Setting New Benchmarks....

I dedicate this post to my dear friend sujay who has completely demoralised me in the past few weeks for reasons that will become clear in the course of this post..so just hang on..right, now read on..

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Nothing like 'it' ( read IT)

IT has been a great revelation indeed. It brought with it sweeping changes. lifestyle, job-pay equations changed. real estate went haywire. The penchant for naangu kannaadi suvargal became infectious. Pubs got a facelift with a new thriving 'the young n the glamorous' software professionals. parties were becoming as banal as my daily dose of thayir sadam..suddenly everybody was talking about a knowledge revolution ( though there was no great knowledge in fact :P ) . people were becoming eligible bachelors at the age of 21. outsourcing was a super jargon. tell u what the single most fundamental that IT has contributed has been the supernumerary stupefying jargons which nobody understood yet used in a prolific fashion. english was seen the greatest strength of indians. british ppl for all their brute ( centuries/decades back) were suddenly being worshipped for their seminal contribution to the flourishing of english in the 'land of snakes and sadhus'. suddenly corporate governance and clause 49 seemed so vital to india's ethical standards. cool was the most hapening english word. dude changed to dood changed to God knows what next. onsites became the in-thing. you had to be the infoscian or cognizantian ( famous for long term onsites) who could get brides by the numbers. US was no longer a distant dream. you did not hv to do an MBA to rake in the moolah. two wheelers were left to aam junta. presence of coconut oil on ur head became a rarity. new terms emerged.. DISK --> double income singlke kid. DINK --> double income no kid et al.

In between these developments, emerged a very new phenomenon which i shall now take great pains to describe. It is not only an interesting phenomenon but also something that goes against established norms of work and compensation.

IT has been the leaders in Benchmarking. The parameter though is quite a novel one..

Bench marking in IT for " MARKING OF BENCHES"

for the very few priveleged who yet do not undetstand what benches mean..i got a simple proposition!

what do u do at home when u don hv work..u sit on a sofa...so what hapens if u don hv work in an IT company..you sit on bench!! did it sound so simple? we have not even thought abt the effort one makes in drving past crowded roads and a dozen traffic signals to just get to those benches which r kinda waiting for u . i initially used to dream that there would be huge reception hall which would be well garnished by as many modern art pantings. in the centre of this huge hall would lie long benches on which these young whizkids would be well ensconsed waiting to be called for an occasional project. i m not joking. i really imagined of such a scenario. the picture looked like a a police station which would hv these guys sitting on a bench waiting to bee seen by the inspector. and it was a matter of difference in terminologies betwen the two..about crime sheets an time sheets. or like u come daily and sign at the police station for a bail, u wd sign up these time sheets....


for my cousin who has come home on a short visity..being at home or at office is just a matter of aesthetics....he has a comfortable sofa at home or he can use the bench at office. tv at home is replaced by a computer well equipped with a yahoo messenger and a gtalk. orkut will not be or-cut for a while even though it is becoming an isue these days....suddenly IBM stands for 'International Bench Machine' ....bench experiences can be useful case studies for work conflicts in organisation behaviour lectures. you get paid not for the work but for ur number. IT people needs leaders. and they need them in herds :P . We see documantaries and sirappu paarvais abt how IT people are stressed out seeing the same screen of computer..( yeah they do..how can they keep reading others scrapbooks for so long and find out whos after who..and who are the hot bobs and the babes). yahoo and google thrived slowly because of the software ppl market who hv mostly no other job other than to use these " efficiency" tools !

the syptoms are amusing but nonetheless dangerous. initially people were stressed out that they din hv jobs and money. then they were stressed that they did hv job and not much money. now they r stressed due to good money and no job. perhaps the chairs need to be more aesthetic in design.

companies pay big money just to keep talent. they want to make profits while still operating against the fundamental economic principles. they talk all abt efficiency while the bench does not contribue to the bottomline. getting big deals from clients becomes more similar to the mechanics of marriage fixing in regional india. bench strength is like the fixed assets that they pledge while taking a loan or a collateral for offerng dowry to the boys side! the more the bench strength u hv the more theprobability of getting a huge order. you r hired using atttractive job designations while only Perumal can determine ur future.

take the interview room for instance. in between you and the panel is this bench ( also called a table) which is the barrier. u hv to swim across the bench to get to the other side of the table.perhaps it is a symbolic way of telling how life is.

just like a a guy taking orders in a restaurant becomes a saraku master , one becomes a bench master in IT, if he is unlucky ( or even lucky) .

well, i did opt for IT. and sujay made me sure that i felt small after feeding me with enough theoretical frameworks on the emergence, principles, operational mechanics of benches and the future outlook of these benevolent bench machines.

well, i dont know what i will be doing..i hv chosen it. I hv left everything to Perumal. and looking forward to taste the IT experience.

finally its all a matter of luck. even in my chemical company there were guys who used to do well in training and got worthless plants and i got a good plant after having been through a pathetic evaluation and ending up amongst the bottom few.

So whether one gets into a bench or not is not a matter of choice. but nor is it a matter of talent or so i guess.

whatver, the concept of benches remains as mystic as ever.

all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.
all bench and full pay makes jack..............

????

isn't that something to ponder....well i don hv a clue..have you?