Tech Job 9 to 9 (5 page)

Vinay checked
the status of the IS tickets. Four of the tickets were approved by Jeetender
and were assigned to somebody named Ajay. He found the IS ticket for Java
installation in “Rejected” status. The reason given was “Anything above Java
version Update_29 requires client approval. Reason is Compliance process”.
Vinay had mentioned version Update_31 in the IS ticket.

Himesh told
Vinay, “There was no security incident reported on Update_31. It is already
used in Dochamk Bank’s computers. These lackeys simply reject the IS ticket
because some line in IS policy mentions only Update_29. By the time they update
the policy to Update_31, it would be already out of date.

The very
processes and the departments created to centralize and efficiently service
projects are now hampering the projects. The most dangerous thing is they don’t
answer to anyone and so they don’t adhere to any timeline. We would be the
scapegoat for their faults and delays.”

Vinay first
sent an email to Ajay requesting him to start software installation on the four
PCs at the earliest for the four IS tickets assigned to him. He then sent an email
to Satish informing him to get client approval for the required software version
for the rejected IS ticket. He had to re-raise another IS ticket once client
approval was obtained.

He now had a
hard time following up with Ajay. He called his mobile many times but Ajay
didn’t pick up the call. He then went to his seat many times at least three
times in the morning and three times in the evening. Ajay’s seat was always
empty.

Jeetender
usually assigned IS tickets to somebody in his team who was on leave. This way
he bought as much time as possible for himself. Vinay spent three days
following up and searching for Ajay only to find he was on leave for those
three days.

Vinay thought,
“Then why the IS ticket was assigned to Ajay? Why it was not assigned to
somebody present that day? Who is doing this assignment? Why don’t they
understand project specific timelines? They don’t answer to client. They don’t
answer to anyone for that matter. I would get blamed for the delays caused by
them.”

Vinay was very
saddened at the way the bureaucratic process worked in Holtezent. He felt tired
of the process. He was exhausted with following up with people for getting
things done. He was blamed by Murali for not following up properly. Murali told
him he didn’t communicate and escalate things at the right time.

Meanwhile
Himesh raised IS tickets for ODC door access and getting the login ids created
for new joinees to the team. He had already experienced and knew getting
approval from the Security Manager was a tough thing. The Security Manager had
four mobile numbers and he would not pickup any of the numbers. Himesh found most
of the time he would not be available in his seat. Himesh knew if Security
Manager was not in the right mood he would reject the IS ticket saying this
screenshot was not there and that course was not completed.

Himesh had
heard stories of how people suffered because of him. He had seen people
standing near the ODC door at 11 at night waiting if anyone would open the door
so that they could go out of the ODC.

”What
satisfaction does it give him rejecting access for eligible people and looking
at the very same people standing near the door and suffering?” Himesh wondered.

Finally after
two weeks of following up, Ajay called them to install the required software in
the PCs. Ajay took his own time and gave a hard time to Vinay and Himesh. First
he said he didn’t have access to computers inside Dochamk Bank ODC. Then he
pretended he didn’t have the software installers to install the software. Then
he said somebody who knew the software should tell him each step to install the
software. He acted dumb and delayed the work. Vinay and Himesh took the pain on
their shoulders to do the work for him. They basically spoon-fed him each step
for getting the software installer to getting the software installed in each
PC. The only thing Ajay did was login into the PC with his login id and password
which had access permissions to allow the user to install and configure the software.

Vinay re-raised
the IS ticket for Java with client approval document. It would take another
three weeks to get it installed.

There were a
total of around one thousand and two hundred requirements for the CDSTP project.
It was decided by Dochamk Bank management to follow Agile methodology for the
project. In Agile, a set of tasks was called as a Sprint. Each Sprint was
created for usually three weeks. There were tasks assigned to each person,
called Stories. Each Story was associated with a start date, end date and
estimated hours for the work.

Each story
consisted of thirty requirements. Some stories would vary in size. Nitesh selected
the story based on priority and assigned tasks for each Sprint. Every day
morning he would call for a status meeting at 11.00 AM.

In the
meeting, Nitesh would start asking the status from each person. He would ask
how many tasks were completed and how many hours were remaining. People had a
hard time explaining him the issues they were facing, why some tasks would take
more time than the estimated figures, why they could not complete their tasks
on time.

”You know you
are working very hard. How do you get work-life balance?” Sana asked Vinay
during lunch.

“I don’t even
get time to think about my life. I can’t even breathe properly,” said Vinay.

Himesh said,
“What Shanthi is doing nowadays? She will come late in the morning and leave
early in the evening. She will open a Use Case document. Whenever someone walks
nearby her seat, she will press Page Up key or Page Down key just to show she
is actively working. She has become very good in pretending she is busy with
work.”

Everyone
laughed.

Sana grew up
in Mysore in a middle-class family. She was the only child in the family. She
was brought up with all the attention and love her parents could give her. She
went to dance classes for Bharata natyam and became fluent with the dance. Her
mother taught her to cook. She loved cooking. She would try out different
variations in making Sambar and Curry.

Her father
tried to get a medical college seat for her. But he was unable to afford the
amount to book a seat in a college. Her twelfth grade scores were not
sufficient to get a medical college seat by merit. But Sana had other ideas for
her future. She was not confident in completing a degree in Medicine as her
interests were elsewhere. She liked computer applications. Her father was able
to get an Engineering college seat in State Engineering College of Mysore,
shortly referred to as SECM, for her. She attended college there. She chose
specialization in Computer Science and Engineering. The college was just five
kilometers from her home.

Sana was a shy
girl and moved only with a closed group of girls. She won’t immediately start
chatting with someone she had just met. It would take at least a few weeks
before she talks even a few words with new acquaintance.

Her scores in
college subjects were just average. She kept a low profile in her college. She
didn’t get involved much in the extracurricular activities held in her college.

Sana’s group
of friends went to Vinay’s college to attend the inter-college cultural event
held there. The college was very nearby to her college. So she also went. She
and her group had met Vinay briefly, who was one of the organizers. She had
observed Vinay was awkward in everything he did there and shy to speak to
girls.

Her parents
tried to get her married to a well settled groom from a rich family residing
abroad. But she preferred to stay in India and especially in Mysore nearby to
her parents. She told her parents she wanted to go to work after she finished
her college and work for few years. Her parents were at first against sending
her to work. After her persistent persuasion, they finally agreed on one
condition that she should get married after one year.

Her parents
planned to again look for suitable groom after she joined a job. She came to
Bangalore and stayed with her friends. She prepared and attended interviews but
didn’t get selected. So she joined a course in Java and in parallel looked for
opportunities. One of her friend informed her about a walk-in interview
conducted by Holtezent. She attended the interview.

Sana was
interviewed by a three person interview panel. She could not answer most of the
technical questions related to Java. When she was about to be rejected in the
end of the interview, one interviewer asked her about algorithm writing. She
explained about algorithms in general and how to measure complexity and the big
O notation. She was then asked to write an algorithm to identify which word was
occurring maximum number of times in a text file. She was given ten minutes.
She wrote the algorithm using pseudo-code notation. The interview panel
concluded she could be trained further and she had the potential to become a
good Application Analyst. They selected her.

Sana had
cultivated her skills in application analysis and writing algorithms. She was
also good in collecting various project related metrics data and providing
statistics. She was good in creating power points and Excel sheets to present
the project findings using graphs and charts.

At coffee
break, Sana, Vinay, Ashutosh and Himesh were chatting.

“There goes
our mini boss Satish,” said Himesh.

“What work Satish
do?” asked Vinay.

“He works as a
full-time day trader. He uses office time and company resources to do his day
trading job. If someone goes near his seat, he will immediately minimize that
browser which shows Stock prices of various companies and immediately maximize
that document showing environment configurations,” replied Himesh.

“What is a day
trader?” asked Vinay.

“A day trader
buys and sells stocks within the same day. They are pure play stock traders who
always monitor stock prices and buy and sell company shares through online
share trading. Doing this work in office time is misusing of office time and
violates company HR policy,” said Himesh.

“I see. All
our leave requests are denied. We are told to work on company declared holidays
also to avoid billing loss. We are also told to work on Saturdays sometimes. We
are also told to stretch two to three hours extra every day. Does that violate
any policy?” asked Ashutosh.

“Who cares
about our welfare? No one,” said Himesh.

Himesh was the
second child in the family. He had one elder brother. He grew up in Uduppi. He
learned Badminton and soon became adept at playing the game. He participated in
various school contests in sports.

He got good
scores in his twelfth grade. He got one hundred ninety in Physics, one hundred
ninety eight in Mathematics and one hundred ninety five in Chemistry. In
Engineering Entrance Exam he got forty eight out of fifty. He got an
Engineering college seat by merit in Bangalore State College.

Himesh was not
choosy about any particular specialization in his undergraduate. He chose
Electronics specialization because that was what lot of his school friends picked.
He thought he could learn everything about computers outside the college. He
had assumed it would take only few months to learn everything about software.

He enrolled
for several computer courses outside college. He had a hard time juggling
between his college courses and his outside computer courses. He felt he lacked
depth in his knowledge of software and lacked confidence in his technical
foundation he had built about computers and software.

After he
completed his degree in Electronics Engineering, he was busy in job hunting. He
didn’t have the time as well as the focus needed to acquire computer software
knowledge that was in demand in market then. He attended a course in Unix
System Administration.

Himesh had
dreamed of going to US and landing on a job with a one-hundred thousand US
dollar a year salary package. Because of the economic recession, there were not
any consultancy agencies recruiting for US.

He received
email broadcasts from Indians already in US telling people not to leave their
existing job in India. The email advised people not to come to US through an
agency and search for jobs as the job market in US was very poor.

Himesh’s
dreams were gone. He then attended another course in C and Unix. He felt his
knowledge of software was shallow. He attended some interviews but didn’t get
selected. The economic recession also took its toll.

One day he
went for a walk-in interview with Holtezent after his roommate told him. He
thought it would be as usual he won’t be selected. He casually attended the
interview without getting stressed out about the outcome. The interview panel
evaluated his aptitude in problem solving skills. They also found he could not
answer many technical questions related to C and Unix. They finally decided to
select him for his aptitude and his attitude.

“Every day Ashutosh
will come, he will do his work and he will leave. He doesn’t get involved in
any other matter except project work. He doesn’t open up and talk about
himself. I have never heard him sing his song yet. Why is he like that?” asked
Himesh to Vinay.

“There is a
certain air of maturity about him. He seems to be patient and full of control
the way he works and over the work he does. I have never seen anyone like him.
As you said, yes he comes every day, does his work and go. He rarely takes
leave. And he talks only about project work. He doesn’t mingle much with others
except occasionally,” said Vinay.

“I like the
way he works. He is undeterred with any unknowns involved in the work assigned
to him. He doesn’t seem to get intimidated by anyone. I have seen him stand his
ground about effort estimations and the actual hours he took to complete the
work. He is unwavering and doesn’t give a damn about who thinks what about him,”
said Vinay.

“There is
something strange about him. When he looks at me, he looks like he can read my
mind. Is it possible? Can anyone read a person’s mind just like that? And yet
he tries to mask everything about him. One day he looked at me and smiled. I
asked him ‘What?’ He said ‘Nothing’. I feel he hides something. He deliberately
does something and knows what would come. Is he a puzzle or he plays puzzle
with others?” said Himesh.

“Himesh calm
down. You should not try to understand everything. Certain things are better
left like that. We simply don’t have that experience to understand some people
beyond certain level neither should we try to judge them anyway. If we still do
so, those would be only our prejudices of them,” said Vinay.

Ashutosh has
around seven years experience in IT industry. In the beginning of his career he
went to UK through a consultancy agency which had sponsored his Visa. UK was
also already hit with economic slowdown. There were already many people who
lost their jobs at the time he arrived in UK. In UK, he could get only contract
jobs. The jobs would be anywhere from two months to four months duration.

Between
projects he would be jobless for months. This job insecurity took a toll on his
well-being. For months he lived off and paid his rent from his savings. He was
anxious and depressed about his future. Sometimes when he was left with
nothing, he borrowed from his roommates and later gave them back once he got
another contract job. This cycle repeated. At the end, he was not actually
saving anything from working in UK.

He could not
get a permanent job as recruiters rejected him after looking at his contract
jobs mentioned in his profile. They asked why he had worked in only contract
jobs. They assumed he would leave the job and would not stay for long in any
particular company. They stereotyped him as a person who would work only in
temporary contract jobs and rejected him in interview.

Because of the
temporary nature of the jobs he had held, he was unable to apply for a home
loan in India to buy a house. He could not save much as he had to pay for rent
during those months when he was jobless.

After four
years in UK, he decided to come back to India and try for jobs here. He had
only very little savings left in his bank account. He was unmarried and stayed
in a rented house. He was jobless for six months then got a job in an IT
startup company. The company was not doing well unable to get business to get
going. It finally decided to scale down its workforce. He stayed there until
there was a ramp-down in staff in the company and he was let go. He got three
month salary for the severance package.

He attended
some courses in SAP application modules using that money. He then got a job in Holtezent
and joined this project. He thought once he gets the opportunity he would shift
to SAP related work and become a Functional Consultant. He wanted to try within
Holtezent. He waited patiently and looked for internal job postings within Holtezent.

Years of
anxiety and depression had toughened his character. He was no longer worried
about anything. His fears and anxiety were gone. He grew more and more
confident day by day. In his project work, he looked at problems with design
and development objectively rather than subjectively. The project related decisions
he made were rational and sound and were made after good analysis of the
problem at hand. Unlike Himesh, he was not biased with any particular software.
He would not prejudge or dismiss anybody’s ideas without giving it a thought.

Vinay admired
the way he worked. He liked his thought process and the way he looked at solving
any problem. When Ashutosh spoke, people listened to his analysis and his
approach. He was matured enough to listen to his juniors and get their
suggestions. He treated everyone in the team with respect. Vinay treated him as
his role model. He wanted to be like him in every way. Vinay and Himesh thought
he worked as the real Architect in every way and they treated him as such.