2007: The year that was

As I sit here waiting to ring in the New Year, I can’t help but look back on the year gone by and recollect all the experiences – good, bad, funny, sad, exhilarating. So let’s go back in time…exactly a year back!

I welcomed 2007 in one of the most perfect ways I could – my band Serenity rocked out a New Year’s party gig with an impressive setlist covering Gn’R, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, RHCP, Pink Floyd, Dismember among others.

- The first good news of the year came in the form of an opportunity to move back to the US for a job.

- Close on the heels of the good news followed a personal tragedy. Lost my grandma after a long illness. May her soul rest in peace.

Arrived in California in February and the year since then has been one interesting journey!

- Formed another band and for the first time, put down the bass guitar and took up full-time drumming duties.

- Got myself a pure white Pearl drumkit that recently has been christened “Bianca”.

- Went rock-climbing for the first time and absolutely loved it.

- Went for an alternative rock concert with a EL (this guy is quite a character!). After fighting through traffic and finding parking, I realized that I had left my tickets at home and had to drive back and fetch them. Luckily didn’t miss a lot.

- Got my first sportsbike, a gorgeous, 600cc Honda CBR F3 Smokin’ Joe’s limited edition.

- Met some really awesome riders and had a great time riding through the streets and mountains of Bay Area. The riding community is almost like my new family.

- 3 months and 2000 miles later, sold my bike for more than what I bought it for (I know…I should be working at the dealership!)

- Attended Ozzfest and saw Hatebreed, Lordi, Lamb of God and Ozzy Osbourne perform live!

- Saw Dream Theater perform live at Berkeley. Watching Mike Portnoy (drums) and John Myung (bass) was a dream come true.

- And to top it all, saw Rush perform live. For a drummer, there is no better experience than watching Neil Peart live in his elements.

- Met Oz and the PFC junta in OC and it was one hell of a party.

- Had an adventure on the freeway on my way back (read my older blog entry about the same)

- Met my childhood friend A and had an awesome time with his kids in OC.

- One of my closest friends PT came to the US for a month on a business trip. I went to Disneyland with her and though she didn’t particularly enjoy it, I had a total blast as I got to be a kid once again for a day. Yay!!

- Was treated to some delicious home-made desi food on a couple of weekends when my maushi (aunt) was in town visiting her son.

- Started working on an original Hindi rock band project with a guitarist friend. The project didn’t take off but I made a new friend nevertheless.

- Had the most boring, disconnected conversation of my life with a girl who got in touch with me through a matrimonial site.

- Made a trip to the Big Apple and spent a nice weekend with my wonderful sister K.

- One of my best friend J had an absolutely adorable baby boy. Eagerly waiting for her to return to the US.

- Learnt to swim! Now if only I could be a little more regular and go swimming often.

- Played my first gig as a drummer with my new band The Joy of ESX (NO, there are no typos!) covering songs by Gn’R, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Poison, Dire Straits, etc.

- Met Nishikant Kamat (of Dombivali Fast fame) and Madhavan at the preview screening of Evano Oruvam, the Tamil remake of Dombivali Fast.

- Went to Austin, TX and celebrated my birthday with some good old friends. It was one of my best birthdays ever!

- Our lead guitarist V moved back to India and we are still struggling to find a suitable replacement.

- My colleague and friend KB had a beautiful baby girl. Poor guy keeps complaining about his loss of sleep.

- Saw Van Halen perform live after reuniting with David Lee Roth.

However, most of these experiences would not have been possible had I not met some interesting people along the way. Some I had known from before, some I met here, some came for a while and disappeared, some have stayed on for longer and some might stay all the way. So let me try and mention a few who made a difference….

My bandmates who are an absolutely crazy bunch and have been my Sunday entertainment. My friend KB who in ways unexplainable has somehow helped me out on different occassions. GB, a cool guy from work who has made the afternoon coffee-breaks interesting. DH, a Swedish colleague who helped me out a lot during my initial days at work. M from the local music store who has given me some absolutely killer deals on all my drumming gear. SJ, my guitarist friend with whom I had some fun times in the city. My goofy new friend AR with whom I have had some completely non-sensical conversations and some fun times hanging out. And as the year came to a close…met someone really wonderful (if you are reading this, you know who you are!) and the time (though very little) I spent with this person has been absolutely amazing!

Apart from these wonderful people, I would not be the sane (???) person I am without some people who hold a really special place in my life – my sister K, best friends J, N and AS (Mumbai), and some good old friends – SK, GP, RD, TO, AS (Reno).  I don’t get to meet them as often as I would like to, but I know they are always just a phone call away.

So thank you all for being a part of my life and making me feel special!

Wish you all a Very Happy and Wonderful 2008!

And I’ll leave with this quote by Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden: “Somedays you’re the pigeon, somedays you’re the statue…but if you can, you should only do the things you love”

Weekend to Remember contd…

So after a lot of you asked me about the follow-up post for my “Weekend to Remember” post, I had to get off my lazy ass and finish what I started. So here it goes…

Me and S started off from OC and were about an hour and a half out on I-5, when suddenly the lights inside the car went out, the radio shut off and the car started to sputter. We pulled over on the shoulder on the left side and popped the hood to see if we could diagnose the problem and possibly fix it. But soon it became apparent that the problem was not a fix-it-and-go.

8:10pm 

We decide to do the next logical thing – call for roadside assistance. S could not get any signal on his phone, so we called from my phone.  This is where our problem started progressing from bad to worse.

For the first time in all these years of travelling, I forgot to carry my phone charger and my phone had probably 2/3rd of battery life left. We had another problem…we didn’t know our exact location on the freeway and could only give some approximate landmarks. We were told that the tow-truck was on it’s way.

8:30pm

Half an hour since we broke down and we were happy that help was on it’s way. We kept looking down the freeway for a tow-truck. Then I looked down at my watch…

9:05pm

No tow-truck yet…there was something definitely wrong. And just then the dreadful call came in – the truck driver had failed to find us and had returned to his base. I am pretty sure that the driver didn’t even bother to go search for us and gave up within a mile or two from the last landmark we had mentioned.

It had started to get a little cold and the noise of the cars whizzing past us and the worsening light wasn’t helping us at all.

9:40pm

We decide to call 911. Inspite of explaining to the emergency operator that I was running low on phone battery, the lady continued to go through her questionnaire and finally uttered the words which sounded like heaven – “The dispatch is on it’s way and should be there in 15-20min”…but what she followed that up with was ridiculous – “If no one arrives for 30min, please don’t keep waiting and call back right away”. Are you for real?? What part of “my phone is about to die any minute” didn’t you understand?

Through another stroke of brilliance, we decided to call up our friends in OC and gave them our approximate location and asked them to co-ordinate with the roadside assistance just in case my phone ran out of juice.

10:15pm

No cop car in sight. It’s the first time in my life that I have so eagerly awaited to see the flashing lights of a cop car pulling up behind our car. Our friends in OC tell us that roadside assistance has been instructed to keep travelling down the freeway till they locate us. YAY!!

I make another call to 911. They tell me that they have my previous call on record and that the dispatch is already on it’s way. I am not sure which way it was headed, it definitely wasn’t our way! By now we both are bored and frustrated. I start waving to all passing cars hoping that some driver would be a good samaritan and call 911 to inform them of our predicament (or inform that there are two lunatics waving on the side of the freeway!). But little had we expected that some driver would provide us with a moment of humor. Suddenly we see a BMW pull over to the side and start flashing it’s blinkers. We ran towards the car hoping to get some kind of assistance. What we find instead is a driver who is piss drunk and could barely understand what we were trying to tell him. We moved aside and set him off on his way with a “Thanks, but no thanks”!

11:10pm

A little over 3 hours since we pulled over, we see a tow-truck heading our way. We let out a scream of joy and run towards our angel in disguise (in mechanic’s overalls to be precise!). He suggests that we tow the car to a town about 10-12 miles away where they had a service station as well as hotels nearby to stay overnight. At that point, we were hungry, thirsty and completely drained of all energy and that suggestion was the best we could get. We squeeze into the cabin of the truck and were on our way.

11:45pm

The truck driver dropped off the car in front of a service station and we paid him and he was on his way. We walked to the gas station to ask the clerk for the opening time of the service station. The words that followed were like lightning crashing on our heads. The clerk said, “That service station has been out of business for at least 3 months”. I spotted the tow-truck waiting at the stoplight and I made a mad dash out to get hold of him. Just as I reached, the light turned green and the truck disappeared in front of my eyes. Our angel had just discarded his disguise and had become the devil!

Walked back to the gas station and met a guy having coffee. He happened to be a mechanic.

Was this going to be our stroke of luck? By this time I had stopped expecting for anything good to come out, so I just asked him to take a look at the car. He came over, told us it seemed like an alternator issue. He gave us a jump start using his truck, but it wasn’t of much help as the battery would not charge and he didn’t have his tools with him. We thanked him for helping nevertheless.

00:15am (next day)

Me and S walked towards a hotel and checked in. Dumped our bags in the room and we strolled out to get something to eat.

00:40am 

Seemed like our luck was changing as Denny’s actually served our order within 10min!!

1:30am 

Back in the room, I don’t even remember when I crashed on the bed and fell asleep…

7:00am

…S is shaking my hand to wake me up. Takes me a few moments to realize where I was and the entire ordeal of the previous night started to play again in my head. Took a quick shower, had a hot coffee and S called up a nearby garage who told us that they could fix the problem and have us on our way.

8:30am

We get the car towed to the garage and they tell us that they will need to order in an alternator to replace the old one. They said we should be on our way by noon. We head out to a nearby Starbuck’s while we leave the car behind for the garage to work on it. Sitting in that chair with a cappuccino in hand was probably the most relaxing moment I have had in years.

11:30am

The car is ready and raring to go. S pays the garage guys and we are on our way…

A Weekend to Remember

On an impulse, I decided to drive down to Orange County (OC) with a friend from PFC for the weekend. Was looking forward to a great time at the PFC Headquarters (Oz’s house) meeting fellow movie fanatics and possibly shooting a short film. Reached there way past midnight and but still received one of the warmest welcomes ever. Sat chatting about movies, music and all other random things over a nice chilled beer.

On Saturday, the PFC-USA gang decided to convert the HQ (the bathroom to be precise!) into a studio to shoot the ad for PFC.

As we wrapped up, I left the PFC HQ to meet my oldest buddy and his family. Had a blast with his kids. His son, who is the elder one, totally impressed me with his ability to identify different makes and models of cars, SUVs and minivans. Just to put things in perspective, he is not even 5 years old! However, it was his younger kid, his daughter who completely bowled me over. She had me totally wrapped around her finger by her charming sweetness. These girls sure learn their tricks at a young age (she is 3-4 months shy of her 2nd birthday)!

Sunday afternoon, I was back at the PFC HQ and the gang had started working on shooting the short film that was scripted by our friend Striker. I played my part in the shoot by holding up a green background for a scene depicting a news telecast and by throwing around some random, completely useless ideas! Hey, I tried! I don’t know anything about movie-making…LOL. But just watching the gang in action helped me learn a lot of things about the entire shooting process.

If only had I not have to go to work on Monday, I would have loved to stay over for some more time and have more fun. Thanks to all the PFC guys from OC for the wonderful weekend.

P.S. though the weekend took an ugly turn about an hour and a half after we left OC, will write about that in another post.

Is it only about paying bills?

I was talking to a friend yesterday and reflecting on life and I realized that my life has become like my job. Yes, my life has become a program, just a couple of lines of code. Just like the code I write that does a couple of tasks over and over again, my life has become the same in the real world. I wake up, get ready, ride to work on the same route, sit in the same office, check mails, start writing some code and running tests to check it, go to the same crappy cafeteria and have the same crappy food, attend some meetings, write more code and run more tests, ride back home through the same traffic (believe me…at times I have seen the same cars at the same stop light!), workout, cook, watch some sitcom, sleep. And then the cycle repeats.

Is this what life is supposed to be? Live like a machine? A robot? A piece of code?

 And for what? So that you can pay your bills?

Whatever happened to your passions? What about the things that you loved to do? What about those activities that brought a smile to your face?

Our parents tricked us when they told us as kids that we could do whatever we want and enjoy life once we start earning. That’s so not true! We basically just end up doing what everyone else is doing. You get a job, your bank balance starts to look healthy. Soon enough you buy your own house, you get married, have kids and then tell them the same thing your parents told you. And that’s when it dawns on you that you never really enjoyed life and by then it’s too late. Life has slipped away and all you actually did in your life was pay bills!

I don’t want to let life pass me by while I was busy writing some code. No, I cannot just go all out to pursue my passions. I have to be practical, since paying bills is a harsh reality. But I’m not going to let that drive my life.

I am going to ride my sportsbike at every chance I get, even if it is only riding a few miles to and from work.

I am going to save up to go hit the tracks and improve my riding skills.

I am going to keep practicing and jamming to improve my drumming.

I am going to be more regular with my blog posts.

I am going to watch movies more often.

I am not going to work to pay my bills, but I am going to work to be able to pursue my passions!

BCS National Title Game: Gators are CHOMPions

It was the perfect end to a great year of sports with the Florida Gators being the first team in NCAA history to win the National Basketball and Football titles in the same year. And what a way to win the football title – annihilating No.1 Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14!!

I had been screaming hoarse throughout the season that the Buckeyes were overrated and the Gators deserved to be No.1 after facing way tougher opponents in the SEC. With teams such as Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas and Alabama to contend with and playing against a great team like FSU every season as an out of conference opponent, and beating them all in the same season, the Gators were a more deserving team.

The Buckeyes dominated the game for all of 16 seconds from kickoff. After that, they didn’t even get time to figure out as to what hit them. The explosively quick Florida defense was something that the Buckeyes had never encountered (and will never encounter in the Big Ten conference) and this became evident as their quarterback Troy Smith kept getting hit from behind.

If the defense was relentless, the offense was spot on! The two quarterbacks strategy of Urban Meyer was something the Buckeyes had no answer to. Chris Leak silenced his critics by coming good in the big game and Tim Tebow has the Buckeyes scampering with his rushing skills.

You can read more about it here at CNNSI and ESPN.

Go Gators!!!

Osho and the word ‘Fuck’

The following is an exchange between Osho and one of his followers regarding the word ‘Fuck’… 

Q:
Beloved Master,
I feel shocked when you use the word ‘Fuck’. What to do?

Osho :
Sargamo, it is one of the most beautiful words. The English language should be proud of it. I don’t think any other language has such a beautiful word.

One Tom from California has done some great research on it. I think he must be the famous Tom of Tom, Dick and Harry fame.

He says – One of the most interesting words in the English language today is the word ‘fuck’. It is one magical word. Just by its sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love.
In language it falls into many grammatical categories.
It can be used as a verb, both transitive (John fucked Mary) and intransitive (Mary was fucked by John), and as a noun (Mary is a fine fuck).
It can be used as an adjective (Mary is fucking beautiful).
As you can see there are not many words with the versatility of ‘fuck’.

Besides the sexual meaning, there are also the following uses:
Fraud: I got fucked at the used car lot.
Ignorance: Fucked if I know.
Trouble: I guess I am fucked now!
Aggression: Fuck you!
Displeasure: What the fuck is going on here?
Difficulty: I can’t understand this fucking job.
Incompetence: He is a fuck-off.
Suspicion: What the fuck are you doing?
Enjoyment: I had a fucking good time.
Request: Get the fuck out of here!
Hostility: I am going to knock your fucking head off!
Greeting: How the fuck are you?
Apathy: Who gives a fuck?
Innovation: Get a bigger fucking hammer.
Surprise: Fuck! You scared the shit out of me!
Anxiety: Today is really fucked. And it is very healthy too.

Happy Diwali

Here’s wishing all my readers a Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year.

Savour the delicacies, indulge in the sweets, enjoy the festivities and be safe. Have fun with the firecrackers but try to keep the noise and smoke levels down.

Keep rocking…

10 Reasons why you should leave work at 6:00p.m

I got this in my mail a couple of days back. I found it quite funny as well as insightful and above all, very true (especially point 5)! Here you go:

1. Employment letter stated that working hours finish at 6:00p.m

2. Work is a never-ending process. Even if you stay back till next morning, you will never finish it.

3. Humans are not robots. Even robots/machines need rest to prevent a breakdown.

4. You love your career, but your family is even more important in your life.

5. If you fail in your life, your boss is not going to be the one who gives you a helping hand whereas your family will definitely offer help.

6. You do not want to screw up or make your life miserable because of your job.

7. Monthly salary = Work from 9:00a.m – 6:00p.m

If 6:30p.m = $0.00 + 0 bonus + 0 appreciation + bad health + bad social life + poor family relationship

That equals to: Unproductive employee + performance drop + company reputation drop + increase in retrenchment rate + increase in resignation rate

8. If any person disagrees with the above formulation, we think he/she is a LOSER who has no life, is heartless, doomed, workaholic, etc. He/She deserves the “Best Employee of the Year” award!

9. You don’t give a damn if your boss fires you.

10. For the chinese, remember this “If the house in the East no longer keeps you, then just move to the West house” (apparently in Cantonese its stated as – “Dong Ka Umm Da, Da Sai Ka!”)

What have I been upto?

Some of you must be wondering as to where I have disappeared and what I have been upto? So here’s what has kept me away from blogging for a while:

- I have started taking my drum classes again. It’s been close to 3 years since I last played the drums and it took its toll on my speed and hand-feet coordination. It’s almost like starting all over again. But I’m picking up fast and should soon be upto speed in due time.

- I am in the initial stages of starting a rock band. An old friend who is also a brilliant guitarist floated this idea and it’s moving in a positive direction.

- I was also feeling a bit low after I cut my long locks that had grown to my shoulders in about 9 months time. Everytime I look in the mirror, I hate the short hair.

- I am completely frustrated with my current job and desperately need a change. My organization doesn’t know how to value and retain talent and there has been a slurry of resignations in the past 2 months. My job hunt is warming up too.

So that’s the update from me. I will soon be back to blogging so keep checking for new posts.

What’s the big deal about Hitler’s Cross?

Okay, so a new restaurant opened in Mumbai and they named it Hitler’s Cross. So what’s the big deal about it? Why is everyone creating a ruckus over it? Why is everyone just jumping on the bandwagon to condemn it?

Before getting into any further discussion, let’s get one thing straight. I completely condemn the Jewish genocide committed by Hitler and his Nazi regiment. But it’s high time that we look at things a little more objectively. It seems like most of the posts and news items about this restaurant are just out there to show how righteous we all are. Well, let’s get to those points one-by-one.

First point is that it infuriated the Jews. Ok, point taken. But hey, what about those countless bars and pubs all over US, Europe and Australia that everyone knows are hangout places for Neo-Nazi elements? Why isn’t anyone taking any action against them? Why aren’t they being discussed in the media?

Let’s take another fact into consideration related to the first point itself. How big is the Jewish population in India? It’s definitely not as big as in the western world. Now the important question – what is the strength of Neo-Nazi population in India? I think it would be safe to say ZERO! And how big is the Neo-Nazi population in US, Europe? More than the population of Mumbai for sure! So where the Jews should feel threatened and where should people start condemning the hangouts? This is just a simple restaurant!

Second point that some idiots raised was about starting a restaurant mocking Bal Thackeray’s name and some blogger wrote “Will the Shiv Sena now take arms against the restaurant and burn it down because it hurts the sensibilities of a certain community. I don’t think so.” To begin with, why should you drag Shiv Sena into everything? Are you insane? Do you even know that Shiv Sena openly supports the cause of the Hindu community and not Jews? That’s a totally senseless argument.

And third point. You are all so concerned about the sentiments of the Jewish community being hurt just because someone used Hitler’s name for their restaurant and created a theme based on him. But let me ask you folks, where were you when one M F Hussain painted a canvas of Hindu Goddess Saraswati depicting her in the nude? I am sure most of you were screaming hoarse in support of him saying its ART!

Let’s just give up the double standards and talk some sense. It is just a name of a restaurant. They are in no way deifying Hitler or supporting Nazi beliefs. The Nazis used the Swastika as a representation of their core beliefs. However, I believe you all know that the Swastika is an extremely sacred Hindu symbol. So if I start sporting a big Swastika on my car or paint it on my house during some auspicious occasion, would I be labeled as a Nazi supporter and would I be hurting the sentiments of the Jews?

And the last point. Someone said “Look to what Jews are doing TODAY to the innocent people in Lebanon” and in response a person said “Please be region specific and not religion specific! Is it fair enough to target an entire community due to the wrong doings by some people? Whatever the case might be, you never say that ‘Christians’ invaded Iraq do you? You say USA did! Do you notice the difference?” To this second person, I would like to ask – why do you say Nazis and not Germans? And in that case, you should still be condemning the Germans right? Shouldn’t Auschwitz be razed to the ground instead of making it a memorial where thousands of visitors throng each year? Isn’t that more hurtful to the Jewish sentiments that a place where millions of Jews were exterminated is kept for public display?

It’s just a restaurant name in a neutral country. Flame all you want on my post. But it’s just a name.

Why I call myself FenderBender?

Many friends and readers on my blog asked me one or all of these questions – “What does FenderBender mean?” or “Why do you call yourself FenderBender?” or “Have you had any accident that you always remember?”

Let me answer the third question first. Well, according to Merriam-Webster, here is the definition of Fender Bender: A minor automobile accident

But my answer is no, I have not had any accident and has got nothing to do with me using this screen-name. However, I am crazy about cars and driving, so in some weird manner, yes, it does relate to my personality.

The real reason though has got something to do with my other passion – music. When we say guitars, the first name that comes to our mind is Fender – the guitar manufacturer who gave the world the first solid body electric guitar. What’s that got to do with me? I am one lucky bastard who happens to own and play a Fender bass guitar. There’s half the mystery solved.

Now let’s move to the second part. Bending is a technique used in guitar playing where you either push the string up or down to change the pitch of the note. It’s a fun thing to do and can make your guitar/bass scream. And I like to bend. Put together Fender and me i.e. the bender, and voila! You got FenderBender!

Monday Bloody Monday!

After the rains had ruined my weekend plans, I managed to wake up early on Monday morning to hit the gym. It was still pouring, but there was no water-logging and I managed to make it there on time. Had a great workout and left on time. I said to myself, “Wow, this seems to be a perfect morning!”

I think I spoke too soon as some stupid driver t-boned another car, blocking the intersection. I got out to check if both the drivers were ok. Luckily there seemed to be no injuries. I got back in my car and somehow managed to manoeuvre my car around the mess, I reached home and realized that my 5 min headstart had turned into a 15 min delay. Things just went downhill from there.

Two friends with whom I carpool decided to leave without me for reasons only known to them. I got out to catch an autorickshaw. It’s difficult to get one to go to my workplace on a regular day and it was impossible to get one a horrible rainy day. The rains had just gone from bad to worse.

I rushed back home and told my dad to cancel his plans since I wanted the car. Luckily, the traffic was normal and I made it to work without any further trouble.

It’s still raining heavily and I am about to leave for home. Hopefully it’s going to be an uneventful drive back home.

Monday Bloody Monday!

Happy Friendship Day

Got this wonderful message today from my friend Ryan:

“Time can make us forget some memories but there will be some memories where we forget time and those memories will last our Lifetime.”

This a shout-out to all my friends who have given me a lifetime full of memories. Thank you for being my friends and being there with me through all the good times and the bad. Wish you all a Happy Friendship Day!

Why Employees Leave Organizations?

This article was written by Azim Premji, CEO, Wipro Technologies 

Every company normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout ratio. People are leaving the company for better pay, better profile or simply for just one reason’ pak gaya ‘. This article might just throw some light on the matter….

Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer. He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude.

The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent abroad for training. “My learning curve is the sharpest it’s ever been,” he said soon after he joined. “It’s a real high working with such cutting edge technology.” Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job.  He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn’t take it anymore. Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He’s distressed about the money he’s spent in training them. He’s distressed because he can’t figure out what happened. Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.

The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called First Break All The Rules. It came up with this surprising finding:

If you’re losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he’s the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition.

 ”People leave managers not companies,” write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. “So much money has been thrown at  the challenge of  keeping good people – in the form of better pay, better  perks and better training – when, in the end, turnover is mostly  manager issue.” If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people away?

Beyond a point, an employee’s primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he’s treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find – you guessed it, another wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one. Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees.

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted. The second time the thought gets strengthened.  The third time, he starts looking for another job.  When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: “If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble.  You don’t have your heart and soul in the job.”

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways – by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit – often over seemingly trivial issue.

It isn’t the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It’s the 99 that went before. And while it’s true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons- for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed – had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as Arun’s boss did: “You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you.” While it seems like there are plenty of other fish especially in today’s waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee. There’s the cost of finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others.  Plus, of course, the loss of the company’s reputation. Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse.

We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees have left to tell their tales.

“Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee,” Jack Welch of GE once said.   Much of a company’s value lies “between the ears of its employees”.  If it’s bleeding talent, it’s bleeding value.

Unfortunately, many senior executives busy traveling the world, signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organization that otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best people away.