Dealing with Doctors

In my present role with my organization, I interact a lot with the Doctors. All of them are Post Graduate specialists. I have always had deep regards for Doctors because I feel that their field of work involves rising above self and helping the mankind by curing diseases. But off late, this belief of mine has started weakening. Over the last one year there have been numerous instances which have caused.

I have experienced them to be extremely money minded. This is still acceptable because in today's world who isn't. But then they will still keep on glorifying themselves and their profession. Give me a break!!! Either you decide that you are God's gift to mankind or you run after money.

They do not have the basic etiquette. Calling someone at 10pm on a Saturday, just to check if you can go on leave 5 days later, is a torture. Most of them will call on Sunday afternoon to tell you that They have received Rs 500 less in their salary. Agreed that these things are important, but you were taught to read time on the watch in primary school. These can certainly wait one more day. Worst was one doctor who kept on arguing for increase in salary because he has done his MBBS, MD and studied hard to clear Pre-medical Test. I got so irritated that I had to tell him that look dude if you have slogged for PMT then I have studied equally hard, if not more, to clear Pre-engineering Test and MBA entrance exams. And, believe you me, I was not at all kind while explaining this to me.

Some where I feel that when these Doctors are studying, their exposure is only to the hospitals, where they are interacting with patients. But these days most of them chose to work in private sector medical set-ups and hospitals, and are not aware of the corporate culture. I strongly feel that even medical education should incorporate communication skills and basic management skills in their curriculum. At least e-mail etiquette are a must. Even if these Doctors have their own clinics, they need to have sense of managing things and Hospital Management programmes are the key.

Whether this happens with others or not, I am not sure. But for me this exposure has been an eye-opener. Still have a long way to go...

Growth From Within

A few days back I was at a friend's place and the discussion moved on to promotions in our respective organizations and the growth opportunities. The organizations prefer to grow people from within the ranks, to fill up the vacant position, to highlight growth avenues, to motivate employees and hence, to retain them. But, for people who are grown from the grass root level, have they been successful?

Agreed that the person who has worked his/her way up the ranks, is thorough with the processed, knows the system, knows the customer. But is s/he equipped with right skills to take up the leadership role, that is being offered. Most of the Government Organizations/ PSUs give promotion on the basis of your tenure in the organization. People keep on moving up the ladder. They handle teams, starting from one or two to tens or twenties. They probably understand the technicalities involved in the day to day work of their subordinates, but then leadership is not just that. Somewhere they are just not ready to manage the dynamics involved in handling people.

This is not the case with only Government organizations or PSUs. Many of the private sector organizations or the MNCs also tend to ignore this. They may keep on blowing the trumpet of growth avenues within the organization, in the name of 'Succession Planning' but what about training and mentoring? Have you prepared the person to handle the new role? Just because customers are happy with an employee does not mean that s/he can lead a team?

I feel rather than just promoting people in the name of growth and motivation, there has to be a proper growth route laid out, that is, succession planning. Organizations, of late, are realizing the importance, but still it has to go a long way. Till the time it gets applied to PSUs and Government set ups, I will not term it as a 'success'.

No Work @ Work

Around three years back when I started my first job, I was an enthusiastic B-School pass out with dreams in my eyes and passion to work and grow in the corporate world. I used to be immersed in work. I changed organization and work fascinated me more. Some times I would just wish and hope that there were no work to do for a few days. It would be so relaxing, I could do so many things, starting with leaving office at sharp 1800 hrs!

I am pretty sure, a lot of the working class feels and wishes and hopes the same. And people, my wish has just come true recently. For the first few months in my current role, I was nose-deep in work. Even working on Sundays, travelling all across Punjab. I must admit that I enjoyed it but silently dreamed of lazing around in office. Recently, my prayers of those days have been answered. For the first few days I enjoyed going to office at 10.30 am, having my cup of coffee, checking e-mails, searching the www for some updates. Gossiping with the team members came next, followed by wishing the Birthday Babies. And, then its time for lunch, followed by another gossip session. A little work to justify my employer transferring money into my bank account every month. But overall a very sarkaari kind of workstyle. I would leave at dot 1801.Wow, how relaxed I felt!

Those of you getting jealous and letting go off your envy full throttle, HAULT! It is not as rosy as it appears to be. Believe me, after a week of this work life you will do anything to get work! Getting paid for doing nothing is not as easy as it seems. The mind starts to rust. How many cups of coffee/tea will you drink in a day? How much gossip will you do with others over days and days? How many hours of wilfing can you bear?

I am still an ambitious worker in a big corporate with big dreams, but having no work at work is a pain in the wrong place! And, it is extremely difficult to bear it. Those who can relate to this scenario, and looking out for remedies, be a little more patient. Soon, I shall be an expert at guding how to cruise through the difficult times.

Office Dressing- The Code

I had mentioned in an earlier post (E-etiquette Wise) about a gentleman whose e-mail had led me to my search. Co-incidentally (or may be something else) the same gentlemen turned in office this Tuesday dressed in a very very weird T-shirt, and here I was getting orders from my manager, and yours truly was searching on 'Dress Code'.

Well, I had done similar research a couple of years back in my previous organization, and was sure that this one too would be a cakewalk. Though I knew that I would have to tweak few things as per my current organization. As I started checking relevance of my material, I was surprised by the results.

A couple of years back, the dress code for corporates was formal dressing for weekdays and smart casuals on Friday or Saturday, depending upon whether you worked five days or six days. The IT companies, though, were rewriting the code, courtesy the trends in the ITES sector. But majorly, the companies stuck to the formal code.

But now, the rules have changed. Most of the companies today follow the simple code of Dress to chill. Women come dressed in kurtas, funky skirts and wrap-arounds. Business suits, sarees and starched cotton salwar-kameez are reserved for power meetings. Gentlemen prefer the good old pair of jeans, khakis and chinos.

With more and more young blood getting pumped into the corporate world, even the very formal business suits are getting designer. Board room dressing has definitely come of age. Hugo Boss, Armani and other top brands are adding extra punch.

But the old school of thought still maintains that what you see is what you get. A formal attire leads you to behave in a very subtle and elegant manner, while the casual look gives an air of informality and "to hell with rules" kind of a feeling.

The debate is still on, and it depends on where you are working and with whom you are working. But there is a class of workers which chooses the workplace based on the attire it permits! An acquaintance had once turned down an offer to work with a top company just because he would raise brows if he ever walked down in shorts!!!!

As far as I can see, casual's the word. But, people, its safe to keep a mix of clothes.

As for me, I am much more dress-wise , but I could definitely do with some wardrobe tips.

E- etiquette wise

Yesterday evening I read an email sent by a very senior manager in the company and looking at the way it was composed and formatted I was shocked. How can people be so ignorant as to use caps and red colour for a very simple sentence?? So, that set me to search material on Email Etiquettes on the www. I did hit upon some very informative pieces.

I must confess here that as a part of my job I send very informal mails to team members using wierd colours/fonts/images, and some of them are toooooo wierd to even think that they can be official! Well, jokes apart, formal mails call for following some basic rules nad norms. And here I was gathering information to educate people in my organization, which believe me is a very tough job. All managers think that they are know-alls! So, the information had to be convincing and yet not rude.

Some of the useful pieces I came across were by The Crabby Lady, at Amit Agarwal's Blog and a presentation by Himanshu posted on CiteHR

I did compile my own list of Do's and Do Not's and circulated the same. But, all that while I was wondering how tiny things overlooked can annoy others. Someone once said to me, "Most literate people are not educated". I could not help but relate the situation with those words. Making old economy or even current tech savvy generations computer literate does not essentially mean that they are now gurus of the e-world.

I have come across old men with laptops who do not even know how to set 'Print Area' in a worksheet! And these are the people who make strategies in the board rooms and play with data!!! I donot mean to be rude here but the computer institutes that have sprung up like mushrooms must also stress on this.

This research on Email Etiquettes has made me look at every email I come across with a raised brow. Well, as for my team members hope they do put the info to some use.