"If you want to have better employees, start by appreciating the ones you already have, or they won't be around for long"
I read this quote somewhere, I don't take credit for this. In a tough economy, voluntary downturn is not a problem. Infact, companies struggling to reduce costs may embrace the fact that employees are leaving voluntarily if they are not laid off. At the same time,most employees are also hunkering down not bothering to look for opportunities. But with the turn around in the economy it could be a different story all together. Last year saw the worse economic downfall where the salaries went down south and jobs became a rarity with most companies freezing on the hiring. The most common HR dialogue" Due to the recession we will not be able to pay you a certain amount which we used to pay earlier ". For senior management this reduction is justified as the balance is covered in variable pay but for the executive level it really doesn't matter.Also while hiring, the negotiation that happens on the table is unbelievable. But due to the need base the candidate has no choice but to agree. Companies, who now see the previous salaries while deciding on the current pay have to change their view of seeing the candidacy of a potential employee. If the companies want to hire the best talent then they cannot falter on the green notes as once the upturn starts surely the hopping and jumping would become a common scenario. Personally I feel that a candidate should be offered what the profile demands and what his/her candidacy deserves, as the candidate will not fall in the recession trap again. Internal compensation correction should also be one of the retention strategies to retain the best employees. After all, end of the day its a symbiotic relation and no CEO at the end of a good day can say its all because of my effort and after a bad day turn around and say its all your fault.
This word was not really on my mind to write about but someone just used it today and every second day it keeps popping up here and there. According to me, the word is just a myth and a 'feel good' factor and 'sounds good' factor for all who talk about it. In today's tough market, where the mantra is work hard, harder and hardest and where most of the executives toil for more than 50 hrs a week and some for even 80 hrs a week I have no idea how they can talk about work-life balance. Many of the women come home from work only to sign onto a 'second shift' ;most of them still managing household chores like meal preparation, child care, laundry etc.. I definitely don't think that these women think of their routine as work-life balance. Then what is it that drives everyone forward and helps maintaining a balance?
Work doesn't have to be exhausting if one can actively manage their energy levels. Infact the only hope that women have today is to balance their energy flows. If one can priortize their work based on the activities that energize you ,both at home and at work,then fatigue or burnout can be avoided. It can be observed that people who are engaged in activites such that they don't recognize the passage of time are more productive and seem to derive greater satisfaction from their work than those who do not. It energizes them rather than draining them.
So a useful tactic is to identify the conditions and situations that replenish the energies rather than sap them out. Self-awareness is a technique which can allow to deliberately incorporate restorative elements during the course of the day. Space your non productive and energy sapping tasks throughout the day rather than bundling it up together. This is a time management technique given by all management gurus.Definitely helps.
So to come back to my point, people who really talk about work-life are the ones who have actually learnt the art of managing their energies well and deriving the positive energy out of the work that they do. It neccesarily does not have to mean that you get out of work on time just to do what you are happy doing but rather do the work that makes you happy.
That way one does not need to strive for striking a balance. Many things get life when we get a life. So I say, get a life first figure the balancing act later!
Work doesn't have to be exhausting if one can actively manage their energy levels. Infact the only hope that women have today is to balance their energy flows. If one can priortize their work based on the activities that energize you ,both at home and at work,then fatigue or burnout can be avoided. It can be observed that people who are engaged in activites such that they don't recognize the passage of time are more productive and seem to derive greater satisfaction from their work than those who do not. It energizes them rather than draining them.
So a useful tactic is to identify the conditions and situations that replenish the energies rather than sap them out. Self-awareness is a technique which can allow to deliberately incorporate restorative elements during the course of the day. Space your non productive and energy sapping tasks throughout the day rather than bundling it up together. This is a time management technique given by all management gurus.Definitely helps.
So to come back to my point, people who really talk about work-life are the ones who have actually learnt the art of managing their energies well and deriving the positive energy out of the work that they do. It neccesarily does not have to mean that you get out of work on time just to do what you are happy doing but rather do the work that makes you happy.
That way one does not need to strive for striking a balance. Many things get life when we get a life. So I say, get a life first figure the balancing act later!
While the seminar at COD had nothing to do with HR related topics, it did talk about a more serious problem of todays generation. Today a large part of the population is dying because of heart attacks and other Cardio Vascular diseases or CVD.Recently the industry lost Mr. Ranjan Das- CEO of SAP labs a very fit and health conscious person but with an imbalanced lifestyle. So CVD has nothing to do with age or how athletic you are. Its more of a lifestyle disease. The myths surrounding it that it is genetic or due to the age factor, is just that-a myth.
So here we had 2 highly eminent doctors speaking of the disease and preventive measures. The stats that they gave were scary. Apart from the death toll between the ages of 35-55 being the highest it also spoke of the billions of dollars worth of loss that the IT industry suffers every year. So its just basically the proper diet, 7 hrs of sleep and maintaining a balanced life can help keeping CVD at bay. I hear lot people saying that death has to come one day so why not enjoy what we have of life. That is one myth which needs to be busted. To all those people I have a question, Its true that death is inevitable and the only truth of life, but does it have to be slow, torturous and painful? I believe in after life and I feel death is just the beginning, But the day I die I would like to look best because I'll be meeting Mr. God himself, wouldn't want to be in a tattered condition appearing in hospital clothing in front of Him. But thats just my thought. You think about it!
Coming back to the topic of discussion, I have distilled some key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.
Some Excerpts:
So here we had 2 highly eminent doctors speaking of the disease and preventive measures. The stats that they gave were scary. Apart from the death toll between the ages of 35-55 being the highest it also spoke of the billions of dollars worth of loss that the IT industry suffers every year. So its just basically the proper diet, 7 hrs of sleep and maintaining a balanced life can help keeping CVD at bay. I hear lot people saying that death has to come one day so why not enjoy what we have of life. That is one myth which needs to be busted. To all those people I have a question, Its true that death is inevitable and the only truth of life, but does it have to be slow, torturous and painful? I believe in after life and I feel death is just the beginning, But the day I die I would like to look best because I'll be meeting Mr. God himself, wouldn't want to be in a tattered condition appearing in hospital clothing in front of Him. But thats just my thought. You think about it!
Coming back to the topic of discussion, I have distilled some key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.
Some Excerpts:
- Short sleep duration ( less than 5 or 5-6 hrs) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept for more than 6 hrs per night. Paper published in 2009. As you know High BP kills.
- Young people ( 25-49 years of age ) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.
- Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.
- Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!
- Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease. Paper published in 2004
- Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.
- In brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM ( Rapid Eye Movement ) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times. The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type. For one to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess ( lack of non-REM sleep ), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down ( I’ve been there, done that ). Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.
This should be a good news to all the people who complain that they would want to spend less time sleeping (of course doesn't imply that you spend more time in bed)
So people, Eat right, sleep right stay healthy!
BTW, I did get a chance to talk to the director and it was a delight. She recognised me and more than welcomed me into the institute. So mabe sometime in the future would definitely go through one of the trainings.
Organization Development is an area which interests me a lot. Everytime I would cross Madhapur and see the institute would look forward to a chance to enter the campus and learn about the different programs and techniques. But getting there is not easy as for one the course is expensive and second it is usually catering to a group of people sponsored by the corporates. So a mail that I received yesterday came as a pleasant surprise asking me to participate in a workshop at the COD. Obviously, I jumped and confirmed my participation. I dont think the talk is anything related to OD as its an external faculty, a cardiologist giving a talk on Healthy Hearts. But nevertheless, am excited as I finally get to enter the campus which i have been looking forward to for quite sometime. With little luck i may even be able to chat up with the Director whom I happened to meet in another program but could not speak to her at length at that time. I know its asking for a bit too much so Good Luck to me! COD here I come!!
A wierd thing happened today morning which got me to thinking. I got an employment verification mail with a relieving letter attached and the company wanted me to endorse that the candidate in question was working for us. While she did work for us, we had never issued her a relieving letter as she stopped coming to work one fine day on medical grounds and never came back asking for any letter. Now it was a surprise to see a letter with our company logo and signature. only difference- We never typed it or signed it!
Just got me thinking about the word ethics. is it just that..a word? I happened to know this person when she worked with me and she hailed from a good family and from a good educationcal background. Just goes to show that rotten apples can be anywhere. I mean what would have happened if she had called me and requested to issue her a letter for a new job. Apart from issuing a letter in all probability i may have given her a recommendation letter too. Here she not only lost her credibility with that company but also probably with few others.
I somehow don't understand the psyche of such people. Sometimes all you have to do is Ask! is that so difficult? But again to each his own.
Just got me thinking about the word ethics. is it just that..a word? I happened to know this person when she worked with me and she hailed from a good family and from a good educationcal background. Just goes to show that rotten apples can be anywhere. I mean what would have happened if she had called me and requested to issue her a letter for a new job. Apart from issuing a letter in all probability i may have given her a recommendation letter too. Here she not only lost her credibility with that company but also probably with few others.
I somehow don't understand the psyche of such people. Sometimes all you have to do is Ask! is that so difficult? But again to each his own.
Since quite sometime I have been fighting the urge to create a blog for myself. I always had this argument with my husband that how in the world does anyone have the time to read other peoples blogs and their daily activities and when does one work if most of the time is spent blogging! But lately I realised, its not whether you have time or not;time gets created if you actually have the interest and the desire to put your point across. People may read if they are interested in what you have to say...
As for me, I had to start as there are so many thoughts which have been running through my mind lately and I just felt the need to collect them somewhere. Someone once told me, a human mind is capable of a new thought every moment. So its about my thoughts,my life, my work.
Anyone interested is free to comment, but please keep obscenities out.
So here goes my very own first blog! Happy Blogging to me!
As for me, I had to start as there are so many thoughts which have been running through my mind lately and I just felt the need to collect them somewhere. Someone once told me, a human mind is capable of a new thought every moment. So its about my thoughts,my life, my work.
Anyone interested is free to comment, but please keep obscenities out.
So here goes my very own first blog! Happy Blogging to me!
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