Is your employer good?

Work occupies half or even a lot more of our time in a day (awake time that is!). Most people work for others (employers) putting in their best for the owners to earn a larger profit. However there could be moments when people would wonder, if the effort they are putting is worthy. Such fleeting thoughts are excusable; but if they recur on a daily basis, there’s got to be an organic problem – either in the individual or the organization’s fiber. And if a lot of people in the work place, who feel the same, it’s quite probable that there’s a problem with the management. When I was just pondering whether there are any practices of the companies that could reveal their traits

1. The companies that insist on depositing your educational certificates with them are real undemocratic ones that hope to curtail your freedom to move out, by restraint, rather than anything; good companies would retain talent by nourishing them and not threatening them!
2. Those that take decisions regarding the employer’s work nature /hours , without even having the courtesy to discuss with the concerned
3. Those who make their employers work on all days , without closing , thereby enjoying greater income, but without compensating the employees by any means
4. Those who don’t give their employees adequate leave as per the prescribed norms and show no mercy, even if they are sick
5. Those who talk to their employees without any respect / abuse them unnecessarily
6. Those who don’t realize the human resource potential of the trained staff, just believing money can get anything
7. Those who think and behave as if the customers / clients are the only assets of the institution , without looking from the staff point of you
8. Those who don’t delegate ,even to a tiny extent , trying to keep their fingers in all the activities, there by losing their own energy as well as robbing their staff’s independence
9. Those who keep a continuous tab over the staff, to the point of hindering the personal freedom as well as spoiling the positive vibes at the workplace
10. Those that expect you to shoulder extra responsibilities , at the same time not expecting any adequate compensations for that
11. Finally , the most important , those who don’t care to pay the salaries in the first couple of days to the staff, without realizing , how big a deal it is and how significant it is for a family!

The organizations doing all or most of these mistakes could be thriving at one point, making them falsely believe that whatever they do is correct. They forget that, life is a cycle, and don’t foresee that the downturn of the wheel of life will be rapid and steep, if they don’t take steps to prevent it. Government always turns a blind eye to these practices, by the private employers, never taking any proactive step. And the managements are quite shrewd in smaller organizations that they do not allow the staff to unite for their own cause. Even if they stood up, there’s the Hobson’s choice of quitting / being thrown out of the job!! I just wonder, why can’t there be any independent organization on the lines of ISO (9000 for quality assurance too the customers and 14000 for environmental management) that, these private fellows clamour to get to boost their image- why not an ISO for assessing the HR practice of the organization. I am damn sure this would be abhorred by any employer, because most don’t have it in them to subject themselves for such an examination in the present state of affairs. I shall only hope business men would be more scrupulous; but that is a far fetched expectation from them, I guess!!

DARK STRETCH

Another day off from work; another bout of hectic and haphazard planning by the three of us, only to have a slightly unexpected turn. This has been our norm since our UG days, which would have been explicit to the people who know us / those who have read the previous blogs

Three good movies. Three of us. But each of us had seen one of those movies and no one was prepared to watch any of the movies again. Hence we narrowed down the already narrow choices.

We ended up at my friends’ house which was close to our chosen destination that day. Our destination for that day was the hidden lungs of the Chennai city. That place is a totally sylvan enclosure, lying along the course of a water body (one of the most stinking, at present). If the clues have not been enough, the densely vegetated area, by the estuary houses the largest banyan tree, in Asia, I guess.

Though I have walked alone from the main common entrance till the common area, a couple of times, enjoying every moment of the serenity and beauty, I always wanted to go further (lure that the restricted places always exert). I had read that the vegetation was denser and more beautiful; and that the path would end in a beach free from the crowd. In our famous common beaches (Marina and the Elliot’s) we get to see a big human sea and their pollution, before going close to the real sea. I have always longed to see an unpolluted, uncrowded beach, as a live experience. But I had to wait for more than 3 years to get a chance to see that and I got it today.

My friends luxury sedan , shorts( yeah – truly , because those who we met inside were all in the same – more like a dress code- a formal dress would have brought on queries , I guess) and his presence of mind happened to be the pass that day into the restricted area. We had the privilege of walking about 25 minutes up and down the narrow mud/ tar paths winding through the vegetation. Though the upward journey was not frightening, as there was enough light during the early twilight. But the same cannot be said about the return journey. We had spent only ten minutes outside the gate which existed between the little forest (that’s the feeling I got when you walked in the dark) and the beach. We just went a little further close to the point where the estuary met the sea- but there was nothing dramatic, except that you don’t get to see that very often. It was a little late for us to walk into the sand as it was getting darker; I was more worried about walking through the path back in the near dark. Twilight had passed and it was quite dark even at quarter past six on that humid evening. We had to rush our paces on the way back, searching for the little light strewn paths, so that we wouldn’t get harmed by any of the nature’s weapons (reptiles of any kind was possible there!). And we were quite relieved to get back into the car; off we went to the unrestricted Elliot’s beach and walked and talked till we got bored and ran out of things to talk. Now, I really have second thoughts about whether secluded beaches are any good as the common crowded beaches. May be it’s because, we wrongly chose a humid, cloudy day to go to the place I longed to see for a long time ; probably I need to go there on a fine evening to ascertain that !!