People Are Strange..

Of course, they are strange. They always have been. That's why they are so interesting.

Why am I putting out all this? Well, a small sequence of events have just proved that above statement to me again. I was just reminded of it, and wanted to write on it.

So, lets back to the story of what these sequence of events, as I call them, are ?

In the past, I have more than once ranted my frustration on my company and why I am beginning to dislike working here. Most of the reasons, have not been very clearly said, mostly because they have been written in fists of rage and desperation. Of course, reason abandons you at such times, and passion takes over. So, I have ended up writing things about my boss, my particular profile of work etc. But, there are things that cause these things. An organisation has its own identity and its own distinct culture and a 'way' of doing things here. That's what I am not so comfortable with here. The rants against the boss, and against my work are all specific instances of what is a bigger problem.

So, anyway, as you can guess, I am not the only person who has faced these issues. Others have also faced it, sometimes much more than me and have voiced their concerns to whom it should have mattered, and when they started turning a deaf ear, to friends over mugs of beer and pegs of vodka and whiskey.

And thus, I shall introduce my central character for today's' post (apart from me...hehehe:)) - lets just call him "U".

Now, U is a good friend of mine and he was one who had been in this place for long enough to understand that things were not so great with this place. But, since he is more patient than I am, he continued in his daily work, without a lot of complaining or whining. I would have turned rebel a couple of years ago, if I was in shoes. But, that's not the point - his shoes are not mine and vice-versa, our shoes would not fit anyway!

Gradually, U reached a stage where he started feeling that enough was enough. And that led him to what it has already led me to. The first step and stage of changing your job - the ceremonious event that we shall call "the CV updation" routine. I am already there, even though, I have been this place for only about 1/4th the amount of time, that U has been here. Let me just remind of the 'shoe' thing to stress why it took his x amount of time, while it just took me x/4 amount of time. I am not more smarter or anything, its just that we are different people. He had more patience and perseverance, which I lack.

Without digressing too much - with purest of intentions, and a couraged heart, U started his job-hunt. He sent out those mails (with CVs as attachments) into the world. He, being a good natured guy, kept us updated on every turn of events. (see, that's one more difference, I would keep it all hush-hush, till one day I could finally drop the bomb and say I was shifting jobs next week :D). Oh..sorry, back to U again. The first couple of weeks for U did not go well. He did not get the number and kind of calls for interviews that he would have liked. It slowly started getting to him - to the extent that he started having doubts over his abilities. But, then a tide came and with that a plethora of calls, interviews, so much so that he had to put off and reschedule a couple of interviews to avoid clashes.

As good luck would have it, he got a couple of offers soon. Good news, eh.!! End of story, you guess? Hold on...

U finally got a very good offer with a good organisation in India, and whats more, very close to his home-town. Jut to digress again, in India, the concept of a home-town is very important. Families are important and your hometown is just the haven of all your relatives and your parents. Additionally, this place is also where you would have spent most your childhood, schooling etc. So, the place always holds a special place in your heart. So, I considered this guy, very lucky to have found this new job. It was well-paying, it was close to his 'home-town', and it was in India. He had been looking to go back to India also for a while, because of his plans to get married sometime soon. It all looked as if, it was working like clock-work.

But, then something called a retention strategy started work. Simply put, the company wanted to retain him. Enter my next character - whom I shall call FUB (for Future U's Boss). FUB was not U's boss, but knew him through work. Now, FUB wanted to expand his team and when he heard about U's move, he swooped in and asked him if U would like to work with him. Of course, U was flustered and confused, because FUB was a powerful figure in the bank. To make things more attractive, FUB also mentioned that he could increase U's pay and designation, if needed. Now, this put U thinking - and U made some strong demands in terms of a pay-hike and a designation.

Now,as I hear from U - they have agreed to the increase in pay, but the designation thing is still under discussion. From how excited and happy he seemed - it looks like he has already made his decision to stay on and move into FUB's team. I am happy that he is excited and happy with this. But, he made me wonder - he didn't not want to move because of a salary issue or a designation issue. He didn't have to resign to solve them, if he had a issue. Yeah, haggling after resigning gives you a lot more power and he might have got a better deal this way. BUT - he did not resign because of these issues. His reasons were more of the company in which he worked and his idea to move back to India, and plans about marriage. Of course, all this seems irrelevant to him now and i wonder why.

If I had been in his shoes, (i am sure, you must be getting tired of this shoe!!) - I would not even have thought about a retention offer. The job change was not for due my role, it was bigger than that - it had to do with the company, its culture, about returning back to your own country and working there, marriage plans. I would not even have thought once about the retention strategy. And in general, I think he is getting himself into a fix now by taking the retention. People know that you had jumped the boat once and will always think that you will do it again (NOT GOOD!!). Then, even if due to some genuine reason, you have to quit very soon, they are all going to blame you for stabbing them twice (argumentative sakes at least).

People are strange. Not just him, but him, me, you and everybody. We all think differently. That's what is so interesting...see, in this case, I could write about all this, while sitting at office! :D