Office Chronicles

IMAGINE... "While you are busy chit chatting with your friend or the neighbor in your cubicle, possibly gossiping; and, all of a sudden out of the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse of your Boss approaching! Suddenly you become super alert and turn to your monitor and talk in an overly animated manner as if you are discussing some very pressing and important issue in your code!" That, I call the "BOSS TREATMENT" !!! Today - Day 2 of my role as a "Boss"! Morning had a brief discussion with the fellow and gave him a hands-on on the software that we would be using in our projects. The guy seemed eager to learn and energetic. I felt good and infact elated that I had got a rather hard working subordinate! ( I silently congratulated myself! ) As usual I got busy and around tea time as I returned from pantry, I simply glanced into the lab where I had temporarily given him a lab PC to work on till the HR would allot him his own! So, as I was walkin...

New year is always about resolutions and new beginnings. It's no different for me! No resolutions though! But this year definitely looks like a year of new beginnings!  I had been promoted to Manager two years back on 1st January 2019 and today, 16th January 2021, I am assigned a subordinate! My friend says that now  I need to start behaving like a Manager.  And I wonder, how do one behave like a Manager? I think I know the answer but it's just that a sudden transition is not easy. I had been working alone since so many years that I have lost touch working with someone. My boss expects me to hand over my current works to him and I start doing something else... Find something new. So, I have given him Verilog books to read and learn for that's what I have been doing. I think I will have to learn my basics if I have to lead him!!  My friend says, assign him some work and take daily reports as to what he did! But I don't want to nag him! Their induction program would st...

We are always taught from childhood to be good, be humble, to help others in need, be unselfish, honest and all those things that would make us a good human! But as we grow our character gets moulded more by experience and influence than by childhood teachings! Once during a feedback session with our manager, I was told to  "be assertive" . It was actually a feeback on another colleague... a few complaints had raised against him so Mr.Manager had called a group meeting and was taking feedback from all. I had none so he thought I was not being open...  and thus the comment "be assertive" . I was pretty junior then. I had no idea what he meant and I honestly didn't have any issues with the subject of discussion! What did he mean?  Over the time my managers have changed. That had happened about 12 years back and now, I am pretty senior. A manager myself! And, I still wonder  what did he mean?  What was I supposed to have said? The said person had temper issues but ...