Saturday, April 3, 2010

What all are basically discussed at SDSZ

Writing the second post under this section, I would take up all what actually get discussed at SDSZ as far as my little experience is concerned!

Starting with my first experience, I think the first discussion which starts just after you get introduced to the people present there is your brief background.... that actually means from where you have landed up in the company...what all are the courses which you tried to study (though fact is that we tried not to study but these periodic exams made us study :( )...City which you belong to and if you belong to more than one then it’s a really long topic as you will try to convince them that you actually know everything about each of the cities :P.... the list will go on and on. But what is very interesting in these initial conversations is the people's interest in you as a new member of the place. I must accept one very good point which I have observed and that is, Where ever you go...... be it in a train, a plane or a new company, at first people around you look at you as if you are an alien who is going to harm them :( but at SDSZ, the story is different. People welcome you as if you are their brother who lost in ‘KUMBH MELA’ during childhood days ;).... there is something special about this place that people never hesitate to share their space with new comers. But whatever it is, the point is that you get into one or more groups very easily and quite fast and then starts the actual conversation/discussion /debate!

After few days you become an integral part of the group you joined. I mean, you all will decide the time when you all are going to come at the place or you will start calling each other before going to SDSZ. Now having talked all about you, chances are more that you will dig into others information with the help of same questions. With all these formalities done, topic to be discussed will now change from personal to some broader fields. Like current affairs, companies hierarchies, company’s policies, IPL/ World cup match discussions and speculations etc. It’s not possible to take this entire topic list at once but let’s take some of these which are really interesting 
Company policy: being new to the company the first thing which you are bound to get curious about is company and company policies. Believe me, this is the most interesting topic which everyone likes to discus about. There will be some member who will criticize each and every policy and then there will be people who will take the diplomatic stand by saying “Boss, wherever you go it’s the same so no complains” and this will make you more and more confuse :P. But do not worry as sooner or later, you too will join one of these two sides as chances of your liking the policies goes down with time you spent with the company. ;)
Sports: If your group likes any sport in common and cricket in particular then congratulations! You are going to invest most of the time on discussing Sports and facts related to it. Be it criticizing players or praising them, we smokers are too good at it. Unlike Girls, we find daily soaps boring but even a boring test cricket between India and Bangladesh is good enough to ignite a hot topic to discuss about. We feel proud when our lovable (For Sachin word should be RESPECTABLE ;) ) players do well, no matter with how weak team ….. But believe me or not if there is something, apart from smoking, which binds people with their respective group is love for any particular sport.
Girls/Actresses: Hmmmmmmmm…….. Well, what to say ….better I should keep my pen away from this category otherwise my group will kill me :P. I believe you guys are matured enough to have an idea what all groups may discuss when it comes to this topic….so leaving it over your non-reliable wild guess ;)
Technical stuffs: Well, Rarely but you are bound to find people in your group discussing technical stuffs :) Level of the discussion may range right from the beginner to expert…. It’s the only productive discussion which I can think of right now.
For now, I can think of these ones only but I will keep adding the items as and when I will remember one….In the mean time you can also suggest ….

Saturday, March 27, 2010

SDSZ : The inevitable space in or around companies

SDSZ : SELF-DECLARED-SMOKING-ZONE

Hello everyone....Welcome to a new abbreviation which I recently invented.....well invented or formed or whatever but one thing which I can assure is at least its not been copied from somewhere or not even heard from any other source before....the main thing is, what is so interesting about this word! well, hold your wild horses of thought and lets navigate through each word for better understanding of the term and then we will have a dig over its importance :)

Now lets take the first word Self. If I am going to describe or make you guys understand what this word mean then either you will kill me or chances are there that the whole meaning of the word itself will get changed. So I am quite okay with the definition which you guys have for this word till date....but one definition which I liked the most is "Person in light of own individuality". Self can be associated with an individual as well as a group of people.

Next Word is Declared: declared here does not signify going around all over with a mike and sound box saying what u want to convey. Here, Its a mock act of doing something repetitive and hence convey your motive slowly to the external world. You need not to put a sign board but then also people are aware of your perception about something or some place because of your repetitive action. Here its not official though very definition of declare want it to be so....So here it signifies the repetitive smoking action which an individual or group of induivisual carry out at particular place/room/parking space etc... which in turn declares that space, though unofficialy, a smoking area.

Next two words "Smoking" and "Area" need no special meaning with respect to this abbreviation, though I will not scold you all if you go and buy Oxford english dictionary just to know about these two words :P.

So, lets take all these four words together and try to understand the abbreviation one last time. This abbreviation can be well used for all those spaces in your college/companies/locality etc... where, though, no sign board is put with "SMOKING-ZONE" written on it but then also you find people standing there and enjoying their smoke time and again. It may be area which are not supposed to be used for smoking or it may be the area which actually have been built for this purpose only but latter they removed the official sign board due to change in regulations. The main point is the area should not be official smoking zone and people should be using it time and again for smoking.

Wow.....This way we have concluded the definition part. Now look at the significance.....Here I will be taking all the positive effects but that does not mean that smoking is good :( :( Its just that as an Individual I expect everyone to be decisive and responsible enough about their habits :- good or bad ! :)

Lets take a scenario: You joined a new company and have no friend at all....or just some limited friends. Everyone knows importance of networking within company. its a must, not only for smooth career growth but also for improving your social life and inter personal skills. So being a social animal you want to have more and more friends within the company. But can we go to each desk and say...."Hey! you know what I want to improve my social life and hence thought of making you my friend " :P ....so whats the idea....
Well, simple enough! visit these smoking areas when you are free with someone who smokes. But Remember that going there never mean that you too have to smoke...meet people there, be part of the discussion and keep the relation intact even when you meet them in office. Smokers/drinkers get bonded very fast....not only among themselves but with any one sitting with/accompanying them :)
here I would also like to remind that this is not the only last way to get more friends fast as places like cafeteria, gym etc. are healthier options(as there will be no passive smoking of any kind) but what i am saying is that it is also one of the way. And if you are a smoker then what to say....its advantage he he he he he...

Now, Lets see it from the company point of view. Its, almost, always beneficial to have these type of SDSZ's around the company as probability is more that people visiting there will bond quite strongly hence increasing the better informal communication among them in office. As we know 90% of effective work is done through informal communication among the co-workers as it is faster and improves team spirit.(do not ask from where I got this data, as it is what I have fealt while working in different companies....think about all those tedious mails, meetings....I seldom found them productive with respect to me calling someone and directly asking the information required.....but the view may differ person to person). This informal intra company communication is so much important that some companies motivate people to join the social network groups associated to the company so that workers can know each other better and get bonded among them selves in better way. Again More friend in the company means more chances of the person to stay longer with the company as they get better social life there.

Counter argument to this theory may be that these type of informal talks sometime may involve company policies which are not that favourable for the employees and comparing these with other company policy's may make employees to think about jumping....in that case it may be the case that whole group try to search new job :P :P.... With my personal experience, I know this happens for sure. But policies are something which company has to take care of....

Their are many other impacts of SDSZ....all of which can not be written here or discussed thoroughly by me alone....so lets talk about it. Put comments and if you have any suggestion then I will be more than happy to know that too. And this time lets take the negative side of these SDSZ too....