Career, Money, Designation, Roles and All that Drama !!!!!!!!!!!

I have arrived; the chase for money is over. Not that I have hit a black hole in my current role, career or I have called it shots on what am doing, but After climbing the ladder so fast and reaching the top, I now feel that the ladder was against the wrong wall.

Money was the criteria, dragged into a non typical Indian middle class circumstance, especially in an orthodox Brahmin family, were walking out of the house without an engineering grad is a crime, career was by force and not by choice. With enough brains and marks to support, groping in the dark for the next step ahead. With little money and lots of commitments, with lots of pride and lack of prejudice, with a brittle family and a brave heart, I wanted a job that could help me study and give me a push. Was the first offer letter that I got “my choice”, was that moment of Joy, that took me to Chennai a mere flash in the pan, On the contrary if that moment wasn’t there would I ever be blogging, flying from Jaipur – Chennai , business class.

“Money is not everything “, the statement never made sense to me, at 19 with looming financial problems and debts, for me money was the problem solver, the divine agent, the fix. I decided to give it a chase, to take shortcuts, to get what I wanted, my divine agent. Overtime, Shifts, Health was always regarded as excuses of spoiled brats. Employee relation, Job satisfaction, Work Culture was terms that never clicked, the divine agent kept me going. Like a log of wood in water, like a kite without direction I chased pay cheques. “I am a pay cheque player “. Does money give you a choice, after an endless chase, do you actually get to make a choice. Now that’s a question that needs to be answered, for all the youngsters out there, the answer is might be it does, but the real answer would be “chase a career you like and money will chase you”.

Not that I own a Merc or a three bedroom apartment, Not that I fly business class every day, Not that I dine at the Taj or Leela but my chase for whatever I wanted is over. A home in my village, an address which I never had for 23 years, three time food with no tensions of debt and collection agents, Lee, Levis and Nike to wear, A cute girl to hang out with, that’s all I wanted to do with money. To watch a cricket match without being forced to switch channels by a step mother, to go and watch a movie first day first show, to wear 5 different dresses a week, I always had to fight for the simplest of things in life, and fight became a part of life.

Today, I realize that I can go far and beyond, tearing apart the blanket of money, breaking the shackles of growth and designations. Not that I forgot where I walked in from, but that I realize life is much more than money and designation, that I realize that work is life and not a part of life. When 60 % of ones life is spend at work, the choice of the career must be as important as the choice of a partner. That a Pay Cheque is worth until the 5th of the month, until the “Milkwalla” is paid, the cable and telephone bills are cleared, the rent and food is taken care and when all this drama is over, you have with you, around you and within you, the work that you do, the people who surround you and the inner satisfaction it gives you. I will search, get where I want, as I have the luxury of thought, the power of choice, though I had to fight to get to the race, I will still run the race with all the heart, as in Jerry Maguire “I am all heart Mother Fucker!!!!!!”.

Handle Time Reduction !!!!!!

For all you folks, Who are convinced about the fact that a BPO job is just about talking English, Wearing Denim and having fun, Let this post be an eye opener. A tech support job for the North American segment, is a tough as being a US envoy for India - Pakistan Dialogues, Especially if you are supporting a product which is a proclaimed loser in the market.

Handle time or Time to Resolve is a metric in any tech support centre, there are processes where handle time is the only metric. Customer yelling at the top of his voice, Operations team poking you every five minutes to finish the call, SME giving you suggestions ( which would have been tried in another OS which he supported ), Team leader showing his face as if you are doing a crime by extending the call, The tech support agent is definitely on a sticky wicket.

Now the million dollar question comes up inside the conference room. How do we reduce the handle time ??????. Here we go, speculations, Half cooked suggestions, Assumptions, Everything other than a solution pops in. People from Manufacturing Industry ( Six Sigma Experts ) would walk in with Laptops and Slides, with projects run on highly unstable processes, Will claim that its cause of high hold time, Lack of on call documentation, Less tenure that the AHT is high. ( As if we don't know.) The senior manager who would have walked in with a Hotel Background who has never handled a tech support call or would never understand the technicalities will pass on sermons about reducing the handle time. The operations team who really know what has to be done, either would not be listened to or would never be consulted about the problem.

Ideas must move from the floor to the conference room and decisions from the conference room to the floor. Here Ideas, Solutions and Decisions, everything is done within the four walls. What I would say with my tenure is , " Hire the right people ". Hiring a undergrad for a high end tech support process is like asking IM Vijayan to play in EPL. Train them right, don't hire them for a Credit Card selling process and then pull them into tech support cause they speak well. Communication skills are good , but in a tech support environment the guy must talk to the customer about technicalities not about the last move he watched or the date with his Girl Friend. Retain people, Loosing people every six months will leave your Handle time problem Unaddressed. Train people on technicalities, not just on the product ie If your an ISP train him on networking basics, not just " Ping " " Ipconfig " and "Power cycle ". Teach them fishing, don't give them a fish to eat. Listen to their calls, Increase the sampling plan initially, Let the quality team not be the " Transaction Monitoring Team ", Let them know what the product is, Let them be capable of giving inputs on the product as well. Let the on floor training be done by agents on calls, Train them on Top Call Generators, Let them try the steps they ask the customer to do.

Let's not push AHT to the agents, Let's push probing skills, Let's push typing speed, Let's talk about technicalities, Let's not give them scripts, Instead lets give them scenarios, Lets talk about tools and their usage, Lets empower them to get there rather use our power and drag them there !!!!!!!!!

Just for Dada, A real Leader,Motivator, Maker of the modern Indian Cricket team.

Looking at dada walking out from the stadium, I could see my youth, my energy, my passion for the game cricket walking away . Tears rolling down my cheeks, Heart pounding to new heights, I knew this moment is the end of my Era in cricket, All the greats I worshiped are walking off one by one. Dada an emotional being will be the most inspring of captains Indian cricket has ever produced. Not just for the fact that he was the most succesfull but for the fact that he dared to experiment, Fearlessly backed the new kids, Sopke what his heart said and Led the team from the front. Who would dare remove his shirt and swing at the lords, uttering words which conventional India would take another deacde to utter. Dada made success more coluorfull and memorable than any other captain, He pumped in emotion into the viens of the young Indian team, With fire in the belly and a heart filled with emotion Dada created a brand new team which feared less about clinging on to the team, which feared less about the oposition they played, the venue the game was played. Dada brought in moments that had an attitude, that murmured somewhere at the background that " We have arrived, the new face of India ". He gave the message loud and clear that the new band is Outspoken, Plays the game with directions of the heart and will not compromise when success is the factor. When Australia crated " Rouges ", Dada create a bunch of heroes who are rouges when it comes to dealing with rouges.

Dada is a classical example of a leader, Every leader must be emotional about what he does, Must support a cause and back people he belives in. Being emotional, people say is Idiotic. Any job thats getting done well, isnt getting done well NOT cause of the knowledge, expertise or a process laid. It gets done because the people who does the job are involved in it. They feel that thier role is important and thier leader cares. People who are well led are well led cause the leader belives in the cause and once you belive in winning for your country, removing a shirt would be the least you can do, when your team chases 300+. Dada has brought joy into our Lives, has made us cry, has made us belive that come backs are not easy but definitely possible. The image of Dada walikng into a Dusty Paddy Field, for a Ranji match ( With 7000+ runs in tests and 10000+ in one days ) makes me feel ashamed about the fact that I crib when am made to do a Managers Job were in am designated to do something else. Form is Temporary, Class permenant, Dada was classy on the filed, off the field and as always he will remain the prince not only of Calcutta but of modern Day Indian Cricket. Good Luck Dada, Hope we all see more of you soon !!!!!!!!

At 24 I would have made fun of Gavaskar, Shasthri or Srikanth, whom my father loved. To my kids :- Dare utter a word about this man I will have to make you join a BPO !!!!!!!!