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Psyche of an Indian Techie
Harry C.D.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
The trend among techies today drifts between brand name, stability and money. They understand security without realizing insecurity as a state of mind.

As for security, it comes hand in hand with a sense of belongingness towards the organization and for this, it is necessary for the employee to feel that his contributions towards the success of the organization are significant.

The sense of insecurity, on the other hand, has rendered the techies as conscious individual players rather than being a part of the team. They like to have their independence while handling business and many even enjoy overriding their managers at every given opportunity on the belief that the manager is in no way overly qualified than the techie himself.

An embellished financial status of the company seems to have a directly proportionate impact on employee output. While there are numerous eager ears for any ‘feel-good’ story of the organization, the same ears turn nonchalant in the event of the organization’s failure.

Extended hands that share the benefits of a growing business are promptly withdrawn in the face of a need to tackle impediments. Despite applying the best rationale and providing the best for the team members, there is always discontent in comparison with the fellow batch mates and contemporaries.

The following would be a reading into the psyche of a techie:
When the organization takes an interest in my well being, why should it hesitate to invest on my personal health? Increment offered may have been far above the market rate; however, it is far below my expectation. Why does the company not provide napkin for personal usage? Why should I not be allowed to pursue higher education? The company should provide for business class travel as I am traveling on an official requirement. Why should I sign a service agreement for pursuing my higher education at the cost of the company? I was not part of the team that took this decision, so I don’t owe anybody an explanation! You are just wasting my time discussing organization strategy; I am more concerned how it affects my personal goals.

Such approaches, statements, and expressions are no novelty in the current IT market. All these paths lead to a common verdict: the need for a revival of industry trends. The industry has so far been tolerant, desperate to change and fighting its best to survive. Though it has much to offer to the country and its people, it seems to be crumbling under a continued tough-minded negativism that reduces availing any such benefits. In order to catch up with the world market and our neighbor China, we need to intensify our efforts to become more balanced in our approach and take an equal participation.

The industry along with value-based institutions has to strive to generate an aptitude among techies, thus creating a huge pool of valuable resources.

Swami Ranganathananda, one of the greatest sages of modern India says in one of his lectures on citizenship. ‘‘No work is big or small, our attitude makes it so. If you do a clerk’s work with a clerk’s mind, both the work and the worker remain small. But if you do the same work with the mindset of a citizen, both become great… You are free to make your work and yourself small; you are also free to make both big. It all depends on your attitude, on your philosophy of work. We have to achieve an intrinsic bigness in ourselves, and impart that bigness to all the functions that we perform.”

(The author is Director HR, Tejas Networks India.)
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