Make Friends at Work

 This week, I saw two young professionals fail at their required tasks. Not because they are not great thinkers or hard workers (they are intelligent and hard working). Not because they did not know what was expected of them.

Can you guess what the reason was?

They did not have a network. So, people hid behind jobsworth, delayed their tasks, and succeeded in making them look bad at their job (which I knew they were not).

Not only had these bright young people not invested in cultivating an office network, they had also managed to actively antagonise people.

Which took me back to my first month in the HCL Technologies office. For a starry-eyed fresh grad, being in a first name basis company was mindboggling.
One day, I had to book a travel ticket and was guided to the person in Admin.
"So, I have to talk to Chitra?" I piped to a colleague.
"No. You have to talk to Chitra ji. Everyone else is first name. Chitra ji is Chitra ji."
I walked up to her and introduced myself - "Chitra ji, ek favour chahiye tha."
She smiled, "Haan batao na."

Chitra ji's daughter is also called Nidhi.
When I left office, she gave me a farewell gift which remained in my home office for more than a decade - a smiling toffee box.
Last week, Chitra ji and I spoke on the phone. We remain in touch. 25 years and counting.

On Driving

 Dear genius drivers who think you can drive and text perfectly...

Here is what you actually do:
A. Hold up traffic on two lane roads because you are not looking in the rear view mirror. You are moving at 20 in a lane that generally also moves at 40. The pain is real.

B. Stop people from parking because you are looking at your phone instead of looking for a parking spot. The car behind you? They cannot overtake, but they are not on a drive through outing. They actually would like to park and get out of that car. (Note: They cannot overtake you).

C. Delay signals because you were texting and the light turned green. While you wrote that "Bye" and pressed the pedal... oops, the light was red again!

This is unsafe driving. And it is being done by people who ARE on Linkedin.

Time was, if a car ahead of us suddenly slowed down, we would get worried. Then it became "He is checking google maps or talking on the phone". Now, they are just texting and trying to look at the windscreen. The rear-view mirror does not stand a chance.