Friday 5 May 2017

Corporate ladder vs Woman

This post is the reflection of my introspection  over every woman who envisions to grow in corporate ladder. Interviews what we hear about Sheryl Sandberg, Indra Nooyi ,Kiran mazumdar shah still belongs to that 10% of woman at top management. If there would have been a gradient shift in this percentage , then their interviews will not be about the hardships they have faced all through the journey.

Every year we have heard about policies unfolding at corporate offices when women's day comes round the corner. Smell of rose bouquets , vibrant colored balloons and over flooding wishes in all our gadgets and social networking sites. Surface level compliments tries to give a good aura for the particular day and it vanishes in a whimsical way. Now I have seen both metros and cosmopolitan life. Hence my agony made me to jot the experiences I had in  my six years of corporate journey at multiple organizations.

What Wedding bell means  in Woman employees life?
When I got married , I can sense the skeptical view  in my lady boss face and she threw a question "why am I overwhelmed about married life?". If anyone is not overwhelmed I guess they dwell in the last stage of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Why don't people acknowledge beautiful changes in life.
That was the time I was shunting between two different states for my work with few days in Bangalore and few days in NCR . She has forgotten the point of uncontrollable x factors involved in relocation though they can give a jazzy name with the term "Work from Home" without setting clear infrastructure in place. I tested and experimented this model for couple of months and it pinched me to the heights when my immediate lady manager checked about the periodicity of my menstruation cycle as soon as I said unwell. I have faced these point blank questions from lady bosses consecutively who are in the age group of 40-50.
 I feel we Indians should really work upon work-life balance and so called leaders should really work upon leading a team without just managing it. They should know to inspire a person more than poking into micro transactions. Moreover  we should experiment  divide and conquer theory at our homes irrespective of gender difference. Divorces and attritions still majorly come from the same rootcause, uneven load distribution.

Work from Home or Work for Home:
 The next jazzy term is work from Home. Many non ITians believe work from home as the great luxury which IT folks exclusively enjoy. Within the IT group, male folks sarcastically bounce a joke over female collegues "Is it work from Home or work for Home". Unless a culture is brought in to appreciate the work more than the mode and way of working ,it will backfire the morale of team. I have seen folks who have not promoted in their career as they work in "work from Home mode"

Maternity vs Political tornado
 Iam happy to announce   we are so excited to welcome a new kiddo in our family. Happily Iam involved in  a challenging project in this tenure ,nevertheless I have come across another stunning head who can vent out her incapabilities in the name of review and who is eagerly waiting for my maternity break. Maternity is any woman's right and when senior management tries to ride on that energy there comes a flaw in the system. We are not in the generation to hide baby bump with a coat ,its not a shy thing to attend business meetings and to crack a deal or to provide a continuous lecture for 4 hours for the joy of work.

But political tornado when it sweeps in just to corner a woman employee with maternity reason ,that's intolerable. All the three reasons are something which any woman employee would have faced directly or indirectly. If not that's an ecosystem we should wish for.

Organisations should really work on eliminating the perennial roots if they want to question their statistical numbers in regard to gender inclusiveness.

Post Script: Sooner planning to work on a book in this theme.




 

Tuesday 18 April 2017

Love for NCR

All good beginning unfolds at Nation's capital for me.Let it be my first career,  life after wedding with Nambi,lean journey etc.. This is one ancient city which has become so romantic with me how much ever I hate it. In 2010 I disliked it and in 2016 my hatred for this city grew more due to climatic reasons, nevertheless NCR's love for me has become deeper with thick roots. I have become more inclusive with lot more Indianism in me and loving back NCR as an Indian and not as a south Indian,though I hear few regional demarcation statements wherever I go in North because of my Brown skin.
In fact I have got three great mentors for life at NCR, its my husband Nambi and my professional mentor cum Manager Minakshi and the city "NCR" by itself. It took sometime to consider NCR as my mentor but finally city won and I embrace it. I have learnt about true companionship in both good and bad times,beauty of patience  from Nambi who can dissect any problems to look into the possibility with 360 degree view, whenever I get entangled. I was a person who hardly believed in marriage once but it has truly changed the perspective now and I agree upon the point "Everyone needs a co-pilot" to make a journey of contentment.    

Unexpected gifts from Mentor NCR:

We  were able to meet my favorite author William Darlymple , the author of "City of Djinns"  who  has narrated about the great depth of India's landscape  in his book " Nine lives" at Delhi. Its an overwhelming moment when we see the favorite author who shared his glimpse about India.

We were able to witness the Jaipur literature festival 2016  with outstanding speech by Shashi Tharoor and many other young contemporary writers.So much in the store at Jaipur lit fest if anyone welcomes fresh perspective into their world of knowledge.

We were able to witness the slam poetry stage show by Sarah and Phil Kay though I made a huge hole in my pocket . Its worth it as their poem gets life in the stage

Last but not the least, I had a joyful professional journey to bring in lean momentum all because of my mentor Minakshi who taught me stakeholder management while handling people from multiple teams with its various intrinsic nuances and she is one such person who helped me to uncover the real passion of  mine "coach ,teach and experiment" with process and trainings.

Delhi is always something close to my heart in its own way.
 

Monday 17 April 2017

The shadow face "thoughtsbeyonddots"

Nice to come back from  bloggers break and its always nicer to hear about "thoughtsbeyonddots" blog which stands as a shadow for me. My friend who lives miles away called me yesterday after a year for a casual conversation as my blog is not being currently active.I have got another face by this "thoughtsbeyonddots", which is a way of conversation. There is lot more to pour down regarding my journey in one complete year where lot of dreams came true.I was quite packed with living a contentful year rather than imaginative writing .But its time to put it in words.
 At the end of the day if writing soothes or touches any reader and if they wait for the next post to read in a blog that's the great gift given by a reader to a blogger.