Filling Timesheet is Painful

The most annoying task for any resource in the month end would be filling in their time sheet. Having worked for some of the largest companies, I have seen really monstrous time tracking systems. Every employee thinks that they are frankly Painful, horrible, soul crushing, and pointless. No one likes time sheets.

I have seen those tensed faces during the month-ends as people have to clock the each and every minute they are in the office and also have to justify their work for those hours. I am not sure why managers think that any resource can actually justify his work for all the 8 hours.

I have also seen some managers resort to public humiliation to get their employees to submit their time sheets on time without any discrepancies. Even though we are at work busy doing a task given by the same manager, he still insists in submitting the timesheet on time.

Below is one such conversations which I have actually had on the floor.

Manager: Where is your time sheet Sudheendra?
Sudheendra: I’ll get it to you.

Manager: But it was due two hours ago.
Sudheendra: Yeah I know. Look, I’m really very busy, and I don’t really have time to figure out all that I did in the past week and fill it in the time sheet.

Manager: Do you want to get paid?
Sudheendra: Do you want me to work or not. Of course I need the salary. Look, I’ll get it to you, I just need some time to finish some things given by YOU.

After all this struggle, one questions that always recurrs while filling the time sheet is:

Hey buddy, Do you remember what we did last week?

In a place where we do multi tasking and work on many projects, I guess our memory about the tasks done would often become blur. I know we all are intelligent and have started writing about all these tasks in a Excel sheet to have it for reference at the end of the month.

But after doing all these exercises, justifying all those tasks each day for all 8 hours would always be a very big & tedious task for the employee.

I am now ready for the comments from the managers :-)

Team Building Party

Its been around 2 years that I have been part of this team in Credit Suisse in Singapore. The team has grown enormously and have delivered many a projects, but none of us know each other properly and doesn't really know each other personally.

Finally this Friday, management has taken a step to give a Team Building party to the team. The attendance to this was compulsory. So evening by 4PM, we were all at the Ceylon Cricket Club to start a great evening. We were told that we will be having some games and then dinner at 6.30PM. When I heard about the games and saw the people around me, I thought what these old guys will play and this whole exercise would be a flop.

To my surprise once the games were started everyone forgot where they come from and what position they are in and have actually enjoyed the games part of the evening. We were split into 4 groups and were supposed to compete in 3 different games.

That's my team Red Bulls

After then games we went for dinner and drinks. After having 2 or 3 drinks we asked for some good music and then started dancing for a long time. We had food, drinks, danced and spoke to each other and in fact knew each other well. We had a great time till 1 in the night. In fact this is the first time I have got a chance to speak to all my bosses with whom I haven't really spoken for 2 years.

That's the final group who were there till Late night

Hope I will have these kind of parties quarterly.

How can he ask me?

Friday night at 7.45 PM when I came home and was talking to Swetha, I got a call. I could see that it was someone from my office. I hate to receive calls about work after office hours. But what can we do, its recession time and have to be in my limits. I picked up the call and below is the conversation.

I: Hello, Who is this?
Other Side: Hi Sudheendra, this is P*****.

It was my manager.

I: Yeah tell me P*****.

Next 10 minutes blah blah blah about work. You dont believe what he has asked to do. It was not my work nor it was so urgent nor it was something to do with me and still he asked me this.

Manager: Have you planned to work this weekend?



I was so angry on him. First thing how can he call me on my personal mobile at that time after office hours and ask me if I was planning to come to office on a weekend without any work from my side but to cover someone else's mistake and save their arse. I dont like anyone calling me on a weekend for any work related matters. What will they do for the whole week. Managers just want to cover the arse of their favorites.

I dont know what and why I am writing this, but I was frustrated and spoiled my whole weekend mood because of that.

Gujju Bhai coming - Watch Out

Yesterday evening I was in such a circumstance which provoked me to write this post here. In Hyderabad I never interacted with guys from North India. After coming to Singapore I have been interacting with different people from different cultures. My friends here always told me how typical Gujjus are. They told me that a Gujju bhai will always see you as an investment. He would not invest his time, money and emotions in you unless he expects something from you. Yesterday I have seen that a Gujju bhai will never let an investment go waste, even if it is with his friends or colleagues.

One of my colleague "A typical Gujju bhia" who likes using the free Internet, likes drinking free coffee at office etc has bought some stuff at a store and got some free gift coupons. If they were some direct free coupons then I would not be in this situation to write this post. They read, you spend $30 and $10 will be refunded. This gujju didnt like buying which is not necessary and at the same time he wanted to en cash that $10 dollar free coupon. He got a plan in his mind.

2 days before the incident, we both met at the water cooler in the office.

Gujju Bhai (GB): Hey hi ..
I: Hi ..

GB: Yaar I have 3 Fila gift coupons, do you need them? Its $10 discount on every $30 purchase.
I: Thats nice. Sure will take it.

I was not sure what was going to come. Yesterday evening.

GB: Hey, yeh le. These are the 3 coupons.
I: Oh OK, thanks.

He started explaining.
GB: You have to buy $90 worth goods and you will get $30 discount. That means you have spent only $60. You give me $10 that means you spend $70 for $90.
I: Sorry, I didn't get you.

GB: You have to buy $90 worth goods and you will get $30 discount. That means you have spent only $60. You give me $10 that means you spend $70 for $90.
I: So you mean to say that I have to take these coupons and give you $10.

GB: Yes (Smiling).

I never expected such a deal from someone whom you know for sometime. In anger:

I: OK. First let me go to the store and if I like something and buy something and avail your discount then I shall repay you.

I thought after hearing this he would say OK and then leave. But again he showed his Gujju flair.

GB: Yaar, you have to take a decision very early as these coupons are only till April 1st. If you do not buy before that date then I would be at loss.

I was appalled by this statement and said OK. I am not sure how people can behave this way with some one whom you know for at least sometime. From now on I shall be very apprehensive with all the great Gujju bhais.

Five Years Industry

Immediately after Engineering I dreamed of going to US. I never wanted to work in India. But god has something else in store for me. March 8th 2004, I joined Goldstone Technologies as a fresher. Its been an eventful journey of 5 years (2004-2009) in this IT industry. Last 5 years, I have worked in 3 different companies (GTL, CA and CS) under 3 different managers (Srinivas Reddy, Dhananjay Pershad and Nagaraj) in 2 different countries (India and Singapore) in just 1 single technology (Business Objects). Today when I look back, I am happy to see that I have worked with some good people and have learned a lot not only professionally but also in personal life.

Learning Curve During these years

Today I have come a long way from who and where I was years ago. But I didn’t really change who I am at the core. In my professional life I am where I imagined I would be, if not farther than that. May be I did not really had my priorities set to focus on my career, but still could manage all these years. One thing people might have learned from me (Goldstone guys would definitely accept this) is Work smart rather than working hard. I have never struggled or hooked up for something which I could not do. I always had the information of who can do what. So it was never tough for me to get the things start working.

My learning curve has not be so acute but still have learned a lot of things and now I am in a comfortable position to crack all kinds of technical interviews. Coming to what I should be in next 5 years, hmmm frankly speaking I have never thought so far. But definitely I would not like to be in a technical role. I would try moving into a pre-sales or managerial role by that time.

Token of Gift for Diwali

Today at Credit Suisse we got a pen as a token of Gift for diwali and appreciation for our good work through out this year. This is a multi-utility pen which has a Laser, Torch and the Pen.

Tea Time Gossip

One of my favorite times in the day at office is the evening tea time at 3PM. This consists of tea, coffee, ice milo, kaya bun etc served at the Pick n Bite stall. Its a great time to get together and gossip about the days events and what had happened in the meetings. We discuss a lot during this span of 30 minutes. Some of them are below:

Office gossip
Current Affairs
International Affairs
Movie gossip
Reviews on cars, bikes and movies
Travel & Living

So I thought from now on I can write something on the everyday gossip that we do during the tea time. Some of them might be stupid but some are really interesting.

One Year in CS

It was yesterday that my salary review has been done in Credit Suisse. Thats when I realized that its been a year working here. Last year Oct 21st I started my tenure in Credit Suisse. So what did I achieve all this year? Did I learn something new? Did I earn a great name at office? Did I enjoy working at this place?

Here goes my tenure details. Immediately after joining CS(Credit Suisse), I went back to India within 15 days to attend Dolly's Marriage and Vijay & Jitna's marriage. I came back and had no work at office for the next few months. I was just passing time reading Rediff.com and Cricinfo.com. Later in May I again went to India for a North India trip. Thats when I interest in travel has come up.

I started traveling since June. I went to Vietnam Twice (HCMC-1, HCMC-2, Still have to update about the Hanoi & Halong Bay trip), Malaysia Twice (KL-1, KL-2, KL-3, KL-4, KL-5, Genting, Melacca), Thailand once (Phuket-1, Phuket-2, Phuket-3, Phuket-4, Phuket-5), Indonesia once and two surprise visits to India as well. I always had this so called free time here. I downloaded hundreds of movies. Locally I have visited so many places. Made so many new friends. Met old friends who came to Singapore. So my whole year I enjoyed traveling, watching loads and loads of movies, Having fun with friends and going home now and then.

Coming to work, I haven't learned anything new in Business Objects. I have been working on an old version of it. Recently after upgrading to the latest version I have been feeling good about the work. Its just a month ago that my work has started seriously. Now the things are a bit hectic. I have learned some facts about the queries and all. When I did not have work I always wanted to do my certifications and stuff. But this did not happen.

Other than work and travelling and having fun I have learned some photography on my new camera Sony A350. Now all my trips would be accompanied with my camera. Need to learn lot more tactics and need to expertise in many areas of photography. Hope this new year of mine in CS will bring me some new challenges and some new things to learn and finish off my certifications. May god bless me and All the best to me :-).

A Typical day at office

Huh See how much I am bored here at office I started writing about this boring stuff at office also. Anyways let me start ...

My day at office starts at 9.30AM (Though everybody comes at 8.55AM, some habits are hard to change). Before I start my system I go to fill my water bottle. It was nice in Goldstone when a office boy used to get a new bottle once they we finish them. Anyways after that I come and check my office mails. As my work is not yet started I dont really get any mails. I start reading rediff.com and wikipedia. And if there is any match I closely follow ball by ball in both cricinfo and cricbuzz sites. In between I pass time calling home and talking to mom dad for more than 30mins.

And once it is 12Noon, I go out for lunch and come back at 1PM. Once I come back I start feeling drowzy and it would be tough for me to sit at my desk. So I just try to look around in the office or go out for sometime. Oh I didnt tell you about my seating right. Exactly opposite to me I can see a gaint screen in Suntec City building which gives ads about restaurants mobiles, Tvs etc. On the right side of me I can see the Marina Walk building and the Gaint Singapore Flyer. On the left hand side I can see all the skyscrapers in Singapore out there. Now if I just turn around there are so many women of other teams working. Its only my team that we dont have that foreign girls stuff. As its a IT team we all are Indians. Rest all the teams look beautiful with so many people from so many different regions.

So that was about my seating. So after my lunch I try to sleep for atleast 30 mins. By the time I wake and go around time will be 3 and its time for tea. So we go down to have some tea and coffee. We are like 6 to 8 people who go down and sit at the cafe while only 2 drink hahaha. We come back at 3.30 and I start reading the sites again for the final news of the day. At 5.30PM I start back home.

Thats a very typical boring day at office in my life.

Late Commer

I never used to wake up early in the morning. I used to sleep till 9 in the morning. I used to go to office late almost everyday. I never believed in going to office on time. I always believed in finishing the work on time rather than coming to office on time. To my luck my previous managers were always supportive and there was no problem. Even in the evening I used to spend long hours till late night if there was any work. But if work was not there I used to go back home very early which was very much possible in my previous companies.

But once I came to Singapore, my life is totally changed and I am not liking it. I have to get up early. Prepare my own coffee and prepare my breakfast and get ready and leave home by morning 8.30. Even if I start at that time I am late daily by 30 minutes. Here even that 30mins is called as late. Manager mails the whole team that we are late. To my luck again I have a good Lead who understands me well and never has escalated this issue further ;). The same is the case while coming back. As there is no much work I start back home by 5.30PM. Even thats a matter of concern here.

This is one of the reason I didnt like Singapore. I have always been a late commer and will always be a late commer :)

My Colleagues

When I was about to join my first company I was very much speculative about the colleagues that I am going to work with. I was out of the college where we used to have fun everyday and never was so disciplined and punctual in college. But to my wonder I always had a great company of good friends as my colleagues. I dedicate this post to everybody who worked with me.

My First Break @ GTL
------------------------

My first career break was at Goldstone. The got my offer on my birthday as a gift to me. I was not sure how my colleagues are going to be. But when I went into the company to my wonder most of them in the team were freshers. We were again just a like a bunch of college students hanging out. As we used to have night shifts we enjoyed a lot. Even the seniors were so friendly and even they had a great time with us. At goldstone I made some of my friends for life time. They were the people who made me from zero( a second class graduate who had no experience and no software knowledge) to a hero( while leaving got 6 offers out of 7 interviews that I attended)

My Learning curve @ CA
--------------------------

My first day was always tough through out my life. I was always nervous on the first days. The same was the case with CA. Even here I was hoping to get good colleagues. On my day 1 I have found that I was the first person in the team who knew Business Objects. I already have 3 colleagues who were just kids out from their colleges. They were really nice to me. Later the team started to grow and I have made lot of friends in the team and I am still in contact with almost everyone even after leaving. Here I had an oppurtunity to work on the latest technologies. Everyone was an expert in some field and everyone supported me with their technical assistance.

My holidaying @ CS
---------------------

When I got an offer from Singapore, I started to think whether I will have to go or not. This was becuase I heard a lot that the work in Singapore would be more and they would make you work even on weekends. But when I came to Singapore and joined CS, I am enjoying life as if I am on a holiday to Singapore. Here there is no work as the process is not so good. The work is still pending with the team who has to hand it over to my team. Even in this situations I learned lot of things which would be help ful in my future career. My colleagues here are having double the experience that I have. But everyone is very good and friendly with me.

So finally I would say I have always been lucky with respect to the colleagues that I have worked with. They have always been good and supportive.