Experiences!

Ever wonder why things are different in one organization where there are more men and few women then from one where there are more females and few males. It’s a completely different experience in both the situations. Someone like me who has experience both to the max knows the dynamics that exist. One where there are more males the environment is charged with currents of male combat and women are treated more as damsels in distress, whether they are upset or not. Simultaneously, a woman would feel more challenged and questioned in such an environment…as all the eyes are on you. And sometimes you feel as if you are less human and more an object in the eyes of males of the species. But here we should not forget that men with their objectivity helps you get by difficult things quickly.  They are great helpers, do the tasks that you feel uncomfortable in doing with great aplomb, stand-up for you, be kind and generous and take my word for it, they are far better friends to a wom

This is the time of the year when HR teams geared up for the Annual Performance Review of the employees. Quite a hustle bustle is seen in HR departments and a general buzz in Company for the upcoming review drive. There are a lot of expectations seen in the masses and employees are anxious and excited…..forms are printed and distributed, budget for increment is set, meetings are planned etc etc. Some thoughtful Companies also arrange for training for their staff that are going to appraised their teams, but what forgotten is the actual spirit of Appraisals. Generally in Appraisals we forget how an individual has performed throughout the year and the annual review is done on the last three months performance. Which is rather unfair….being in HR for quite a while now this is a general practice that has been observed. Similarly the most important thing while a person is appraised is to highlight the good things in him or her. While appraising most HODs give a lot of justifica

At everyday life we come across people who believe that whatever the situation is, it doesn't concern them and things can go on without being change or disturbed. Especially in the Corporate world where there is a cut throat competition, you will find one or two individuals sitting in the office, and acting as if nothing concerns them.  Such people act in a very dismissive way, usually half lying on the seat, their legs spread in front of them  and day dreaming....acting as if something very serious and important is going on in their heads while staring at the Computer while doing little.  These characters also when asked to do some innovative thinking or change the pattern of their work, can start acting like bulls! they do charge on you and then you have to cover your ears because of all the cribbing that will start happening. In my experience, and i have experience such an individual rather recently, the image that come to my mind is that of a man with an iron cap! Nothin

HR is still a baby in Pakistan and there are still many organizations where HR is just 2, 3 years old. Keeping in mind this scenario HR is more or less considered as a clinical therapy department, providing psycho analysis and doing cosmetic surgeries….however that’s not what HR is meant to be.  From what little exposure I have received in the last 7years, one thing that I found in a   local concern, is that “HR’s work is not important”, “What HR is doing can be done by anyone in the Company”, “If you want to cut down Manpower, start from the HR Department”. Yet despite so much frustration felt by the HR people, a rising hope exist now ensuring a changing role of HR. HR initially was considered more like a “Post Office” for the business function of the Organization. Now with a growing realization by the CEOs and managements towards the need to have a strong HR in order to have a healthy organization; has given HR more room to grow and develop. Now we find HR Com

We all tend to make mistakes again ‘n’ again from the things that we should have done to the things we shouldn’t have bought….hence, at every turn there is a mistake waiting to happen. Remember the English text we all studied in college. It was captioned something like “The Day the Dam Broke”. It was all about a misunderstanding cause by confusion between ‘damn’ and ‘dam’. The conclusion is we act on what we perceive than what actually is! Interestingly every mistake from a plane crash to a wrong meal order, all is attributed to human error and once the human error comes in to picture, all investigations into the probable cause are stopped! We forget to find the actual cause and blame everything on human error. The real question is to figure out why it all happens? What triggers these mistakes. Do you know that right handed people always prefer the right hand route and vice versa? Do you know that while attempting Multiple-choice questions people usually have doub

The other day, in one of the marts…I was buying vegetables. On the shelf where the tomatoes were placed, there was a group of three selecting tomatoes out of the bunch. I went up to that corner and started placing tomatoes in the cart. While doing that I realized that no one was paying attention to the bottom half of the shelf where there were good tomatoes. Everyone was focused at the far end of the shelf, stretching hands, pushing others, picking the wrong ones and then sorting again. While such good, red tomatoes were lying very close to us. Then it stuck me that in the same way we ignore so many good things close to us and just worry about what lies ahead or what we can’t have easily then what is ours to have. So much we come across daily, little things that happen all the time…and we just ignore them because we are too busy thinking about things that are not with us, that we want to have! What a way to treat life! Everyday, God place good things in our path and

We often see ourselves surrounded in issues and we jump to certain conclusions. Without thinking much and with no in depth analysis of the reason and cause of our dilemma and the implications related to the path we are about to take; we set the wheels in motion. But once we are about to accomplish what we set out to do, shadows of doubt start seeping into our perceptions. And believe it or not the more we discuss and share our doubts the more confuse we become. With every discussion shadows of doubt and confusion strengthen more. Its amazing to see how we started off, how sure we were and how confuse we are now! It’s important to understand the dynamics of decision making. Why I use the term dynamics, is because we are not the only one responsible for our decisions. In a Pakistani society, your parents, siblings and even your extended family members show a considerable influence on your decisions. And like it or not most of the decisions are not made because they are rationa