Struck up in your job!

The number of people feeling stuck in their jobs rose as the recession put promotions on hold and crippled the job market. But there is no reason to endure a job you don't like or that doesn't challenge you. Fortunately, quitting isn't your only option. Try transforming your current job by changing one or more of these three things instead:

1. Tasks. You can alter your job by taking on more or fewer tasks, different types of tasks, or by simply changing the way you do the tasks you currently have.
   
   
   
2. Relationships. Change the nature and degree to which you interact with others. Take on a mentee, or spend more time getting to know people in other departments.
   
   
   
3. Perception. Think about your job in a different way. If there are parts you don't like, separate them from the parts you do like. See your job as two jobs: one that you must do, and one that you enjoy doing.

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One cutting....!

A few days back when the prices of sugar were hovering around all time high and milk prices going up marginally I thought that it’s a conspiracy by “Sugar and milk to make my tea dearer”

The earlier advocacy still remains true but this time milk has surpass in the conspiracy race and left behind sugar. In last few months the milk prices has gone up by at least 20% indicating that demand for milk based products has gone up while supply haven’t. I’ve never encountered the milk prices coming down once jacked up as they are not like oil prices wherein the pricing is governed by international demand and supply mechanism.

With the recent hike in milk prices the "Cutting Chai" branded lingo for ½ cup of tea traded in every Indian roadside tea-stall; a favorite pass time companion for many got dearer by 1 rupee. Though the price for milk has gone up by 2 rupees a liter but the vendors have increased the price of cuppa by 1 rupee.

With rising prices of ingredients of Cuppa the stall owners adopted the standard price metrics of multinationals (MNC’s way), they reduced the size of the Cuppa strategically and marginally raised the price. This they did this to keep themselves floated and without compromising on their profit margins.

A cutting chai from a road side stall is integral part of daily routine for many and with monsoon setting in; everyone cherishes to have a cup of tea at such stall. A perfect atmosphere also adds the urge to visit a stall; dark clouds covering the skies, cool breeze creating a lovely atmosphere; putting denizen into highs with a feeling of ecstasy; and stalls become favorite networking joints, chit chat points and places to relax and cherish the movement….

Brain Drain

Gone are the days where people use to stick to one job for life long; or graduate from mechanic to production superintendent and successfully retire with all fringe benefits of accrued PF, Gratuity, arrears etc. But today the trend is totally opposite; people periodically change job and industry even.

Employees trade off the organizations for better opportunity and growth. Well…! As such there is nothing wrong if an individual thinks about his growth and wanted to excel in professional career.

But I believe that the Employees who change job periodically are the most ambitious employees, they are highly innovative and risk takers and have a full potential of becoming future leaders. Whenever such employee leaves the organization it is the organization that is at loss and not the employee.

Generally the managers carry a perception that the employees are replaceable cogs in the wheel, which is not exactly the case. The employee being ambitious, innovative loaded with leadership qualities finds a better placement in a short duration but it take huge cost & time to the company to find a better/compatible replacement against that employee.

Loss Analysis Cost involved in losing a talented employee.

1) There is the cost involved in finding a replacement.
2) There is cost of training the replacement.
3) There is cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime.
4) The loss of hold the person have on the workflow and processes.
5) The loss of morale in co-workers.
6) The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with other.
7) A person leaving an organization becomes its brand ambassador.

Why employees leave the company and how to retain a talent is always a debatable topic and no thumb rule can align them; but if an employee is able to grab a better opportunity in this downtime even; then definitely the employee is an asset to the company and employer should work towards preserving the asset.

Suggested reading
People leave managers not the company

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I'm in Love

I confess that I’m in love with you.
I can’t image a day where I will not be able to see you.
I wanted you to be mine since the day I first saw you.

I wanted to hold you and wanted you to touch me.
I wanted to feel your touch day and night.
I wanted you to hold me and be- mine for ever.

I see all the colors of life in you.
I wanted you to paint me with colors of yours.
I confess that I’m in love with you.

Hey.... Wait don't take it seriously. It's a stone with whom i'm in love now a days. The stone is called OPAL and found mostly in Australia. The one that I have displayed are among the rarest stone with black as a base color and orange/ red, blue/ green as mixed shades. As the stone is rare the prices are also high, But I liked the color combinations and felt that I'm love and the above lines are written for the OPAL

Bigger picture

Government yesterday took a very bold decision by deregulating the price of petroleum products as they wanted the prices to be more of market driven. Extract of this decision is that the oil marketing companies will decide the price at which the products are to be made available in the market and government will not have any sort of control on the prices. Till yesterday Government use to decide and fix the prices and the oil marketing companies use to sell the products at the defined prices.

Decision had an obvious effect on pricing of petroleum products. The prices jacked up by 8-10% from Friday midnight itself and this became a hot topic discussed across the media. People started feeling the heat and consequences of the increased prices and expressed there views and opinion through whatever means they can. It’s buzzing news across the city people discussing inflation and recent price hike of petro products.

With inflation running in double digit figures people are already finding it difficult to meet their ends; and with a recent hike in petro products things are going to be more challenging. In days to come we will find every thing going dearer; a tough struggle seems to be waiting because there seems to be no respite/chances of roll back of the decision.

But this seems to be good news for many? Puzzled…… wait! I will add to the story.

1) Raining for private players: With government having control on the prices many private players who ventured into the retail market couldn’t sustain the competition from state run oil marketing companies. State run oil companies were selling products at a cheaper rate because they were having an advantage of government subsidiary and this was not the case with private players; as a result of this private players withdraw themselves from the retail market. Now the deregulated prices will help those private players to enter the retail market, because they can see there bottom line growing multifold. Profit margin of private players will increase and so the resulting taxes which the government will collect

2) Foreign Participation: Foreign players who are into oil exploration, refining and retail will find the Indian market lucrative and will venture the Indian market. The obvious benefit which they are having is high end technology which can increase there profit, have the latest technology that allows them to extract more high-value products from inferior crude varieties that come cheaper and maximize returns on refining. Again tax Collection on the profit margin will increase which will add to government’s kitty.

3) Disinvestment: Since long Government wanted to dilute it’s holding in oil marketing companies and for which the new guidelines are already in place. But due to regulated prices profit margin of oil marketing companies was low and there FPO might have got a subdued response in this scenario. But with price getting deregulated; profit margin of those companies will increase multiple fold and because of which the FPO’s are bound to receive excellent response from the market.

This is all about a segment that is getting benefited. The only benefit that we can expect is that if the private players use improved better technology and practices and if the prices of crude falls globally then we can expect a cheaper petro products, otherwise life seems to be difficult with the current inflation and petro price hike.

Classifying Problems

Compelled by the habit of interacting with peoples, reading in between the line and zeal to know more about the individuals; I come across lot many complexities and problems the individuals are facing. And a close observations to those problem revels that the problems are specific to the age group and they all fall in certain problem domain based on the age group.

Kids generally have a leverage to share their problems with parents, friends and elders but stages above that doesn’t have that leverage to share the problems so easily until and unless the person is very outspoken. Youth are struggling generally with affairs related to love and educations; once this stage is over people start feeling the heat and carry anxiety and struggle for job or business.

Once the individuals are settled with the prevailing problem there are issues related to workplace which the individuals has to face, simultaneously there appears complexities of marriage. Though in western countries these are not complex issues but we Indians take marriage seriously.

Post marriage there are issues related to kids, family, social life, and appetite for money, growth which start daunting the individuals. Problems take a U turn once kids enter the adolescence stage and individual start living with their problems and aspirations. This seems to be a cycle common to which are problems related to health.

I have illustrated all such problems into a cosmic triangle interweaving each element and stages in a chart…I would like readers to comment and suggest any other problems that I have missed

To be or not to!

Being very systematic didn’t help always; there are failures in making others understand the requirement of system, getting into the system, living with the system and adopting system. I want to excel, I wanted to go to next level very immediately. What I’m today; tomorrow I should be better placed than what I am today and the day after tomorrow should be much better than tomorrow. Past to present was good, present to future should be much better if not excellent.

Challenges will be there and so the Dynamism, zing should not be lost in any circumstances. It’s a never ending race with the time and destiny and no matter what is the fate the fight will be on, in-fact it should be on till the last breath. One can’t change the destiny but can strive for a change and control to a larger extend. Have broader mind set, appreciate people for the job they do and prove a stepping stone for each other, so that tomorrow everyone can take a leap.

Zeal for betterment, for a better tomorrow is what differentiates us from the animal otherwise we are just a social animal. Every social animal meets his requirement in one or the other way and what the time has for him in cards. But relying on destiny and giving up the things and excuses of destiny will hamper the growth, Ambitions should be high, spirit should be even higher and that’s what is called a human and that’s the reason humans strives for success.

Every one of us Juggles 5 balls in air namely; work, health, trust, friendship and dreams, only ball which is made of rubber is the work ball, so no excuse to be given in case if the work ball falls down, it being a rubber ball will bounce and we have a chance to catch it next time, but the other balls are made up of glass, once they fell there are chances that they will be never like before. They may suffer irreversible damage, marked, nick or may even shatter. Value has a value only if is valued.

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