Change in Attitude towards life.

[Brahmanyan]

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I am posting the following message sent to me by my cousin who is an eminent Surgeon, with the request to read it fully to understand the change in approach towards life that is taking place in Western World.
By the way "Scent of a woman" mentioned in the message is a wonderful movie wherein Al Pacino portrays as the blind Lt. Col. Frank Slade, which won him Oscar Award.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

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It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results.. Therefore, we have come to possess a need to seeimmediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

1. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
2. Stockholm has 500,000 people.
3. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, are some of its renowned companies. Volvo even supplies NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden , one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work).

The first day, I didn't say anything, neither the second or third days. One morning I asked him, "Do you have a fixed parking space?

I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot."

To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, don't you think that whoever gets in late will need a place closer to the door?" Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe named Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart, Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being".

French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity driven up by 20%..

This slow attitude has come to the notice of USA , the pupils of the fast and "do it now" brigade.

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity.
It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress.
It means re-establishing family values, friends, free and leisure time.. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous.
It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.
It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive work place where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do.

It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence.

In the movie, 'Scent of a Woman', there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al Pacino responds, "A life is lived in an instant" . Then they dance the tango!

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious to live for the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists.

We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading this email till the end of this message.
There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this "Globalized" world......J

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[C RAVI]

Sri Brahmanyam ji,


Its indeed a wonderful message.....Thank you very much for sharing this with us.

 

[T R RAMAMURTHY]

A great message here for those who always want to succeed which has become a pre-obscession.
regards
T R Ramamurthy

 

[sangom]

I am posting the following message sent to me by my cousin who is an eminent Surgeon, with the request to read it fully to understand the change in approach towards life that is taking place in Western World.
By the way "Scent of a woman" mentioned in the message is a wonderful movie wherein Al Pacino portrays as the blind Lt. Col. Frank Slade, which won him Oscar Award.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.​

Shri Brahmanyanji,

This message, by itself, is very good. But in my opinion, this may not be suitable for implemenation in India and some other SE Asian countries, because people here are, by and large, shirkers by nature. So, give them more leisure, productivity or quality may not improve only costs will increase. Just my opinion please.​

 

[pannvalan]

Sangom please read Douglas Mc Gregor's Theory Y of Motivation which has a universal appeal

 

[ganeshrev]

Sangom please read Douglas Mc Gregor's Theory Y of Motivation which has a universal appeal

One POV I thought i can put in:

Because of a very brief knowledge I gained due to short visits to UK, Europe and US and some times living upto nearly a year in the UK , I find the following:

- People who are first or second generation immigrants in US are the ones who push themselves to the maximum .There is always a hurry factor associated with everything they do to prove that they are always ahead.There is no such fear in Europeans /Brits ASFIE.
- Even in UK , when there is a crisis or need to share limited resources - "hurry" factor comes in. Many times, I used to wonder at the peak time crowd in London to board the Tube.There will be no hurry to rush into the tube- because they know they will get another in a few minutes. But during one such visit, some of the lines were not servicing resulting in chaos. Those people did display the qualities we display in India when we try to board the bus/train when we know we do not have many services.So I feel Nordic countries like Sweden/Norway have the luxury of a lot of resources and a limited population as well they do not have threat from immigrants and mostly they are natives.

I thought this may be one of the reasons where "hurry" factor comes into picture.

Namaskarams
Revathi

 

[kunjuppu]

...So I feel Nordic countries like Sweden/Norway have the luxury of a lot of resources and a limited population as well they do not have threat from immigrants and mostly they are natives.

I thought this may be one of the reasons where "hurry" factor comes into picture.

Namaskarams
Revathi

reva,

even though there is an immigrant backlash in the nordic countries, till about 40 years ago there were a homogeneous culture.

you are aboslutely right when you say these countries have small populations, even though the epople density of denmark, i think is close to that of u.k. those are gentle societies and pioneers in providing models for a social welfare net, which is now universal in all western countries bar the usa.

with the current downtrend strains are showing in those economies too. the only exception is norway, where thanks to the huge north sea oil reserves, the standard of living is not impacted.again norway has invested bulk of its oil earnings abroad, with a view, that it would spoil their citizens if they lived off the fat of the land. incidentally, a postman in norway makes almost as much as a university lecturer or middle placed civil servant.

i do not know if india will get to those types of lifestyles. even in singapore, a much sought after emigration point for tambrams, life is hard. from what i hear from my relatives, an 8-4 job means you work from 7 -6. it is intensely competitive and ofcourse, if you know how to play by the rules, you get ahead, irrespective of your ethnicity, though the white skin still has a built in advantage.

if you don't mind, we would like to hear more of your thoughts on people, places and workforce, from your trips abroad.

for starters, i meet so many young indians in my line of work, on short to medium assignments from india. i envy their confidence and personalities - every tamil speaking girl, i take to lunch. one thing they uniformly observed about the canadian workforce - we are pretty relaxed in our attitude to work. a delivery date, is just that - a date on the calender - to miss


unless mandated by government, nobody gets too upset if schedules are pushed - this in a large bank that i work. such type of behaviour, i am told is not tolerated in india, where burning the mid night oil. to meet deadlines are the norms. so i hear.

 

[Brahmanyan]

A great message here for those who always want to succeed which has become a pre-obsession.
regards
T R Ramamurthy

Dear Sri Ramamurthy,

True, But there is nothing wrong in the obsession to succeed. The question is "at what cost"? The reckless speed at which people run about to compete with each other in this world of "Dog eat Dog "for earning more money is appalling. End of the day what we need is happiness, real inner happiness, not mere pleasure of comfort. When you travel 80 years of life you learn a few things about life out of experience. First one is that happiness cannot be purchased with all the money in the world unless we change our attitude towards life. Because it is not some where outside to buy.

I am not a learned person to quote from scriptures, but I would like to quote two words of Sri Saibaba of Shirdi repeated by him often "Shraddha and Saburi" meaning " Shraddha a Sanskrit word for faith and Saburi an Arabic word for Patience ".

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
​

 

[sangom]

The feedback I have received from my children who are working abroad is that the "hurry" in the workplace is there. In the software field, they say that the higher echelons generally tend to believe that they "know" and must be obeyed, (irrespective of their nationality/origin). In matters other than work, there is no rush or hurry because there is no shortage etc. But the price of petrol is a different matter and if there is some price increase is made people tend to show the same sharp comments and reactions and are perturbed (in the US) just like what happens in India. this was some 7 years ago, before the financial meltdown. So what the conditions will now be I do not know.

As regards Theory X & Y, I find that both have not been successful and Theory Z is now ruling. To my uninitiated mind, these theories look more like play of words; ultimately all of them aim at increasing production with less costs and more profit, do they not? How then can they envisage the management to go on spending more to keep the employees in good humour and make the factory floor look like a place for entertainment for them?

I find this observation in Activity-Based Costing: Encyclopedia of Management

"Although the conceptual linkages between Theory X and Theory Y assumptions and managerial styles are relatively straightforward, empirical research has not clearly demonstrated that the relationship between these assumptions and managers' styles of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling is consistent with McGregor's ideas."

 

[sahana]

Excellent message

 

[Raghy]

Sri.Brahmanyan Sir said -

French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity driven up by 20%..

Namaskaram, sir. These 35 hour week, 30 hour week are not showing the the real number of hours worked per week. After 35 hours/week work, the worker gets overtime wages...The worker possiby may be working 50 hours, collecting 15 hour overtime wages. In Australia, it is a 38 hour week. While I was a trady, I used to work an average 50 hour week, collecting 12 hours overtime. The workers work flat-out to get more orders for the company so that they get more over-time; on that process, the company makes good profit too.

Cheers!

 

[pannvalan]

Sangom

Output is not an end product of motivation. It is the cross product of various other factors that impinge each other.

1. Organisational culture and ethos

2. Reputation of the organisation

3. Leadership style

4. Personal development initiatives which include (a) Performance appraisal (b) Potential appraisal (c) Training
(d) Skills Inventory taking (e) Right placement policies and (f) Career growth prospects

5. Incentives available for better output in terms of (i) quality (ii) quantity and (iii) adhering to time schedules

6. Mobility within the organisation

7. Channels of communication and their efficacy

8. Transparency and Flexibility of systems and functions

9. Participatory Management

10. Most importantly avenues available within the organization for informal grouping and satisfaction of emotional wants
of the employees

All of these will directly impinge motivation and will have constant interplay amongst themselves so as to determine the overall Organisational Behaviour.

So the ultimate success of an organisation lies not in improving its financials but preserving its health in the eyes of other similar organisations. Rate of attrition and Whistle-blowing will be two indicators that measure the health of an organisation.

Therefore increase in output and decrease in costs depend on all the human and non-human and non-financial factors as described above.

Theory Y has been validated in many organizations and found to be acceptable. But motivation is just one of the critical factors required for an organization to succeed.

 

[sangom]

Sri.Brahmanyan Sir said -

Namaskaram, sir. These 35 hour week, 30 hour week are not showing the the real number of hours worked per week. After 35 hours/week work, the worker gets overtime wages...The worker possiby may be working 50 hours, collecting 15 hour overtime wages. In Australia, it is a 38 hour week. While I was a trady, I used to work an average 50 hour week, collecting 12 hours overtime. The workers work flat-out to get more orders for the company so that they get more over-time; on that process, the company makes good profit too.

Cheers!
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Dear Shri Raghy,


There used to be a system known as "piece rate work". A worker is paid for each piece he rolls out. In that system the workers in the night shift (usually a bit drunk) used to earn double or even more because the big bosses would not be there to supervise. Is this system now prevalent?

 

[Raghy]

There used to be a system known as "piece rate work". A worker is paid for each piece he rolls out. In that system the workers in the night shift (usually a bit drunk) used to earn double or even more because the big bosses would not be there to supervise. Is this system now prevalent?

Sri.Sangom Sir,

Greetings. 'Piece rate work' is essentially a short/long term contract where the worker is not paid by the hour/where the worker may not be an employee eligible for regular benefits. Yes, such systems are still prevalent. In such a system, the worker is not an employee; but a contractor.

There is also short term casual employment, employed through the agencies; such employments carry hourly wages, paid by the agency by the hour. Such employments don't usually carry benefits like sick day pay, holiday pay, public holiday pay etc.

Whatever the type of employment may be - regular, contractual or casual - no alcohol consumption may be tolerated. Workplace Health and Safety regulations prohibit any booze in workplace; almost all the places adhere to that. (In the event of any injury the compensation payout can be huge).

Cheers!

 

[pannvalan]

Usually piece rate workers are either casual labour or contract labour employed through a labour contractor. Regarding night shift there is a night shift allowance to compensate for the inconvenience and loss of sleep. As Raghy has remarked there will be no compromise in quality and discipline of the workers during night shift. In case of indiscipline people will be shown the door without any mercy.

 

[ganeshrev]

Shri Kunjuppu,

When I used to work in UK, I would set my clock to 5 PM looking at some employees getting to ready to leave.(The same applies to arrival also)

In my Software Career of about 10 years, I can count the days when I left office at 6 PM. Invariably there will be client calls set at the convenience of PST/EST of US or there will be a project deadline which our management would have committed while getting the order without getting clarity on how we would meet the deadlines.(There is a joke - clients would often demand more people to be deployed to finish the tasks faster - can nine ladies deliver the baby in a month rather than a lady delivering in nine months.!We find it difficult to convince the clients that certain tasks will take the time they require)

There are many a times I would come to office at 9 AM, work till 7 PM, come home , finish family duties, go back to office at 9 PM and work till 4 AM/5 AM, come back take an hours rest and get back again at 9 AM.In my experience, this has lasted for a week!

Of course, innumerable holidays/festivals/weekends are sacrificed .I don't remember any of our counterparts in US/UK scarificing their XMAS or Easter/Annual Vacation. Afterall, we are service providers .We have this concept of "ceiling" in Earned leave and because of not availing leaves, I have lost leaves rather than earning leaves.

So it is not a hurry factor- rather a pressure factor.

But one point I need to mention - I have rarely seen my colleagues in the west attending to personal work/calls during work hours - But less said about this, better - in India.

Namaskarams
Revathi

 

[pannvalan]

During early 1990s when Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister a delegation of Japanese Industrialists called on him. When Dr Singh requested them to invest more in India they wanted India to implement 'hire and fire policy' by suitably amending the local labour laws.

To this Dr Singh asked them:

"In Japan you follow lifetime employment principle. (It means an employee can continue in service as long he/she wants to or till one's death). But why do you want to impose a different standard for Indian labour?"

There was no answer from the Japanese delegation.

What I am emphasizing here is when we talk of (a) global productivity levels (b) quality of output (c) profitability etc
no one here comes forward to discuss about the labour standards in India.

I have consistently opposed the unruly behaviour of several trade union leaders and their supporting the black sheep in the name of defending them from the onslaught of the management. But at the same time it cannot be denied that a good and responsible trade union is a must to protect the rights and welfare of the employees.

A worker shall not be treated like a machine or any other resource going into the production. He is first a human being and all his emotional wants and psychological needs are to be understood and addressed. Regarding his physiological needs I think enough is being done (at least in the organized sector).

 

[Brahmanyan]

Today's "Bangalore Mirror" a supplement to Times of India Bangalore, carries an interesting article under the heading " A meal for the Soul" on the change in attitude that had taken in the life of Top Award winning Chef Narayanan Krishnan after a life defining incident that took place in Madurai in 2002. Which can be found in the following URL:
A meal for the soul , Sunday Read - Special - Bangalore Mirror,Bangalore Mirror

Now Narayanan Krishnan, who heads a charitable trust by name "Akshya Trust" (Akshya Trust )to take care of destitute in Madurai, has been nominated for "Top 10 CNN Heroes from across the world".

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore

 

[sangom]

Today's "Bangalore Mirror" a supplement to Times of India Bangalore, carries an interesting article under the heading " A meal for the Soul" on the change in attitude that had taken in the life of Top Award winning Chef Narayanan Krishnan after a life defining incident that took place in Madurai in 2002. Which can be found in the following URL:
A meal for the soul , Sunday Read - Special - Bangalore Mirror,Bangalore Mirror

Now Narayanan Krishnan, who heads a charitable trust by name "Akshya Trust" (Akshya Trust )to take care of destitute in Madurai, has been nominated for "Top 10 CNN Heroes from across the world".

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore

Shri Brahmanyan,

It is very satisfying to note what Shri Krishnan is doing.

Just for info., I have heard that some people (well-to-do) in their irrational behaviours during their old age, made it a practice to do what that old man was seen doing in the street. Only the family members of the concerned person know how difficult it is to manage such people till they pass over to the other world.

 

[kunjuppu]

pann,

from my very limited knowledge of sociopolitical current affairs of japan, this is my take on that society today.

from what i gather, the japan of lifetime employment is long gone. japan on the surface appears to be a glitzy high tech society with leaders to cutting edge technology. maybe. but since the 1990s the society has taken a turn for the worse. when toyota was having its troubles, for the first time it laid off its own workers. but what has been left out when previously considering the concept of lifetime employment is, that most of toyota's parts were contracted out, many to small mom & pop factories, where the owners often worked 100 hours a week to meet toyota's targets and jit delivery schedules. all of these have been hurt, but since they are self employed, they do not come under the purvey of employment figures.

to start off, the banking system has been overextended. the banks, very much like that in the u.s. lent money in the 80s recklessly and have a huge bad loan in their portfolio. which still has not been addressed, and hence reflecting on their performance and further lending power. the japanese stock market has not increased in value for a very long time mainly because the government has been unwilling to clean out the rotten apples, like the way the obama government did.

the unions of japan, particularly the key construction industry is controlled by yakuza, their version of the mob. as a result huge government contracts are doled out, without tenders, to favoured folks, who are hand in glove with the crimes syndicates. for a small country, japan has the highest number of highways, many of them deserted or going no where. this is a big drain on the exchequer. all leaders of the ruling liberal democratic party are tied to the crime syndicates one way or the other.

the ageiing homeless. japan has the highest number of abandoned old people many of whom live in the streets. for a homogeneous society with ancient values, to deteriorate so quickly to abandoning its older citizens, is nothing short of crime. how did this happen? unlike in the west, japan has minimal social security and subsidized health care. housing is simply too expensive to afford for pensioners.

ageing population: the japanese women are simply not producing babies. a family needs to have 2.2 babies to replace itself on this earth. this is the accepted number, and most japanese women these days marry later and never have babies. one reason suggested, is still the male chauvinist attitude of the japanese men. they still expect their spouses to wait on them hand & foot when they come home from work, have babies, take care of the kitchen, be a nurse and be available for sex. sounds familiar, does it not?

a white friend of mine, has both her sons married to pretty japanese girls. these girls prefer western men, because in their view, the white men are more considerate and loving than their japanese counterparts. whichever part of the world you go, women appear to want the same thing - love, regard, affection, kindness and respect.

japan still is technologically the most advanced country in the world. the work force is awesomely disciplined and productive. but there is a deep undercurrent of anxiety in the society about their future, and if i am not mistaken, has among the highest suicide rates in the world. i do not think that these are signs of a happy society.

japan will be a major player in asia in the years to come, if at all only to counterbalance china, with whom it has had historically bad relationshop. premier hu jin tao of china was in japan a week ago, and it is interesting to note that while hu has hosted the west, it is he who is courting japan. the asians know each other too well, and have long memories, which due to their geographical proximities ensures a balance of power politics. when these indulge in shadow plays, from the shadows, it is difficult to differentiate an embrace from a stab. the future should be exciting...

please view this reply not as a retort, but more as complementing your post in furthering our knowledge basis of the current japanese society. thank you.

 

[kunjuppu]

Shri Kunjuppu,

When I used to work in UK, I would set my clock to 5 PM looking at some employees getting to ready to leave.(The same applies to arrival also)

In my Software Career of about 10 years, I can count the days when I left office at 6 PM. Invariably there will be client calls set at the convenience of PST/EST of US or there will be a project deadline which our management would have committed while getting the order without getting clarity on how we would meet the deadlines.(There is a joke - clients would often demand more people to be deployed to finish the tasks faster - can nine ladies deliver the baby in a month rather than a lady delivering in nine months.!We find it difficult to convince the clients that certain tasks will take the time they require)

There are many a times I would come to office at 9 AM, work till 7 PM, come home , finish family duties, go back to office at 9 PM and work till 4 AM/5 AM, come back take an hours rest and get back again at 9 AM.In my experience, this has lasted for a week!

Of course, innumerable holidays/festivals/weekends are sacrificed .I don't remember any of our counterparts in US/UK scarificing their XMAS or Easter/Annual Vacation. Afterall, we are service providers .We have this concept of "ceiling" in Earned leave and because of not availing leaves, I have lost leaves rather than earning leaves.

So it is not a hurry factor- rather a pressure factor.

But one point I need to mention - I have rarely seen my colleagues in the west attending to personal work/calls during work hours - But less said about this, better - in India.

Namaskarams
Revathi

reva,

the canadian attitude is just as laid back. i am told that the usa is more like india, in that people work harder and keep long hours.

i have always found the marketing teams over promise and leave it to the technical folks to deliver. most of the marketers have no clue or minimal knowledge of the requirements. their job is to get the contract at all costs, because they are paid for such. it is the lot of the project manager to deliver lofty promises.

also, remember that clients take on these postures to get the maximum. all my working life, my workplaces has hired companies like ibm or accenture for development and delivery of products. we used to treat them little more than slaves, even though those guys were earning more than us. it is an arrogance that comes out of paying someone else's paychecks.

i have seen in my previous companies, ibm managers cry, and these are white guys. they were responsible for maintaining the networks, and in a huge country like canada, with multiple time zones, it is only a matter of time before something fails. my neighbour who was also the ibm contract manager used to get calls day in and day out, so much that his wife used to complain to me/wife about how insensitive my company was.

so support people, all over, sacrifice a certain portion of their private lives for their jobs. it is true, that folks like me, who are the beneficiaries of those hires, keep to a strict 7 hours or so of work per day. in canada, we are also free with personal calls, net browsing and participating in forums like this..there is no firewall rules or restrictions. only that we avoid watching streaming videos at work

 

[R. Ramanujan]

Real nyc one sir. Actually in parts of middle it got a bit difficult to understand. but beginning and end were good.
Actually I agree that we forget to live our lives joyfully and be like machines.

(You forgot sir Sweden's best export is Nokia-connecting people )