An Extract from IBN Live- A lesson for all of us who are doing nothing but burying ourselves in our workstations:
'All work and no play’ is slowly turning India into a developed nation. Or is it? Is that enough reason for workaholics to burn the candle on both the ends?
Here's a look at the perils of being obsessed with work on Workaholics Day.
W E Oates claims to have invented the term workaholism in his 1971 book, Confessions of a Workaholic, when he defined it as an addiction to work, the compulsion or the uncontrollable need to work incessantly'.
When careers become more than just a means to supply families with necessities and luxuries and when work becomes the sole aim and purpose of life, then it could be time to take a break.
Most people work to earn a living and for others, work gives them a role, a status and a sense of achievement. However, respect, money - the things people crave at workplaces - sometimes cannot compensate for happiness and a stress-free life.
Many 'get a life' propagandists see the office as an enemy and emphasise on the fact that more time has to be allowed for family, friends and other interests.
There is nothing wrong with being a hard worker, but there is fine line in just being a hard worker and being obsessed with the need to excel, be a perfectionist (with a competitive nature) – all in a compulsive drive to gain approval and success – and work soon becomes a state of mind.
However, the fact of the matter is that most workaholics are never really happy or for that matter successful, simply because they work themselves to a point of burnout and then some more.
Among the industrialised nations in the world, Americans work the longest hours - a whopping nine weeks (roughly 350 hours) more in a year than Eurpoeans.
The American way of life is to always strive for more, but stress and overwork can lead to all sorts of problems - anxiety for one. Workaholics find it difficult to relax, take holidays or even some time off everyday for leisure.
Some years ago, being called a workaholic was considered a compliment. In the 21st century, however, the term has taken on a completely different connotation and is being seen as an obsession that can wreak havoc on a person's health, marriage and personal life.
Workaholism can also lead to tiredness and ultimately to chronic fatigue.
Therapists stress on the fact that the first way to cure 'workaholism' is to accept the fact that one is a workaholic.
So how do you know if you are a self-motivated, success-driven, hard worker or a plain old workaholic? Take a look at these questions.
Do you carry your work home?
Do you prefer working alone, cannot delegate tasks and have a habit of talking fast and interrupting people?
Your happiness is in only your work?
Work takes over all your leisure time and even comes before family and friends? You have no social life outside of work?
You do not take vacations and when you do, you carry your work?
You get upset when people suggest you cut down on your work?
Work is on your mind all the time and you are stressed - both mentally and physically - because of work?
If you answered yes to most or all of the questions, then you are a workaholic. Beating the need to work too hard all the time can be tough but therapists say it's important to get out of the syndrome.
Start slowly, spending 15 minutes everyday to unwind and relax and then increase this time little by little. Take small steps in making a concentrated effort to meet up with family and friends.
Set limits on the hours and the attention that you devote to your job. Try and delegate tasks and focus on results rather than on the hours put in at work.
Consult a therapist if you need to discuss insecurities such as failure at the workplace.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Appraisal Reviews- Should they impact what you are?
I always appreciate a strong performance appraisal processes managed in the Organizations. I believe they are the yardsticks that measure the performance of a person during the appraisal period. Having had an opportunity to review performance of the team who reported to me and also every year getting reviewed by my respective managers, I felt I should write my opinion on this that can help my readers with one focus- do not get impacted by the outcome. In fact, I was a trained performance reviewer where I attended a 2 day workshop in Courtyard Marriott in 2005, conducted by National Institute of Sales, India sponsored by previous company.
I think this training helped me at times when I faced disappointment after I was reviewed. Do not wonder, how can an consistent performance award winner be talking about an appraisal review disappointment. It happens. It happens because of various reasons, sometimes explicit and sometimes implied. It also can be because your expectations are higher than what is possible to your managers during that period. I am not trying to be modest here, but it is the truth. Logistics go a long way in the appraisal process. It is as simple as the CA Institute having a pass target as 0.02 percent every year. It doesn't mean that remaining 99.98 percentage of people have not aimed at Passing CA exams and have not worked towards its goal. Understand the realities behind this process. At the same, it hurts right! Its like getting centum in a subject in a board exam but still not qualifying for a state rank. You keep wondering what was that, that did not make you get that medal from the chief minister?? Similar case.
How to handle such situations as a Manager?
As a manager, you are trained to handle this delicate situations, for some people react silently, where as some people speak out with frustration. Those are the moments of anxiety for them for they have toiled for an year for this day. Understand them with compassion, handle them with care. Give an ear in detail to what they have got to say. May be your earlier judgement need to be re-reviewed and corrective action to be taken.
Human Potential is the strongest asset of an organization and as a Manager you have the responsibility to handle them carefully. You are not dealing with machines and just oiling them when needed. You are dealing with people's hard work, emotions, loyalty, commitment and dedication. You are handling some one's career, ambition and growth. Do not let your personal prejudice's come in way of a fair judgement. Be fair and transparent. If you are justifying someone that they are not efficient enough and ready for a promotion, solid hike or a next best opportunity, be subjective and specific. Talk to them with details, areas of improvement, and right statistics. Remember you are legally bound to answer their queries and help them understand the facts behind the decisions you made. To not give comparative statements, irresponsible answers and illogical reasons for why they missed the opportunity. To them its a waiting period of one another year, and who knows you may not be their boss as well, and they may have to drive this cycle from the beginning. As Azim Premji rightly says, major share of people leave organizations because of a wrong boss. Hope you don't get under this umbrella.
Be a boss about whom your employees talk great, get inspired, find you as a role model and always want to stick on with you for the comfort of delegation, authority and responsibility you give them and also an opportunity to prove their potential. Only when your team grows, you grow- This is the basic principle of management.
How to handle such a situation as an employee:
It would be one of the most disturbing days when your manager releases the appraisal report for you. Be prepared. Expect the unexpected and this would avoid any kind of disappointment. Even before the cycle to begin, maintain a register or a log of what you have done during the appraisal cycle. Nothing helps you than valid data. Keep record of appreciations and special milestones that you made the team cross. Do not compare yourself to others, compare yourself to your last performance. Acknowledge if you have failed in any areas with a note of acceptance for improvement. Mistakes happen and greatness lies in making attempts to correct them and not let them repeat. Understand that your manager will be having all reasons why he decided something for you. Try to talk openly but firmly. Analyse what he or she has got to say. If you disagree, take it up with higher ups for a more transparent discussion. Do not point fingers or find fault with others in process but handle it with maturity and composure. If you are right, it will make your manager realise the same. This is one period where people jump into hasty decisions and leave the companies. Never do that. If you are not able to achieve, impress in an organization where you worked for sometime, how can you expect to make it big in the new place. People who sustain such disappointment, consistently work for the next opportunity and who prove that their managers are wrong at times, are the people who climbed top on the corporate ladders. Its not the people who hop jobs after every appraisal cycle, but are the people who are strong and who believe in themselves who make it big in their careers. Remember, its like an examiner correcting a examination paper, depending on his day, the marks come in, remember this happened in our school days, and our managers cant be much different!. Now don't hit me saying why should we be targeted because manager had a fight with his wife at home on the day of my review, or because he can only promote one person, or because he is not able to convince his higher ups, or because there is no budget to allow more hikes. Remember there can be more deeper reasons and which he do not need to share with you. Respect his decision making as long as he is transparent and provides your subjective explanation on why you were rated so.
Bounce back with more energy, regain enthusiasm, and work hard not letting them having any reason what so ever in future to let you down. Remember the Japanese Shoe Company, which produces more than what the owners can sell as part of their silent protest!!! Heads Up Guys, its time for next appraisal!!!
I think this training helped me at times when I faced disappointment after I was reviewed. Do not wonder, how can an consistent performance award winner be talking about an appraisal review disappointment. It happens. It happens because of various reasons, sometimes explicit and sometimes implied. It also can be because your expectations are higher than what is possible to your managers during that period. I am not trying to be modest here, but it is the truth. Logistics go a long way in the appraisal process. It is as simple as the CA Institute having a pass target as 0.02 percent every year. It doesn't mean that remaining 99.98 percentage of people have not aimed at Passing CA exams and have not worked towards its goal. Understand the realities behind this process. At the same, it hurts right! Its like getting centum in a subject in a board exam but still not qualifying for a state rank. You keep wondering what was that, that did not make you get that medal from the chief minister?? Similar case.
How to handle such situations as a Manager?
As a manager, you are trained to handle this delicate situations, for some people react silently, where as some people speak out with frustration. Those are the moments of anxiety for them for they have toiled for an year for this day. Understand them with compassion, handle them with care. Give an ear in detail to what they have got to say. May be your earlier judgement need to be re-reviewed and corrective action to be taken.
Human Potential is the strongest asset of an organization and as a Manager you have the responsibility to handle them carefully. You are not dealing with machines and just oiling them when needed. You are dealing with people's hard work, emotions, loyalty, commitment and dedication. You are handling some one's career, ambition and growth. Do not let your personal prejudice's come in way of a fair judgement. Be fair and transparent. If you are justifying someone that they are not efficient enough and ready for a promotion, solid hike or a next best opportunity, be subjective and specific. Talk to them with details, areas of improvement, and right statistics. Remember you are legally bound to answer their queries and help them understand the facts behind the decisions you made. To not give comparative statements, irresponsible answers and illogical reasons for why they missed the opportunity. To them its a waiting period of one another year, and who knows you may not be their boss as well, and they may have to drive this cycle from the beginning. As Azim Premji rightly says, major share of people leave organizations because of a wrong boss. Hope you don't get under this umbrella.
Be a boss about whom your employees talk great, get inspired, find you as a role model and always want to stick on with you for the comfort of delegation, authority and responsibility you give them and also an opportunity to prove their potential. Only when your team grows, you grow- This is the basic principle of management.
How to handle such a situation as an employee:
It would be one of the most disturbing days when your manager releases the appraisal report for you. Be prepared. Expect the unexpected and this would avoid any kind of disappointment. Even before the cycle to begin, maintain a register or a log of what you have done during the appraisal cycle. Nothing helps you than valid data. Keep record of appreciations and special milestones that you made the team cross. Do not compare yourself to others, compare yourself to your last performance. Acknowledge if you have failed in any areas with a note of acceptance for improvement. Mistakes happen and greatness lies in making attempts to correct them and not let them repeat. Understand that your manager will be having all reasons why he decided something for you. Try to talk openly but firmly. Analyse what he or she has got to say. If you disagree, take it up with higher ups for a more transparent discussion. Do not point fingers or find fault with others in process but handle it with maturity and composure. If you are right, it will make your manager realise the same. This is one period where people jump into hasty decisions and leave the companies. Never do that. If you are not able to achieve, impress in an organization where you worked for sometime, how can you expect to make it big in the new place. People who sustain such disappointment, consistently work for the next opportunity and who prove that their managers are wrong at times, are the people who climbed top on the corporate ladders. Its not the people who hop jobs after every appraisal cycle, but are the people who are strong and who believe in themselves who make it big in their careers. Remember, its like an examiner correcting a examination paper, depending on his day, the marks come in, remember this happened in our school days, and our managers cant be much different!. Now don't hit me saying why should we be targeted because manager had a fight with his wife at home on the day of my review, or because he can only promote one person, or because he is not able to convince his higher ups, or because there is no budget to allow more hikes. Remember there can be more deeper reasons and which he do not need to share with you. Respect his decision making as long as he is transparent and provides your subjective explanation on why you were rated so.
Bounce back with more energy, regain enthusiasm, and work hard not letting them having any reason what so ever in future to let you down. Remember the Japanese Shoe Company, which produces more than what the owners can sell as part of their silent protest!!! Heads Up Guys, its time for next appraisal!!!
Switching Hats
Over the years, I think I have managed to do excellent multi-tasking in my career. What made me a bit of go-getter in any stream of activity in an organization today may be because I am kind of a soul ready to wear any hat. From the basic office administration, consulting, training, recruitments, customer service, requirements handling, business meetings, sales and service, test analysis and test management, migrations, change management, Release management, configuration and build control, research and technical analysis, feasibility studies, support functions, business analysis, strategic planning, corporate training, documentation, team mentoring, management reporting, coordination, community service, organizational events, innovation and Project Management. Be it any area of business, I think I had an opportunity to do it with zeal and dedication. Be it any flavors of business, the concepts are the same and if applied right will achieve the end results.
It is not an aim to switching my roles from one area to another, in a particular industry or switch from one industry to another. It is being active and surviving in a project that requires myriad of tasks to be done by the team. The roles can be parallel or for few days in the project lifespan. The value addition that it makes is much larger than being confined to one limited role, for this gives you an opportunity to learn and deliver much faster than others in the industry. At the same I need to concur that the challenge is big and vital for you have to do justice to multiple roles you are handling. This also gives you a chance to see a project from conception period to consummation, in different roles. This process had given me required knowledge to understand how a specific product or service can be delivered in any industry (Healthcare, educational, banking and financial sector or auto-domain) from head to tail on macro level.
You may now doubt what I have been stating here. This will sound impractical unless I give you an example of a story.
My first role started when I started to assist the project manager on the planning of the project. Process and project activity go hand in hand and I was involved in drafting all the project documents necessary to support initiation of the project as a quality representative. Right from estimations, cost and budgeting, resource plans, actual recruitment, scope management, communication, business requirement and documentation pertaining to project, quality, risk, tailoring of standards, configuration, security, testing and release management. Here you get an opportunity to dive deep into the industry standards, organizational guidelines and project objectives and arrive at set standards and goals for the project. Once we were done with the planning and defining the scope of the project, getting a blueprint of our implementation strategy, and got the budget approval, I quickly changed my hat to getting details of understanding the existing and proposed system that we are going to deliver.
Once we were done with knowledge transition, I was wearing multiple hats as a SQA, project lead, test lead, CM lead and Release Manager which infact looked weird in reality but practically involving in parallel analysis. I was helping the team on coming up with the business process, functional requirements and identifying the right resources for right technologies. This task once accomplished followed actual development activity, close coordination of various team, and testing the system under various testing categories. Once the test strategy was designed, agreed and executed, the coordination with the development and business to bridge the gaps becomes a vital task. Here I was donning the hat of a business analyst and also a test manager. Once the system was ready to be delivered to the customer, I had to move closer to the Business. So moved as an onsite coordinator closure to the actual users of the system and started to get ready for the launch. My final and current hat is a red hat, like the one fire fighters wear, making you run on toes. Meaning, everything is getting done and the client has to agree to implement the new system. This period is critical and complicated as you can always expect anomalies in the behavior of the system. It need complete coordination, efficient communication, rapid response, immediate actions and end you in a highly charging environment where you have to be very alert, aggressive and proactive to the business expectations. A small slippage on your part can cost a lot to the project. It’s like you are representing the entire efforts of your team to the client and you are actually pulling the apple cart for the final bid. My manager once called this team a SWAT team. This team will also have to train and get the actual business representatives acclimatized with the new system by user review sessions. Was also responsible for triaging and escalating any issues that come our way by pointing them in the right direction using our extensive project background knowledge. In fact, we become the helpful support team to look for when you run into a bit of trouble during implementation. This is the most exciting and challenging role because you are a part of the crucial team and also coordinating with various people from your own teams and of the client and has to keep everyone on the same page.
Managed to do these roles so far so good and one year’s time which might sound long actually gives you many long years of experience. Given the kind of technical complexities and multiple time zones, multiple interfaces and multiple people across the globe, it is great that my team is able to meet the challenges. I am fortunate to be working on such complex project for I get to taste various flavors of the industry. The pride is being there from the beginning and get to see it go through and can conclude happily when the client gets the return on investment they envisaged and give us a note of thanks at the end of the project. This sort of experience makes you a strong professional ready to wear any hat and still manage it successfully.
It is not an aim to switching my roles from one area to another, in a particular industry or switch from one industry to another. It is being active and surviving in a project that requires myriad of tasks to be done by the team. The roles can be parallel or for few days in the project lifespan. The value addition that it makes is much larger than being confined to one limited role, for this gives you an opportunity to learn and deliver much faster than others in the industry. At the same I need to concur that the challenge is big and vital for you have to do justice to multiple roles you are handling. This also gives you a chance to see a project from conception period to consummation, in different roles. This process had given me required knowledge to understand how a specific product or service can be delivered in any industry (Healthcare, educational, banking and financial sector or auto-domain) from head to tail on macro level.
You may now doubt what I have been stating here. This will sound impractical unless I give you an example of a story.
My first role started when I started to assist the project manager on the planning of the project. Process and project activity go hand in hand and I was involved in drafting all the project documents necessary to support initiation of the project as a quality representative. Right from estimations, cost and budgeting, resource plans, actual recruitment, scope management, communication, business requirement and documentation pertaining to project, quality, risk, tailoring of standards, configuration, security, testing and release management. Here you get an opportunity to dive deep into the industry standards, organizational guidelines and project objectives and arrive at set standards and goals for the project. Once we were done with the planning and defining the scope of the project, getting a blueprint of our implementation strategy, and got the budget approval, I quickly changed my hat to getting details of understanding the existing and proposed system that we are going to deliver.
Once we were done with knowledge transition, I was wearing multiple hats as a SQA, project lead, test lead, CM lead and Release Manager which infact looked weird in reality but practically involving in parallel analysis. I was helping the team on coming up with the business process, functional requirements and identifying the right resources for right technologies. This task once accomplished followed actual development activity, close coordination of various team, and testing the system under various testing categories. Once the test strategy was designed, agreed and executed, the coordination with the development and business to bridge the gaps becomes a vital task. Here I was donning the hat of a business analyst and also a test manager. Once the system was ready to be delivered to the customer, I had to move closer to the Business. So moved as an onsite coordinator closure to the actual users of the system and started to get ready for the launch. My final and current hat is a red hat, like the one fire fighters wear, making you run on toes. Meaning, everything is getting done and the client has to agree to implement the new system. This period is critical and complicated as you can always expect anomalies in the behavior of the system. It need complete coordination, efficient communication, rapid response, immediate actions and end you in a highly charging environment where you have to be very alert, aggressive and proactive to the business expectations. A small slippage on your part can cost a lot to the project. It’s like you are representing the entire efforts of your team to the client and you are actually pulling the apple cart for the final bid. My manager once called this team a SWAT team. This team will also have to train and get the actual business representatives acclimatized with the new system by user review sessions. Was also responsible for triaging and escalating any issues that come our way by pointing them in the right direction using our extensive project background knowledge. In fact, we become the helpful support team to look for when you run into a bit of trouble during implementation. This is the most exciting and challenging role because you are a part of the crucial team and also coordinating with various people from your own teams and of the client and has to keep everyone on the same page.
Managed to do these roles so far so good and one year’s time which might sound long actually gives you many long years of experience. Given the kind of technical complexities and multiple time zones, multiple interfaces and multiple people across the globe, it is great that my team is able to meet the challenges. I am fortunate to be working on such complex project for I get to taste various flavors of the industry. The pride is being there from the beginning and get to see it go through and can conclude happily when the client gets the return on investment they envisaged and give us a note of thanks at the end of the project. This sort of experience makes you a strong professional ready to wear any hat and still manage it successfully.
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