness : I am known for Cribb and that too I cribb to everyone .. Failed to identify good and bad

8) First Presentation : In 2004 at Pune to my current COO.

9) People and Company ? Cannot be explained in words alone.. you need to work here to experience it

10) Satification : The fact that I gave my best though I did not expect anything back..

11) Greatest Learning : It is better to be smart horse than a hardworking donkey

There are lot stuffs that can be mentioned over here but due to time constraint , I am ending this post here...

Bye to ALL

Tribute to my friend Janet Susan

Well Janet was the only girl , I used to talk (actually fight) in my college days ..I was the one to name her "Coconut" as she was tall and this nick name became quite popular in my college. Janet was not good at studies but was good in Singing... She used to sing during lunch hour . I always liked to pull her leg whenever she tried to display her singing skills.. some times I used to comment that some Donkey has entered class or some time I used to place my lunch box on her desk and ask her to sing so that my lunch box gets hot... She was very active person in my classroom and she was the only person in college who used to late and still manage to come inside the class..

Janet did not invite me for her marrriage and the last time I spoke to her was over the phone during Vijay's marriage. She was recollecting the fights we had during college days.

Janet passed away on 30th Mar 2008 in US. I do not know why , I did not have guts to see her dead and hence avoided her last rituals..
In Remembrance of a Great entertainer.. Janet alias Coconut.

"God must be Crazy , that he has taken u back ..
probably he wanted you to keep his place filled with fun and Joy"

Janet Susan .... left us on 30th Mar 2008... We all Miss you badly Coconut....Team International B.E.S

My resignation : An uncomfortable feeling

Iam in the final days of my notice period and after next 5 days , I would be joining the new company. My mood is currently sober . It is mix of both happiness and sadness.

I am happy for the below reasons

a) Finally took a hard call of parting ways with my current organisation .

b) Got a good break in my career that would aid me to show cause my skill set

c) Gave back to the individual in the same way he spoke to me on Oct 1st 2009. ( Read my another blog ......http://rockykart.blogspot.com/2009/10/hr-pain-or-gain-to-employees.html)

d) I chose family out of two options that was lying ahead of me a ) Family or b) Career Growth

e) I am joining an agressive company

f) I have taken control of my career and its growth.Now I will decide what post and position would best suit me .. not any one else.. I always had a feeling that I was under utilised and my career was decided by someone else.

g) I have proved that I would not let go their self respect at any point in life...

h) I have learnt that loyality and professionalism does not go hand in hand.


I am also sad for the below reasons

a) I did not get this job just like that. I joined this company when it was under Government undertaking . It took lot of pains for me to clear the entrance exam and get on to board as "Technical Assistant". I had to forgo my earlier part time to prepare my self for appearing in entrance exam in 2001.

b) As the saying goes , " You need to lose something to gain something " , When I am leaving this job , I am losing some things which I will never get back. I am leaving back my collegaues and friends .Need less to say that I am parting ways with my all time Guru..

c) Feeling of Attachment to company : This is the company , I used to proudly talk about with my college friends . I do not know why , I have always had a sense of pride when I say to anyone about where I am working with . Probably the Brand of this company had lot to do with my attachment.I feel justified to narrate a small incident that took place in 2001 .

It was time the when my company which was under Government undertaking was disinvested. Two major players were bidding for the same. There was one company with the starting letter "R" and other starting with "T". I was praying to God that the company "T" should buy us out and not the "R" one. Finally , it was T company that took over my company .I was elated and went to extent of cutting the Brand symbol of that "T" company and pasted at top of my Id card . I was even warned by the security head ( DGM) for having tampered with my Id card. Such was the passion , I carried for my company and its brand

d) Last but not the least , Now I would be fighting this same company in the market. I would be fighting against the same friend and colleague of mine. I would say that I am put in same situation of that of Pandavas fighting their own cousin brothers.

What ever it is , I am going to look ahead of my life with positive note .......

An apology to a friend

I am writing this blog since I wanted to wholeheartedly apologise to my Friend Mr AC. the reason being that I had to use his name ( blame ) to get myself relieved from this organisation. The story goes like this ...



In Sept 2009 end soon after my marriage , I was given two options

a) either continue my then profile of Business Analyst and move to Hyderbad which was my Zonal Head office for south ( I was not in a position to move out of chennai citing my parents health)

b) move under networks reporting to my own best friend AC.

I was left with no other option but with option no 2 , I decided to move to networks reporting under AC

Now AC was very close to me and I have shared each and every thing with him but though I had taken a decision , I was little hurt to report under AC who was of the same cadre as of mine. Ideally , being flexible at work , that should have not caused much problems to me but I chose to motivate myself to look out for new job citing the reason of being made to report under AC.

Apart from the fact that our styles of working was not matching , we did not have any big difference of opinion as such. Meanwhile in Feb end , I had two big suprises .. yes

a) I got an offer from a small but aggressive company.

b) My current management was ready to allow me work from Chennai in the same old BA role.

Now both these suprise events happened at same time . I finally made up my mind to move out . Now the reasons which i could use to move out were

i) I was not allowed to work from Chennai in my previous role of Business Analyst ( Now there was no meaning in citing this reason as my management was finally ready to allow me to work from Chennai)

ii) I was made to report under AC of same cadre

I was left with none but the second option of blaming my reporting under AC as a reason to move out of this company.

I sent my resignation letter on 3rd and the management tried to convince me a lot but I preferred to stick on to my stand and use my reporting to AC as main reason for my quiting.

I finally managed to crack it and my management accepted my resignation but this was done at the cost of blaming my reporting under AC.

While i wirte this blog , i feel very bad for having done that since AC was very close friend who used to motivate me at my bad time and in fact he was very uncomfortable in me reporitng under him.

I would like to apologise to my friend AC for having used his name wrongly to get myself relieved from my post .. God Bless him

Notice Period.. An Unpleasant period

Now that I am undergoing my notice period, just wanted to analyze the purpose of the same and the plight of every employee who is under notice period.

Well, as you are aware through my earlier blogs that I have finally put in my papers at my current organization. I was supposed to join the new office from 15th Mar 2010, I had asked my current management to relieve me within 15 days against the 3 months of actual notice period. But citing policy as the rule , I was asked to serve at least 1 month notice and pay back 2 months basic salary to company . I tried my level best to get myself relieved before 15th so that I can actually join the new company. The Hr management was very strict. They were not willing to bend rules for anyone and I was asked to stay in company till 31st Mar 2010. I was left with no option but to convince the new company to allow me to extend me another 15 days time to join over there. Now any company would want their new talents to join ASAP. Now this new company too wanted me to join max by 15th Mar 2010 itself. I somehow managed to convince them to provide me with 15 days time to join them by 1st of Apr 2010.

What is Notice period and why it is served by employee opting to resign?

The answer is simple. Any company would want their employee to serve notice period since they would want him or her to hand over responsibility smoothly to another person when they leave but in my case my decision of moving out itself was because I did not have proper Roles and Responsibilities over here, Which means that I did not have anything important that needs to be handed over to anyone and could have been relieved well before 15th Mar 2010 itself as I was ready to pay for complete 3 months notice period.

Now coming to second topic, how pleasant is the Notice period? Well for me at least it is something which is very unpleasant. I did not know that a person who is under notice period is technically out of the company and would be treated same like an outsider. This was much evident from a small incident that took place last Friday. There is an in-house journal printed every quarter for the region and I had also given some contribution for the same. The next journal was due for printing in Apr 2010. Last Friday, all employees gathered together at office and the list of contributions from Chennai employees was displayed. To my surprise my name was not listed in the same. When I approached the concerned Co-ordinator to confirm the same, I got a blunt reply like "Now that u have resigned, technically speaking your contributions would not be printed”. Now I completely accept with it, one cannot print a contribution given by a resigned employee. But my question is why my name was not listed in the list of contributors irrespective of the fact whether my contribution would go for the print or not. The worst part is that I had given my contribution only after two days of my resigning and the same could have been rejected then only.

Treatment from colleagues:

By the time, one puts his paper; he is cornered to a certain extent by his own colleague who would have had coffee and lunch with him. A small conversation between me and my colleague would throw some light on the same.



Colleague: IS your company bidding for spectrum.

Myself: Sir, off course our company is bidding for the same

Colleague: I was asking about your company, Rocky?

Myself: I am also talking about my company only

Colleague: I was asking about new company?

Myself: I am very much part of this company till 31st Mar 2010.

Now this simple conversation would have highlighted the kind of embarrassment I would have faced at that point of time.
If serving notice period means that an employee is technically out of the company, then why is he made to serve one even if he is willing to pay against notice period?

Is it not duty of the HR to ensure that proper treatment is to be given to such person till his last day of working? We all speak about ethics and but no one follows it including me.

JK - My Mentor

It was sometime in the month of Feb 2010 , where in the management had organised for an Out bound Training . This Out bound training was headed by the HR Head of Business unit ( nicknamed as James Kennedy). The day before the training ,I was disturbed a little as I was asked to move out of Chennai to Zonal Head office once again. A Van was arranged to take us to a location which was on the Bangalore Chennai National Highway. We Reached the place at around 9 PM. I was pretty much tensed and felt that whole life has come to a stand still ( Read my earlier blogs for better understanding)

Mr James arrived at late night hours and hence we could not meet him at night. At around 7:30 AM , next day we all gathered at a place and Training started with a presentation. I was feeling very tired. For a sec there was the feeling in me that I should have bunked this training. James was superb in his training and what I could realise was this person is too different from other HR especially the one who was heading the Zonal HR team.James had a better control of the crowd in the training hall. I do not know how he managed to put in some fear in us even while he was very polite in his training. All silly question raised by us was answered up to the point.

Once this presentation was over , we went outside to have our outbound training , it was a very good training which gave us learnings on Leadership skills and Team spirit. Wow, though the games involved in the training was very tiresome , James explanation to each and every activity was keeping us hooked to the same. Finally when the games was over , we were shown a movie names "Miracle" to show us what a team work would result in. James ended the session with a small story on a heroic act of yound guy who saved his mentor's life in a unpleasant situation . When I came to know that the young chap who saved the life of his mentor was none other than James , I felt really proud of him and felt i need to do take something from him

When everyone moved out of the room , I walked up to Mr James and asked him to write something for me on a piece of paper. James Kennedy was such a good natured person that he took the paper and wrote something which i never thought would change my life altogher. James was brilliant enough to have understood that I was little bit tensed all through the day ..

His note to me was :

"Karthick,

Life is not a binary number or formula based. It consists of all kind of people and all kinds of situation. Adapt and move on. Don't be fixated on ideas and do not be unhappy in life.In life you need to make choices and do make those choices... All the best ! ... JK"

When I returned home , some inner mind was telling me to act on what James Kennedy wrote for me...

" In life you need to make choices and do make those choices"

Yes , Now I got a solid reply as how to handle the situation at my office.. I looked out for choices and finally in the end of Feb 2010 , I got a good oppurtunity from a growing Telecom company. I have now made choice and I am prepared to move on ...Yes, where ever I go , my wallet would carry that small chit written by JK ..the person who had brought positive changes in my life....

JK is simply superb!

Frog Leap Puzzle

This is a classic puzzle. You need to move browns frogs to left side and green frogs to right side.

Click on the frog to move !

Game Over.. Time to move ahead..

Finally I have managed to convince my Boss to relieve me by 31st Mar 2010. I was supposed to join the new office from 15th Mar 2010 , i.e. from today but since my current organisation was not ready to accept 10 days of notice period , I was forced to convince the new organisation to allow me join them from 1st Apr 2010.



It gives me a mixed feeling of both happiness and sadness, I am happy since finally I have managed to get a good oppurtunity to showcase my skill set .. I felt my skills were under utilised in my current organisations, I am happy that I gave it back to same HR head in the same style in which he spoke to me some 6 months back. I am sad that I am leaving a great organisation which had helped me to shape out my career and I am leaving all those who are in way directly or indirectly responsible for my growth in this organisation. In short , with my decision of moving to another competitive company , I am put under same situation as of pandavas fighting their own cousins.. the only difference being , I would be fighting with my old colleagues in the market.

What is the reason for my decision of moving out ?

a) Is it Money factor ?

No not at all, money is not a major factor at all..

b) Is it career growth ?

No , Career Growth and Money goes hand in hand ... I did not chose to leave this organisation for growth .

c) Is it because of my Ego ?

May be ... I think it was more because of respect i have for myself.

d) Is it emotional decision ?

No , it is not

e) Then what is the reason for my movement ?

I just needed some change , after all I have been in this current organisation for more than 8 1/2 years

f) What about future ?

Let me give my best in the present and that I am sure would take care of future...

Final Decision

This blog is in continuation to various cribs regarding my situation at my work.  I had been undergoing tough time since Sept 2009 ( Read my previous blog to know about the same) . While I write this blog , I am happy to share with you that I  have a job offer right in my hand and I have  decided to put in my papers this March. This should have been a simple process but I am now placed in another uncomfortable situation wherein finally my top management had accepted to allow me to work from Chennai in the previous role I had held. This had come as a big surprise for me though i was not very much moved with their decision. I felt that this effort was same like  "Watering  plant after ensuring that it has dried up well". Now I have already conveyed my decision to my boss but still he wants to have a word with me coming this thrusday . Though I am determined to move ahead with this change in job , I feel that I should also have that discussion with my boss as he is my guru at work and I need to repect his words anytime. I am just waiting for the thrusday to come so that I can vent out my feelings and just move ahead.

I am sure that I will not take step backward .. as Lost trust is always lost , can never be gained back..

Lost trust!

This posting is in continuation to all my cribbs with regards to the troubles I am facing at my office. Its been 4 months since the issue had started and yet I am unable to adjust here or not getting a right oppurtunity to move out.  Some times I just feel that the saying " Love your Job and not your company"  is very true. Here I am a good experienced professional who wants to perform but being denied the right oppurtunity.  Some people at my office say that  I am Egoistic and I should go and request my boss a role change. I do not know whether they are correct but as per me my boss just cannot let me down just for the reason that i have not moved with him to Hydrabad. My relation with him started in year 2002 when i had  moved in to sales from technical team then .  I was infact very reluctant to join sales and it was my boss who groomed me up. Yes I would say proudly to everyone that today I am in good position only because of him. He taught me how to dress , how to speak , how to manage people , how to work, how to avoid uneasiness. I should say he was my all time guru. But I am very incomfortable with the same boss now . Yes , my boss has given me an professional identity but yet not willing to accept the fact that I have lost some good oppurtunities for the sake of siding with him . I was so loyal that once , when i was called for an interview from a competitor , I could not step in to their office though i went for the interview. I just turned back from lift and came back to office and told my boss that I was about to make big mistake of leaving him and his guidance. You must be guessing what would have made me retaliate to same boss who had given me professional life. Here it is

* I was moved to each and every department without considering my willingness . This has caused me a big issue as i am unable to use one profile and move out

* Always seen him promoting guys below my level , he always felt i was not mature to handle things

* Has never given an oppurtunity at all.. Just says " You would not fit in to it "

* Always says to me that " You do not have right role to fit in chennai"

* Still feels that I am lying about my family situation

* Last but not the least , he said on my face that " I have started losing trust  on you and I will drop u like a hot potato" which he has done making me report in to my own friend of same designation.

This was the statement that made me to stop my contacts with  me . Most of guys who were with me in his sales teams are now a AVP or Sr Manager and I am still sitting as Asst Manager hoping to get change in my career soon.

I had been requesting him to allow me to be at chennai for more than 1 year and now i think i have taken right decision of keeping myself away from him.

If I am to lose career ,so is he losing a good employee.  Lost Trust can never be gained back!

 

Note : I still respect him as my Guru.