Work work work!

When you start working after a long gap… you realise that there are so many things that happen in an office that you had forgotten when you were sitting at home. A time when you were being envied as that one lucky creature that doesn’t have to hear the rants of your boss, hear the bitching of colleagues and a finish the never-ending pile of work.

Same happened with me. After a year of ‘blissfully not working’ (that’s what most of my working friends would say), I realised that there is so much stuff that is so common between all offices in India and possibly, in the world too.

When I was trekking in the green layered and scenic places of my state, my colleagues here, in my current organisation and my ex-organisation, (after listening to their conversation) were slogging hard to please the boss, meet their deadlines (whoever thought of this word was a genius!) and hurry to finish their work and catch that 7.20 local!

Office conversations, I think, are the same everywhere- be it Angola, Ethiopia or the United States of America! When you enter an office as a new joinee, you are told, suggested, hinted about three important things:

1. How you should be careful from X, Y and Z
2. How boring and useless the work is, which the people here are doing
3. How the boss is a dumb-a**, and yet how he/she is in such a prominent position

Most of the times, I avoid getting into bitchy and sensational conversations, to the extent that many of my colleagues in my previous organisation thought that I was mute! The obsession of the working types with the coffee machines and the time-passing chats dates to, probably, Stone Age, when the Stone Age man cribbed (don’t know verbally or non- verbally) about his group leader to his fellows over a meal of freshly burnt meat!

Boss is a person whose status and character is highly abused by the n number of employees under him/her. That’s why, many a times, I fear, am apprehensive of being a boss to someone in the future. Most of the times, people see more wrong than right, in this creature and it may or may not be his/her fault!

This may seem easier said than done, but making the workplace fun lies in the boss’ and the employees’ hands. Bitching should give way to healthy discussions and a more productive work environment!