Monday, May 30, 2011

Respect

I have had the unique opportunity of speaking to more than 35 users in an organization to understand their problems as a part of an assignment I did lately. Being on the other side is an interesting experience in human psychology.

Within the first 5 minutes of your interaction, you are generally aware how forthcoming the person is going to be. Especially since it was a voluntary effort on everyone’s part, some people opened up, while others expressed their displeasure assuming that it was a completely futile exercise. Some people were arrogant while few others questioned my competency.

However, one thing I realized during the entire assignment was – respect can’t be demanded, it has to be earned. I mean, I would only respect someone if that person is in a position to deserve it. In today’s world just being a senior doesn’t automatically entitle you to “respect”. Only when you open your mouth and make sense is the time we start respecting you.

This also means that as an individual, it has become important for us to be humble and let our knowledge do the talking and not our position. It is funny how few a people actually comprehend this.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Hoteled

All of May I have been stuck in this one matchbox sized hotel room. I always envied people who got to stay in a hotel for long. But now that I am in a similar situation, I kinda realize how bad it can get.

Now before I start complaining, let me get the good things out. Firstly I got a very cozy king size bed all to myself. Its soo good that these days my back aches once I get up in the morning. And secondly, I get 3 fresh crisp towels everyday (or at least I think I do).

Everything else though is not so pleasant though. I got a closet that was meant for midgets to use. And I got only 3 hangers. This means most of my clothes have to be kept in my bag. And to make it more convenient, I got no iron in my room. Everyday morning I gotta go to the ironing room (a shady little room 5 floors below where I stay) and iron with a 19th century iron on an iron board which makes my shirts look dirtier than they were before I ironed.

Talking of clothes reminds me of laundry. The laundry service is soo freaking expensive that I might as well buy a new wardrobe every week than wash the soiled clothes. To give you a perspective - I can buy 3 undies in India for the price of washing one here. To make a mockery of my clothes, every time I give my undies for laundry, they neatly wrap them in paper with little bits of paper inserted at strategic locations and finally iron the undies. Its like saying "Dumb wit, we felt we remind you that you are paying dearly for our service".

And finally - Internet. We are in the second decade of the 21st century and still hotels conveniently charge you dearly for Internet. Its like charging for air or water in the room! The hotel actually offers free Internet for an hour if I go down to their lounge and order something. So, I have been having a coffee (the cheapest thing I can buy in the lounge!) everyday! So much that these days if a barrista forgets the recipe for a latte they just take a sample of my caffeniated blood stream.

I am looking forward to going back home soon! I wonder how people can live out of a hotel so long! And this blog post was written over two days (that means, my dear readers I paid for this through 2 cafe lattes)