Project management

“I quiT” – Episode @35

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 3 Comments

(12:22 PM)

Ishwarya took a deep breath when she heard those lines from Meher. After few seconds, “Look Meher, here, you should not be sticking to one single technology or process. You should be ready to work on any technology and process.”

Before Meher replied to that question, “Then, why each one of us were trained in specific technology Ishwarya?” asked Indu very aggressively.

For just one moment, Ishwarya had no answer. After few seconds, “That is to gain specialization in that particular area or technology. It doesn’t mean that you have to stick with that.You have to keep learning other technologies and should explore things as well” replied Ishwarya.

She noticed that Meher and Indu are silent when she said those lines. “See Indu and Meher, you are still juniors; you don’t know the bigger picture. Things are changing day by day rapidly. Technology keeps changing and the market requirement keeps changing. We have to mould ourselves and adapt those changes. Or else you cannot survive in this highly competitive world. That is why you have to keep learning other technologies and processes also. Hope you understand what I am trying to explain.” said Ishwarya trying to make them understand the need to adapt to things and keep ourselves ready in this rapidly changing world.

These particular lines injected little thought in both of them. They started thinking on those lines and also set about understanding the need to change and accept things.

“Thank you Ishwarya for making us understand the need of multi-tasking.” Indu replied raising her head above and showing her confidence.

“Yes Ishwarya, Indu is right. What you said is true. We will start putting more efforts in this and will bring out the best of us” said Meher.

“Good. Try to learn as many techniques as you can. It can be technology or process or domain. Whatever it may be, learn and improve your knowledge. There is nothing wrong in gaining knowledge on cross domains and process. Got it?”

“Yes Ishwarya. Sure, we will do that” replied Indu and Meher with a great confidence in their articulation.

Three of them discussed about the next steps and various other things.In between, Ishwarya gave them little tips and motivated them to bring out better productivity and to encourage their performance.

Indu and Meher became close with each other and used to collectively complete all the tasks assigned by Ishwarya. Indu now became part of Ishanth and Meher gang. Slowly she started taking Uthrani’s place in the pack.As Indu and Meher used to work combine at office, the same thing carried out of office. She used to be very friendly with both Ishanth and Meher. But, with Meher, she used to be little closer and more friendly. Sometimes, Ishanth used to tease Meher with her name.

As days went on, work performance of Indu and Meher raised above the level. It also created a few of competitiveness between them. But, they never took it personally. They used to serve each other whenever someone gets struck in their workplace.

Whenever Ishwarya used to notice that they are getting de-motivated or their performance is going down, she used to motivate them through her talks.

(02:18 PM – 3 weeks later)

One day, Ishwarya called Indu and Meher to her cabin.

“Hey guys, I feel so proud to tell you that you guys are doing extremely well. In the last two weeks, there is no single process which failed the QA phase. Keep it going!Keep up your spirit and motivation levels. If at all you need anything, just come to me and I will be ready to help you out.Okay” said Ishwarya appreciating both of them for the splendid work they were doing for the last two weeks.

Indu and Meher felt extremely happy for that and they decided to celebrate that little success during the coming weekend. They communicated this to each other by simply exchanging their looks.

“One more thing guys, you can improve your project completion period by setting up targets at hourly level and putting your complete efforts to achieve that.This way, you can easily separate your tasks and also you can know what time of the day your efficiency is more.”

“Sure Ishwarya” said both of them.

“Indu and Meher, I want to say you one thing, this is a highly competitive world, if you relax for just one day, then you will go back ages old. Be alert, be confident and adapt changes.”

Indu and Meher nodded their head saying “Yes.”

“Okay guys; get back to your work. I have a meeting scheduled at 02:30.I will get back to you sometime next week. Thank you” said Ishwarya.

“Okay Ishwarya. Thank you” said Indu and Meher and left the cabin.

(02:30 PM)

Ishwarya and Quadhar got assembled in a video conference room and are waiting for Mr. Thyagarajan to get connected through video.

After a few minutes, Thyagarajan got connected and wished both of them “Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon Thyagarajan” said Ishwarya and then Quadhar followed her.

When the welcoming greetings are over, “Thanks for joining Ishwarya and Quadhar. I called you both to discuss about the changes that we are trying to incorporate in the structure and process. I already gave you an insight on these two weeks back. I hope you remember.”

“Yes Thyagarajan” replied Ishwarya and Quadhar.

“Good. As I told you, our Senior Vice President Mr. Andrew asked us to form a team who will work on process and productivity improvement. He is mainly concentrating on productivity. During our last quarterly meet, he raised concerns on the productivity of each individual employee which will jointly determine the productivity of the team and so on.He decided to organize a team called the Productivity Indexing (PI) team.This exceptional team will examine and interpret the works done by each single employee for a period of 4 weeks and will submit a report. Andrew and other leadership team will drill down through that report to come up with a higher level doc.When that is done, we may get a bunch of changes in the structure and process.”Said Mr. Thyagarajan. He gave a complete picture of what the PI team will be doing.

He took approximately 15 minutes to explain in detail about the program and how they will be enforcing it. After all that is done, “Ishwarya, from our team you will be part of this PI team. In 2 to 3 days we will get further updates on the plan.”

“Sure Thyagarajan” replied Ishwarya.

Even though Quadhar sat in the discussion, he dint open out much. It was more like a discussion between Thyagarajan and Ishwarya.

(03:10 PM)

When that discussion was over, “Quadhar.Did you complete all the procedures?”

“Yes Thyagarajan, I completed all these formalities.”

“Good” said Thyagarajan and then “Ishwarya, please schedule a meeting sometime next week with the whole squad.”

@Send-Off

Guess the story: What may be those changes?

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“I quiT” – Episode @28

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 2 Comments

And, when I had to stay back for one extra day as my brothers engagement was fixed all of a sudden, I called Quadhar and informed. He listened to me and said ok. I felt good for that.

That day afternoon, I got a message to my mobile from an unknown number.”

(06:45 PM, Bangalore City Rly Station)

“Please call me back”.

I actually received that message one hour before. But, as I was busy with the function at home, I dint check it right away. And when I saw that, I immediately called back to that number.

“Hello. Who is this?”  – Uthrani

“Uthrani. This is Thyagarajan.”

“Hi Thyagarajan. Sorry. I don’t have your number and so couldn’t recognize you. Sorry.”

“That’s alright. Where are you?”

“Thyagarajan, I am in my home town.”

“Are you not coming to the office today?”

“No Thyagarajan. I have informed Quadhar of this in the morning.”

“Whom are you reporting to?” Thyagarajan asked me with a very strong tone. I was not able to understand with what intentions he asked me such a question. I did not know what to answer him.

After waiting for a few seconds and preparing myself, I replied “Thyagarajan. I am reporting to you.”

“Then whom should you inform regarding your leave request?”

I started getting tense with this second question. But, as I have to answer him, I did. “You Thyagarajan.”

“Then why are you saying that you informed Quadhar.”

“Thyagarajan. Quadhar is our team lead and he is the one who is allocating tasks to us and so I informed him.”

“Uthrani. You are not a junior to teach everything. Team leader is different from the person whom you are reporting. The team leader is the person who will allocate your tasks. That’s it. But, all other things you have to get in touch with your reporting manager. I don’t think I should teach you all these things. And the other most important thing is that. We are in a crucial period. We have to demo to our clients next week and now if the team goes for a vacation, how do you think we can go ahead as per the schedule.”

I was completely silent with that kind of response from him. I never expected such a response from him. I applied for leave one month earlier and that too I planned a vacation for just 3 days after 4 months gap. And yet he reacted that way. I was totally upset with his answer. Just to keep the conversation up, I replied him “Thyagarajan. 2 months back when you visited Bengaluru, you said that Quadhar will be our team lead and will take care of all of us. And so I informed him.”

“Yes, Take care I meant project related activities. Remember that I am your official reporting manager.”

Every reply from him is making me more and more sad and angry at him. I wanted to fight back with answers. But, considering the kind of replies he is giving, I decided to pull it down at some point before I break out completely. “Sorry Thyagarajan. As he is our Team Lead, I thought I should inform him and so called him and informed.”

“Uthrani, it doesn’t look good if you go for leave during a crucial period like this. I never thought you would be so irresponsible. I hope this will not be repeated next time. You have to plan your vacations not in these kinds of periods. I heard that you just submitted your code to the QA without performing Unit Testing. That is a very unhealthy practice. It will give way to lots of bugs from the testing team which will ultimately result in the decrease of the QA ratings. You are not at a stage to learn all these now. You crossed 2 years. You should be mindful of all these things.”

The whole conversation went on the same path. He is trying to dominate with just two points. And so I just remained silent without replying him back. The conversation went on for almost 15 minutes. And at the end, he said that “Hope I can see you back in the office by Wednesday morning” and disconnected the call.

After the call, I locked myself in the room and sat idle for about 30 minutes and was crying incessantly. I do not know what to do. I cannot share this with anyone. I saved this for myself and was crying like a child. Every word he spoke hurt me very badly. He was the one who said that Quadhar will be our team lead and we have to reach Quadhar for any kind of information and so I informed him. I also said Quadhar to inform Thyagarajan. He said that Thyagarajan approved. I did not understand whom to blame. That was not the first time either. He scolded many times. But, that day I can never forget. And especially the way he talked. For one moment I felt like why I am working baring all his words. From last four months I dint take any leave. I worked late nights many days and also almost 3 to 4 weekends I spent my time at the office working on the project. In the last 8 months, all my code was 95% QA average. I was the one who completes the task even before the time. Even when my mom came, I used to stay late nights because I am committed to the work I do.

When things go fine, he won’t say anything and when something goes wrong little bit, he fires back. I don’t know what rights he has to scold the employees.

All these thoughts, I kept within myself. I’ve never really shared it with anyone. If my family members will know this; they will immediately stop me from doing my job. I dint even share with my mom because she is the only one who supports me for doing a job and now if she saw me feeling bad, she will also turn against my decision. And so I was not yet in a position to deal with anyone. I kept everything within myself. It was so incredibly painful. Every word, every question, every answer from him disturbed me a lot.”

Uthrani explained her pain to Ishanth and Ramya. Both of them had no words to reply to Uthrani. They were just staring at her. After a minute, Ishanth replied.

“So Uthrani that is the reason you took this decision?” – Ishanth.

“Not exactly Ishanth. After that day, the next day I started from home. As I got tickets for break journey, I had to travel till Mumbai and then from there I had to catch another train to Pune. My mom and my brother accompanied me till Mumbai. After we reached Mumbai, we were waiting in the waiting hall for my next train. I and mom were talking about my family. All of a sudden, my mom raised topic about my job.”

“Uthrani beti, you are happy with your job right?”

“Why are you asking like that mom?”

“Uthrani, you know right. None of our family members agreed when you said you will go for job. Even dad dint agree. But, I made them agree for this. After you joined, many times discussion came in home regarding the same.  In situations like that, it was very tough for me to make them calm down. I used to make them calm so that they won’t discuss that with you over the phone or when you come home. It was all going fine Uthrani. But from recent times, it is getting tougher and tougher especially from the time of your marriage discussion. But, I don’t think I can stop it anymore Uthrani. Some or the other day you have to get married and when that day comes, I cannot make your husband’s family agree for this. Hope you understand. I thought of telling you all these when I came to Bengaluru. But, you were getting late at office and so I dint trouble you. Apart from all these, when I was in Bengaluru, one day you came from office at midnight. You looked very much afraid and tensed. You were continuously looking back till you came inside the home and even after coming inside, you were frequently looking out through the window. I thought of asking you what happened. But, I know that you will share with me if there is anything and also I thought not to disturb you more as you were already tired at office. The next day when I had casual talks with neighbors, I came to know that the area is not so good for women, especially at midnight. And also many incidents happened in that area.”

My mom explained everything that is happening at home. She never spoke about all those in these 2 years. When I noticed that she came to know about the area we are living, I tried to convince her saying that there is nothing like that.

“Mom, there is nothing like that. Everything is fine. Long back few incidents happened. But, now it’s all fine.”

“Uthrani. I trust you and so I dint discuss that with you till now. But, I am only afraid that if something goes wrong, I cannot answer our family as I was the only one who supported you when you said that you are interested in going for job. Even though you worked late nights, you never looked much tired and used to go back early morning the next day. So, I understood that you are dedicated and also very much interested in what you are doing. Beta, I am fine as long as you are happy with your life. I will do my best to stop our family as long as possible.”

When she said those words, she almost cried hugging me. And, even I was not able to control myself. Tears came down running. When the train arrived, I got inside. The only thing that was running in my mind is the discussion happened between me and my mom. To be frank, my mom is pushing my family members so hard. She is doing it, right from my graduation. I thought it’s not fair for me to make her face those situations just because of me. And, on the other side, even I was not happy at my job because of these guys who always cares about their projects, deadlines and clients. They are never concerned about the person who is completing the task. They are worried only about the task. All they need is the completion of task and are never bothered about the person behind it. The whole thing was running in my mind continuously for 4 hours. And then finally I took this decision. My family is not happy with my job; my mom had to face tough situations at home. And even I am not happy working and so I took this decision.

I dint share this with anyone because I don’t want people to start giving me suggestions or advices saying that be strong, problems will come, you have to face them being bold and all those things to lift my confidence levels. But, this is nothing like that. This is a pain which only I know how much it is hurting and how much it is disturbing. Yes, there are so many people who are working despite of the situations like this. But, I can say only one thing. Only that person will know how much it hurts when you are facing problems like this. I would have continued for some more days if I am happy at my work. But, I don’t think a day like that will ever come. These people will never see people as people. And they don’t even have a little concern even though we are women’s.

@Twist

Guess the story: Do you think its a fine reason to quit the job?

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“I quiT” – Episode @25

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 10 Comments

“What is that Prem? Tell me.” Asked Quadhar getting tensed a little bit.

“Quadhar. You are working as Team Leader in your current organization right. Here, you will be getting almost similar pay but then there is no TL role opportunity. You will be considered as a team member and then maybe after a year you will be given the TL role.” Replied Prem in a very modest tone. He is worried that Quadhar may feel bad and so hesitated to tell this straight to Quadhar.

Quadhar remained silent for a few seconds. As soon as he heard that from Prem, he started considering how to react and what to reply to Prem. After that little break in the conversation, “I do not know how to react Prem. But I am glad that there is an opportunity available for me to come back there. I am very thankful for that Prem. I am ready to grab this. I really wanted to leave this and come back to Hyderabad Prem.”

“Wow. Then it’s fine Quadhar. I was worried how you will get this. You were playing the role of TL for almost 3 years and now suddenly when I read this I was worried how you will be responding to this. I am so happy that you accepted. I will speak to my HR tomorrow morning and will schedule an interview very soon.”

“I cannot thank you enough for this Prem. I am so grateful to you for all the help you are doing to me.”

“Hey, that’s fine Quadhar. I am also so glad that you are coming back.” Replied Prem with happiness filled in his bosom. Prem and Quadhar are best buddies for about 7 years. Even though Prem and Quadhar were class mates during their engineering, Quadhar was placed in job immediately after stepping out from college where as Prem had to wait for 18 months to fetch a job. During his job hunt, Quadhar was the one who served him and held him in those hard times. And so now when Quadhar asked for a help, Prem took it as high priority and started discussions with their company HR team. He felt very happy that he got an opportunity to pay back to Quadhar.

After the call, Quadhar called his wife and discussed about the opportunity which Prem looked out for him. Even she felt glad that they can go back to their home town.

(10:00 AM Next day, Pune Office)

The next day, Quadhar met Thyagarajan at Pune office and then they both made all the preparations for the demo with the clients. They also discussed on the flow and also who will take over what portion of the demo.

Clients arrived at around 10:00 AM in the morning. Thyagarajan received them and directed them to the conference room. Thyagarajan opened up with these welcome talks and also about the project overview. Quadhar took over from him and then went into every detail of the project. He impressed them with his demo and made them to almost say OK about the deal.

After all the technical details are over, Natan Broman who leads the Strategy & the marketing wing of TNX, expressed his thoughts on the demo. He said that they (clients) are very much impressed with the demo and that they are ready to turn over the whole undertaking.

Both Thyagarajan and Quadhar felt very happy when they heard that from Broman. They are exceedingly happy that clients agreed to sign a full deal. When the discussion came up on timelines, Mr. Broman said that they are planning to publish the first version of their mobile system in next 3 to 6 months.

“Sure. That is definitely possible” replied Thyagarajan without even thinking about what will be the requirements and scope of the project.

Quadhar remained silent as he doesn’t want to run into troubles by giving a word without running the real estimates based on the requirements.

Meeting stretched for about 3 hours and ended at approximately 01:00 PM. And then it was followed by lunch at a star rated restaurant which is little far from the office location. It became 04:00 PM by the time Thyagarajan and Quadhar returned back to the office after dropping the clients at the Pune international airport.

This culture is followed in almost all the IT companies. Whenever clients visit the office, that whole day will be allocated to them and they are treated with utmost respect. And then you can definitely see a lunch/dinner with the clients at a top-class restaurant of the city.

(04:17 PM)

After returning back to the office, Quadhar and Thyagarajan ran into a private discussion about the timelines of the project. Quadhar stopped cross questioning Thyagarajan and just kept on nodding his head for whatever Thyagarajan said. He doesn’t want to argue with him as he understood very well that Thyagarajan is anyway not going to consider his judgment and will reply with some stories to force Quadhar to agree to him.

Thyagarajan said Quadhar that he will be running the project from the Bengaluru location with the same team and also by adding some new resources if needed. Quadhar politely rejected that saying that he is already occupied with heavy load of project and so he cannot take this anymore.

Thyagarajan started pressurizing him to accept this as he is the one who led the team during the demo development phase. Quadhar, who understood that Thyagarajan will not leave him until he gets a proper answer on why Quadhar rejected the offer, decided to tell him about the resignation plans.

“Thyagarajan. I have something to speak.”

“Yes Quadhar. What is that?”

“I may move out within the next 1 or 2 months.”

“What? Come again. I dint get you.”

“I mean. I may submit my resignation and move out from the company.”

“Why? What happened Quadhar? What’s wrong with you?”

“I am moving back to my home town Thyagarajan.”

“You have some opportunity there? Why are you leaving such a big company?”

@Clients

Guess the story: Will Quadhar explain Thyagarajan the actual reason?

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“I quiT” – Episode @23

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 10 Comments

Uthrani made sure that she dint drag it as she wants to keep all the words reserved for the last day where she will be bidding adieu to her team and the company when she will be moving out.

(04:35 PM)

After Uthrani spoke few words thanking him and Quadhar, Thyagarajan continued talking “So, team. How is it all going? I knew that we are running through tough times from last 2 weeks. Quadhar said that you were working late nights and working during weekends. I really appreciate all of you for your dedication and support. We have a demo with our clients next week.” He explained about the project little deeper and also why is the demo so important for the team. “This particular project is so prestigious. This will determine our next assignments by that client and so we have to give our 100% and do our best so that the demo runs smooth and that the clients will accept our product.”

During his speech, some of them interrupted him shooting him some questions related to the project. Thyagarajan answered some of them and then transferred some questions to Quadhar.Both of them took almost 20 minutes to complete the discussion on the project.

“So, team this is what I have with me to explain you regarding the projects we are handling and also about the preparations we are making for the demo to the clients.” Said Thyagarajan trying to inject confidence into the team and lifting up their commitment levels.“Quadhar, I hope you will take utmost care during the QA phase and make sure that this will come out with 100% clearance from them. We cannot take even 1% chance when we go for the demo with the clients.”

“Sure Thyagarajan, we will make sure that this will come out 100% bug free”replied Quadhar expressing his confidence over the team.

“Thanks Quadhar and team. Apart from this, I have one more update. Two new resources will be joining our team from this location. According to initial plan, they should join after 2 weeks. But, as Uthrani will be moving out, I will talk with the academy so that one of them will join us by Monday. Uthrani will give KT (Knowledge Transfer) to her since Monday.” Said Thyagarajan and then looking at Uthrani, he said “Uthrani, please share your KT plan with me and Quadhar by tomorrow.”

“Sure Thyagarajan. I will mail it first in the morning, tomorrow.” Replied Uthrani.

The whole meeting went on for about 1 hour.

(05:15 PM)

After Thyagarajanmade sure that he talked about everything he planned to speak, “Okay team. Keep up the wonderful work. I will be flying back to Pune. If the demo goes well and if the clients say OK, then we will be working on that project from Bengaluru location. And I may need to visit this location if everything goes fine.”Said Thyagarajanclosing his speech.

“Quadhar, you may need to fly to Pune for the demo. I spoke with the sales team and they said that the demo will be arranged at Pune location.”

“Sure Thyagarajan.” Replied Quadhar.

“I will be sending you the dates once I receive updates.”

“Okay Thyagarajan.”

That was the last discussion that happened during that meet. After that, everyone went back to their desks.

(10:25 PM)

Quadhar went back to home bit early that day. He had his dinner along with Shamina and also spent time with his Angel till she went to bed. After that, Quadhar came out of the room and picked up his mobile. He dialed into one of his allies.

“Hello Quadhar. What a pleasant surprise? You called me?”

“Hello Prem. How are you?”

“I am fine Quadhar. How about you? What’s up?”

“I am also fine Prem. How is your work going?”

“Yeah. Everything is going fine Quadhar. What’s the matter; you called me after many months.”

“Prem, I called you to talk about something really important.”

“What is it Quadhar? Tell me? What happened?”

“I am planning to come back to Hyderabad.”

“Wow. So cool man! You got your transfer orders?”

“No Prem. Not transfer. I am planning to change the company and look for a job in Hyderabad.”

“Why so Quadhar?You said the company you are working for will transfer you to their Hyderabad office.”

“Yes Prem, that was the initial plan. But, things are not going well here. They initially promised that they will be transferring me in one year. Now it’s almost two years and there is no positive response from them. I don’t want to live here anymore leaving mom and dad alone there.”

“Oh. Okay. Fine Quadhar.Good decision. What do you want from me now?”

“I will send you my resume. Can you forward that to your HR team and ask if there are any openings?”

“Sure Quadhar. I definitely will do that. Forward me your resume, I will speak with HR first in the morning.But, Quadhar.”

“Yes Prem.”

“You are aware about the pay right.”

“Yes Prem, I am completely aware of that.When you compare the expenditure, there will be no conflict. And also the main thing is that Mom and Dad are alone there.”

“Yes Quadhar. They are feeling very lonely here. I saw them last week when I moved that direction. You made a good decision Quadhar. Don’t worry I will definitely look out for an opening and will update you.”

“Thank you so much Prem. I really mean.”

“Hey, it’s okay Quadhar. In fact I should be thankful for you for all that you have done while I have looked out for the job.We are friends, we have to watch out for each other.”

Quadhar felt very happy when he heard that reply from Prem. After that discussion, both of them talked for some time and then hanged up the phone. After the call, Quadhar went straight to the kitchen searching for Shamina.

“Hey Shami darling.”

“Yes dear. What happened? You seem so happy.”

“Yes Shami. I started searching for some job in Hyderabad. In next one or two months, we will go back to our home town.”

“Wow. Wonderful news Quadhar.I am so happy for you and your decision.I am really missing the beautiful days and especially your mom and dad.”

@Resume

Guess the story: Will Quadhar get a job in Hyderabad?

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“I quiT” – Episode @21

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 15 Comments

(01:47 PM)

After the lunch, everyone returned to their desks and resumed their work. When Ishanth turned on his monitor, he saw Quadhar’s message on his inter-office communicator. When he saw that, he immediately went to Quadhar’s desk.

“Hello Quadhar” said Ishanth and sat in the chair.

“Hi Ishanth.”

“I saw your message and so came here running. What happened Quadhar?”

“I guess you heard the info that Uthrani submitted her resignation.”

“Yes Quadhar, she explained us just now during lunch time.”

“All right. She will be moving out in max 7 to 10 days. I am working on my plan to release her as fast as we can. Few minutes back, me and Thyagarajan had a discussion on that.”

“Okay.”

“As part of that, you may need to take up Uthrani’s tasks.”

“What? I should take up Uthrani’s tasks?”

“Yes Ishanth. Meher is a junior, he cannot handle and so Thyagarajan decided to assign them to you.”

“But Quadhar, look at the load of work I am currently handling. I am working late nights which you know I don’t like at all. But, I am doing it just to avoid working on weekends. Or else I would not have done even that.”

“Ishanth, I know about you. But, here you have to understand that this is Thyagarajan’s decision.”

“Whatever it may be, I cannot take it up Quadhar. I am telling you this right from day 1, I don’t like taking up that project. I am not interested in that maintenance activity. I am sorry. If you want, I can talk to Thyagarajan and settle this down.”

“Okay Ishanth. Better do that now, he is forcing me to assign additional tasks to you and I am not left with any other choice.”

“It’s okay Qudhar. Don’t worry about it, I will speak with him.”

“Okay Ishanth. And, the other important news is that we will be on-boarding two additional junior resources into our team.They will operate from Bengaluru location. And regarding assigning tasks to you, if you deny, then maybe we have to assign this project to one of them. You may have to speak with Thyagarajan.”

“Okay Thanks Quadhar. I will speak with him” said Ishanth and started moving out from Quadhar’s cabin.

When he just started moving out, Quadhar called Ishanth back and “Hey Ishanth. Wait for some time; let me talk to Thyagarajan for one more time. If he is still not intending to change plans, then you can talk to him directly.”

“Okay Quadhar” said Ishanth and went back to his work desk.

Quadhar had some thoughts running in his mind and so he stopped Ishanth from speaking with Thyagarajan.

(02:57 PM)

After Ishanth left of his cabin, Quadhar worked for sometime and then went to Thyagarajan’s cabin to discuss about the next steps.

“Hi Thyagarajan. Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon Quadhar. Sit down.”

“Thyagarajan. I have devised a plan.”

“Oh. Good.”

“Shall I start explaining?”

“Yeah sure Quadhar.”

Quadhar started explaining about the plan he prepared for the next steps to be followed in the project as Uthrani is moving out. They are also in the plan to on-board two new fresher’s into the project who will be working from Bengaluru location.He clearly drafted out the plan on who will be working on which project, who will be taking up Uthrani’s project and also the revised timelines. It took about 55 minutes for him to discharge the entire explanation to Thyagarajan.

After going through the complete plan, Thyagarajan started shooting questions at Quadhar on the plan and Quadhar answered them politely.

“Quadhar. Why don’t you assign this project to Meher and let him share the work with one of the new joiner. I think that will be a better idea.”

“Thyagarajan, even Meher is a new recruit into the project who joined few months back. So, I don’t think he can handle this out and also he is completely from a different background. This is what I have told you right from the beginning.”

“I understand Quadhar, but we are left with no choice. Ishanth straight away rejected when we assigned this project a few months back. I think he will deny it even this time if we try to assign it to him. Uthrani is the only girl who used to work on this and now even she is leaving all of a sudden. We cannot accept the risk of attributing this to fresher’s. I am not able to understand what to do. This is bumping my brain. Quadhar, Why are we not able to allocate the tasks in a proper way?” asked Thyagarajan with a very low voice for the first time in the last three days trying to figure out a way to break this problem.

“Thyagarajan, can I say one thing if you don’t mind?”

“Yes Quadhar, go ahead.”

“We are actually running out of resources. For the count of projects we have, the number of resources with which we are handling these two projects are not enough; we have to pull more resources to run this project in a smooth way.”

“We cannot do that Quadhar, we are already on-boarding two fresher’s into our project. We cannot go for more resources. For sure I cannot consider that option. Anyway, let’s leave that for now. So, now, this is the entire plan and revised timelines? ”

“Yes Thyagarajan.”

“All right. I will look deeper into this and will get back to you. Meanwhile, please summarize the tasks on that project and submit me a report in the next 24 hours. And also give me an update on the project which we need to demo next week. We will sit for sometime tomorrow morning and will discuss on those two things.”

“Sure Thyagarajan. I will do that soon. As of today, I will assign those tasks to Uthrani and will ask Meher to learn the process from Uthrani.”

“That’s wonderful. We have to keep going Quadhar. Our progress rate is down when compared to the reports from last quarter. We need to work on that and see where we are lagging and refine that. I don’t want to see the same kind of results in the next quarter. I want you to focus more on the productivity so that you can produce more results from the team by effectively managing the resources. Now that Uthrani is leaving, we will have some pressure, we have to handle that well and see that it is not doing much damage to the timelines and the smooth functioning of the process.”

As Thyagarajan is explaining, Quadhar interrupted him. “Thyagarajan.”

“Yes Quadhar” replied Thyagarajan staring at him why did he stop him in the middle.

“I want to speak to you about one more important thing.”

“What is that Quadhar?”

@Plan

Guess the story: What will Quadhar say to Thyagarajan?

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“I quiT” – Episode @17

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 8 Comments

“I do not understand what to speak Mr. Thyagarajan.I don’t know whether I am taking it wrong or whether what you said is not correct.I am sincerely sorry for talking like this.To be frank I was doing things I don’t like to do with the trust on you that you are well experienced and if you say it will be correct. And that is the reason I was pushing the team to work late nights and also during weekends. Assigning them tasks which they are not trained under. Am I doing all this for transfer? No Thyagarajan. I am doing it because I am bound to the responsibility that was given to me and I have to make sure that I deliver the modules that are assigned to me.”

“Quadhar. I never expected this from you. You are a senior employee. You have to think from the organization level. These are all part of our work culture. Late nights, weekends, sometimes you have to do it to make sure that the deliverables run on time and that the projects are delivered on time. To grow up, you have to make these kinds of sacrifices. Life is not a flower bed every time.”

“Thyagarajan. I never said that I will not work if you don’t give transfer. I only requested you when I joined and then when you said that it will take a year, I never raised the topic till then. After one year, when I just asked you the status, you said it will take time. And three months back when I came to Pune for a conference, when we had a conversation regarding the same, you said that the talks were almost over in by next quarter we will have a team working from Hyderabad. After that I never talked about that. Even now, from last 10 days you are in Bengaluru. If I had to ask you, I would have asked you regarding that on the first day. My only problem now is that even after taking a decision, you dint inform me or you dint even had a discussion with me. Even now, I got to know about that only because I was in that meeting, or else I would not know that. When I asked you why you dint inform earlier, you were saying some kind of reasons and management theories. Thanks for at least letting me know now.”

“Quadhar. I hope you resumed the work on the other project” replied Thyagarajan. He wants to cut down the conversation as he has nothing more to say to convince Quadhar. And also he knew very well that the more they discuss about it, the more it will heat up.

“No Thyagarajan. As you said, I have assigned it to Meher. He came to me and said he is not comfortable with that. I told him to talk to you; I will send him to your cabin now.”

“What is this Quadhar? I told you to resume it yesterday. You said that Uthrani is on leave even today and when I told you to assign it to Meher; you are coming with this kind of explanation. This is not what I expected from you. You are a Team Leader and you have to be very specific to that role. ”

“I want the work to be resumed immediately. I gave them update that we are running things in parallel.”

“Thyagarajan. I will send Meher to your cabin. You talk to him once.”

“I have hundred odd things. I can’t take up these minor things. You have to manage Quadhar.”

“Okay Thyagarajan. Thank you” said Quadhar and left from Thyagarajan’s cabin and reached his cabin. As he is about to reach his cabin, he got a call from his wife.

“Hey Darling. Where are you?”

“I am still in office Shamina.”

“When are you starting?”

“In another 10 minutes.”

“Okay. Come soon. Your angel is ready for the party.”

“Sure Shamina. I will reach by time. I will not delay” said Quadhar with his wife and disconnected the call. Instead of reaching his cabin, he went directly to Meher’s desk.

“Hi Meher.”

“Yes Quadhar.”

“I spoke with Thyagarajan. He is still not convinced. You can try talking with him directly. May be that could help a little.”

“Sure Quadhar. Thank you.”

“It’s okay Meher” said Quadhar and walked away from Meher’s desk.

(06:19 PM)

Quadhar reached his home to his Angel’s birthday with her friends. By the time he reached, all the arrangements were made. As soon as he opened the door, his angel is standing right in front of his eyes looking much more beautiful in a light blue colored frock and a white colored birthday cap on hear head just like the thrown on a queen. The dress has feather like design near the legs and the hands just making her look like a real angel.

When she saw Quadhar opening the door, she came running to him calling “Daddy…”

Quadhar took her in his arms and lifted her up and kissed her saying “Happy birthday my sweet angel.”

“Thank you daddy.”

“Here is your ice cream and chocolates.”

“Wow. Thank you daddy” said Parveen and kissed her dad.

“Where is mom?”

“Mom is in the kitchen.”

Quadhar walked into kitchen along with his Angel.

“Hmm.Now no one can stop both of you. I have to bare you both till you sleep.”

Quadhar and Angel make so much of noise; they dance, sing and play. When they both combine, Shamina will not be having any one to support and they will tease and make fun of Shamina.

“Yeah.Angel. Let’s sing.”

“Angel and Dad,

Go round and round,

Travel on the wings,

Reach the skies,

Touch the stars,

Hmmm.” Parveen started to think about the next lines.

“Play on the..”

“yaya wait dad. I will sing.”

“Play on the moon,

Dance on the toes,

And then sleep till sun rises. Yeah… yeah..yeah..”

Quadhar kissed her again when she said those few lines which they both will always sing.

@Birthday

Guess the story: Will Quadhar resign?

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“I quiT” – Episode @16

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 12 Comments

(05:01 PM)

After the meeting ended, everyone started coming out of the room. When Thyagarajan stepped out, Quadhar followed him through the door.

“Thyagarajan, I have to speak with you.”

“What’s the matter Quadhar?”

“Regarding my transfer.”

“Come to my cabin we will discuss there.”

Quadhar and Thyagarajan reached Thyagarajan’s cabin. Thyagarajan sat on his chair and is connecting the internet cable to his laptop.When he noticed that Quadhar is still standing, “Quadhar. Please sit down.”

Quadhar pulled the chair and sat on it. “Thyagarajan, why dint you tell me that you dropped the plans of setting up a team in Hyderabad?” asked Quadhar with a very loud voice. He is so very disappointed that Quadhar dropped the plan and the other main thing is that he never told him all these days he dropped the plan.

“Quadhar. I thought I could tell you once this demo is successful.”

“What is the connection between the demo and updating the info Thyagarajan?”

“Quadhar. I understand that you are disappointed about dropping the plans of setting up a team in Hyderabad. But you have to understand, there are lots of logistical and financial concerns in setting up a team. Just because you need a transfer we cannot plan that.”

“Thyagarajan. I am not asking to set up a team just for me. My only concern is why you dint tell me before?”

“Quadhar.I’ve already told you. I thought I can update you once this busy schedule comes to an end.”

“This will never come to an end Thyagarajan. I have been in this project from two years. In the last two years almost 50% of my weekends I have spent my time here. And not just me, I made my entire team to spend extra hours and weekends here working on the projects. Every time you say that this will be over. But it is never over. The same is being repeated in every project, every time. Any way now the discussion is not on that. When I joined in this project 2 years back, you said that you will be transferring me to Hyderabad by setting up a team and assigning me the role of leading that team. When I reminded you regarding that last year, you convinced me saying that you will definitely do it once the project gets completed. But in every quarterly meet the dates keep on changing. Now the second year is running. You stay in Pune and you will be visited here occasionally.The day you arrived in Bangalore last week, I thought of asking you about that. When you read that the project needs to be completed in 2 weeks and also you will be staying here these 2 weeks, I thought I can ask you once we push it to QA.But now all of a sudden you are making me a surprise saying that the plans were dropped off.”

“Quadhar. You don’t need to remind me the whole story back. I am aware of everything and I dint forget that I gave you word regarding transfer. But, things don’t act in our favor every time. We have to consider a lot of factors and consequences before taking any kind of decision. You are working in this field from many years. I don’t think I have to explain you in detail.”

“Thyagarajan. I am sorry for raising my voice high. All this is not my concern. I do understand that just for me you don’t need to setup a whole team at another location. All I am asking is why you dint tell me before hand so that I would have planned something else.”

“Exactly. This is the reason why I dint tell you. If I tell you the first day when the plan is dropped off, you wouldn’t have concentrated completely on the deliverables. I cannot take risks on the deliverables and so I delayed telling you. We cannot take any chances in case of deadlines.”

“Thyagarajan.I am not able to understand what you were speaking. You mean that if you tell me about the plans being dropped off, I will not be working with complete dedication? How can you say that? So, in all my two years of work, this is what you saw me? Is this the trust levels you have built for me?How could you suppose that I will show the impact on the deliverables?”

“Quadhar.It’s not the matter of trust or agreement.As a deliverable manager, it is my duty to make sure that the deliverables are on time without any delay and with full quality.And I cannot claim any single chance when it comes to that. I am working in this field for almost 13 years and as a manager I am handling projects for 5 years. I am well experienced that every little thing has an impact on the way an employee works on a project. And that is the sole cause I dint update you on that.You are now in the Team Lead role and very soon you will be promoted as manager. You have to learn all these to become a successful manager. There will be various kinds of people working under you with a variety of mindsets. You have to deal with all of them.”

(05:47 PM)

“I do not understand what to speak Mr. Thyagarajan. I don’t know whether I am taking it wrong or whether what you said is not right. I am truly sorry for talking like this.But, rather than the transfer thing, the most disappointing thing is the level of confidence you have reposed on your team.To be frank I was doing things I don’t like to do with the trust on you that you are well experienced and if you say it will be correct. And that is the reason I was pushing the team to work late nights and also during weekends. Now when I came to know about the kind of trust and faith you have on your team members, I am totally disappointed.I really don’t feel like working anymore.”

@Trust

Guess the story: Will Thyagarajan rethink about transfer?

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“I quiT” – Episode @15

/ Mr. Venky Bond / 10 Comments

“I already told him Ishanth. He said let him learn.”

“Then you have to give him sufficient time to learn.”

“Hey Ishanth. Can we discuss later on this?I am running out of time now. I have a conference to attend at 02:00 PM.”

“Okay Quadhar.”

(02:10 PM)

Quadhar, Thyagarajan and few others gathered in the video conference room for the Quarterly meet.It is a large room with lot of colored high quality paper posters on both sides of the wall. Those represent the current statistics, vision and mission with which the organization is running from many years.

Meeting started with update from Andrew who is the Sr. Vice Presidents of Mobile account of the company. He has been in this role from last 7 years. He takes care of all client interactions and travels around the world to meet upon various clients both to get new deals and also to update clients on the currently assigned deals. He is a guy who is always into business. If you say have an hour with you, for the first 10 minutes he talks about how to do business and in the next 50 minutes, he makes u do it. That doesn’t mean he is 24/7 and 365 days in business. He is the guy who takes one week vacation every quarter. And he schedules the Quarterly meeting once he is back from his vacation. Even though he looks serious outside, he is well known for his sense of humor.

(02:20 PM)

He finished his welcome speech in the first 10 minutes and gave window for each project manager from each division to give updates on their respective project. From every project, one senior manager and one senior employee will be invited to this meeting every time. Each manager will be given 15 minutes for their updates and then it is followed by questionnaire by Andrew. He takes 10 mins to shoot his questions and get answers from the managers.

The meeting went on for 90 mins. And now it’s Mr. Thyagarajan’s turn to speak out. Thyagarajan started his project updates by starting his presentation deck which Quadhar had prepared.

“Good evening every one. I will now start with the updates on the TNX mobile application which we started 6 months back. It is in healthy status as we are completing on time and as of today, the team is working on the 2nd release and hopefully we will go live by the end of next month. We have planned for a demo on the first week of next month. And if the clients give a green signal, we will launch it by month end.”

Thyagarajan gave a complete update on the project along with the number of resources who are working on that. He took about 5 minutes to complete the update on the first project.

“Wow. That’s wonderful.” One of the mangers replied clapping his hands and then few others joined him.

“Thank you. And now when it comes to our next project, it is in progress and going good. The progress is little slow when compared to the TNX mobile project because we are concentratingmore on the TNX first as we have demo next week. Once we will finish working on it, we will resume our work on that allocating 50% of our resource time.”

“Thyagarajan, wait. I guess we talked about this before I have been to vacation. Last time when I met them, they said that they are planning to launch the first version to their customers in the next month. And so maybe you have to speed that up. Don’t wait for the TNX to get completed. Resume this and try to finish it off as per the latest schedule. And also try to share the revised timelines by tomorrow noon.

“Okay Andrew. Sure” replied Thyagarajan and continued giving updates.“During the last quarterly meet, we discussed about the cross location team set up to manage the project by setting up teams at different locations. As of now we are dropping that plan due to the logistical and financial issues. We will be continuing our work on that project from Bangalore location.”

The moment Quadhar heard this; he felt surprised and ran into deep shock. He is requesting Thyagarajan regarding transfer to Hyderabad from almost a year. And Thyagarajan kept him silent saying that very soon he will be setting up a team in Hyderabad and Quadhar will be leading that team from that location. And so when he heard the news from Thyagarajan that they dropped the plan of setting up a team in Hyderabad, he is completely depressed.

(04:45 PM)

Meeting almost came to an end. The entire project managers finished giving updates about all the projects they are handling. And now it’s again Mr. Andrew’s turn to wind up the meeting.

“Thanks a lot guys for all the updates. I am so happy that almost all the projects are on GREEN. And here and there I have noticed some projects which are still in YELLOW. We have to push ourselves and try to bring them into GREEN. By the next quarterly meet, I have to see all the projects in GREEN. And the next most important thing I wanna discuss is regarding the 100% productivity. We have enough resources in all our projects. But, I don’t think we are making proper utilization of our resources. If you take a project X with 5 resources, each resource working for 8 hours for 5 days,and thenour productive hours should be 120 hours. Which is very well enough to complete a module? But I am not seeing that kind of stats in most of the projects. I guess hardly we are achieving 60 to 70% of that and the remaining 30% we are simply losing it. I don’t want these kinds of gaps anywhere. The world is growing so fast and the customers are demanding a faster delivery of their products. The competition is so high that each customer is so working their part to release their products with uniqueness and high quality.Apart from our regular project activities, we also need to work on the innovation. Customers are looking for an innovative solution these days. They are in greed for products that can be developed in little time innovatively. The days of traditional waterfall models and other models are gone. Software engineering is being redefined every day. Hope you are on track on what I am trying to say.Any questions?”

All of them who are seated in the meeting room are just thinking about what Mr. Andrew just said. None of them had any questions.

(04:59 PM)

“Okay guys as you all don’t have any questions, and also the time is closing up, I am winding this meeting. Thank you guys. Thank you

@Quarterly-Meet

Guess the story: Why is Quadhar shocked after hearing updates from Thyagarajan?

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