Its been four months since I joined this company (its a global sales and management consultancy), and truly it has been a lot of fun. We had our first week of orientation in a five star in Delhi, though there was nothing starry about the hotel (one of those usual dull business hotels which charge you about Rs.200 per hour for internet access, have tiny swimming pools and have transparent bathroom doors). There was a lot of information thrown on us, there were some 'fun activities' (those that I don't ever like) and then some good food (which got boring by the end of the week on account of repetition). There were people from lots of colleges around the country, mostly from the IITs, BITS or NITs. Everybody seemed to be very polite and tried to put on their best show while speaking or interacting, except for me, I was just myself for I am too lazy to change my attitude just for a week. By the end of the week, I had made a couple of good friends, learnt some things about consultancy and the company, and all the time wondered if I had made the right choice since there was no correlation between all my 22 years of education and my work. Nevertheless it was too late to think, the best I could do was keep an open mind.
The following week we were shifted from the 'five star' hotel to a guest house. I loved the guest house more than our 'five star' hotel, for it had better food and customer service, had more channels in the TV and most importantly provided free internet. The training sessions also became more serious and started focusing more towards my work in particular. "Not bad" was what I thought at the end of the week training. Finally, it was time to move to Pune (which I had preferred to the Delhi office for obvious reasons of better climate, friendlier people, cheaper cost of living and more proximal to Bangalore). Pune is a small city, a really small city with no traffic, no public transport and the largest mall here is the size of the smallest floor in the smallest metro station in Delhi. Yet, I love Pune more than the dusty, semi-developed Gurgaon.
Let me tell you something about my workplace. The Pune office is good, I am loving the workplace, work culture and most importantly the work. Sometimes work becomes really hectic, sometimes there is very little work, its just a roller coaster ride. There has been a lot of learning in the past four months, I'm getting more responsibilities as days pass by and most importantly getting subject matter expertise which I think is the most important of all. There are quite a few BITSians (and 'BITSGians') with whom I generally hang out or have lunch and snacks. Weekends are sometimes boring, sometimes dull and occasionally fun (when we go to movies) otherwise weekends are spent downloading and watching something. Off late, I am travelling a lot (for NSEF or otherwise, in the last 30 days I have been to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and going for a second trip to Bangalore ) and have also developed the habit reading novels. I go to Landmark or Crossword and pick up a random novel (yes, a random novel which is not a best seller or which has a totally unheard of author), and spend the time reading it. Surprisingly, all the three times I have done this exercise, I have enjoyed the novels!! Will continue this habit for sometime I guess.
Well, coming to the crux of this post, I have realized over these four months that workplace can be fun after all. I'm sure we all have hectic days but whenever I feel things like "I'm stuck" or "S**t its so hectic" I just remember Shakespeare's quote "This, too, shall pass." It sort of gives me hope that there is always light at the end of the tunnel, that the hard work I'm putting now will fetch rewards sooner or later and will a go a long way in winning the trust of people who depend on my work. This can happen to you only if you start loving your work, realizing how important your work is, minimizing your cribbing and focusing on the tasks at hand. But what is even more important than this is what I'm going to tell you now. How do you beat the stress at office? How do you make sure you don't get bored or bogged down at workplace? I'm sure there are enough books on yoga, exercise and diet, you can follow all that and still hate your work and feel stressed. But in my opinion, you can beat the stress only by making friends at the workplace. Why was college so much fun? Not because, they taught great stuff there but it was the friends with whom you used to hangout, play around, pull their legs, and had "important" discussions about life. It is the same at workplace, make a group with whom you can share your thoughts and experiences, you will soon start liking the place. Now, this is not an equation, that would say more the number of friends lesser the stress, I am just asking you to experience the warmth of having good friends who can care about you.
Finally, a word of caution if you are following my advice on making friends at workplace. Be friendly to your manager, but do not make friends with him/her. Maintain some distance, it always helps in your professional life. And never ever pass comments on anyone at workplace even when you are with the "friends" in workplace, you can never know when you can be quoted and embarrassed.
That's it for now guys. Comments are welcome. Merry Christmas and a Happy new year.
Btw, on a totally unrelated topic, I could not stop laughing at this one:
