Things you should not do once you put in your papers

Things you should not do once you put in your papers

 Courtesy – Clipart Library

Coming to office as usual, I checked my email for anything that might need my urgent action. My attention was caught by the words ‘Au Revoir‘, and I was curious to know who was leaving. As I opened the mail, I was surprised to know that it was from Raju, one of my dear colleagues, one who I used to meet every day and in fact, had met the earlier day at breakfast. We had exchanged niceties and then shared news about our families – he about his extended family in God’s Own Country, Kerala, and me about my only daughter.

It struck me very sharply that Raju had not said anything about his last day in office even when we had met in person. His mail was very nicely worded and knowing his weakness in English, it was evident that Raju had copy-pasted a lot of sentences from other farewell mails. Yet, he had been careful to share his phone number and email ID, leaving an option for us to keep in touch with him.

No matter how much - or from which angle - I reflect on this sort of behaviour, I realise most people take pride in keeping their exit a secret till the last minute and then send a farewell mail in a desperate bid to make everyone feel that they wish to be kept in touch with.

I request not to be misunderstood. I am not asking for details of the new job to be divulged, but there is nothing wrong in sharing that one is leaving, atleast a day or two before, if not much earlier. Secrecy breeds rumours which are avoidable. I am compelled to put down many more things that a person should not do once he puts in his papers.

Needless to say, these are not exhaustive and are purely based on my opinion.

1.   Do not talk irrelevant

Open offices are quite common these days and working in cubicles in an open office requires you to observe certain constraints, more so when you have decided to leave your current employer. You should not waste others’ time chatting loudly about irrelevant things, for you may have quit, but they still have work to do. It is wrong to waste others’ time and distract them when they are engrossed at work. Your relentless prattle is likely to disturb all around you.

Remember – It can be hard for them to correct you but should someone do it, it can be very embarrassing for you. Also, this time, when workload is probably less, can be utilised productively in catching up with people, something that you could not do before, for want of time.

2.   Do not compare

You have no business comparing circumstances at the current employer with the supposedly good times you are expecting at the new workplace. Be it remuneration, perks, job timing, benefits, or something else, all are different for different roles and responsibilities, and discussing them loosely is not a good thing to do.

Remember – There are good and not-so-good aspects to every job and the new workplace is no exception to this. Unhealthy comparison can end up injecting pessimism into the environment of the current workplace and that’s simply not done. Also, this is the place where you aspired to work in, before joining here.

3.   Do not shirk work

Do not just let go once you put in your papers. You may have handed over very well to your successor but it’s only fair that you work sincerely till the last day of your term with the current employer as you will be paid fairly anyway. It is your one last chance to show your integrity. Indulging in gossip, taking too many leaves, spending too much time in the cafeteria or at the coffee corner – all these smack of unprofessionalism.

Remember – People may or may not remember you for your achievements or capabilities, but they will surely not forget if you shirk your responsibilities in the last lap of your tenure here. This ‘free time’ can be made use of to connect with someone – perhaps your senior or manager – and learn from them something that can help in your next job.

4.   Do not avoid interactions

Do not avoid personal touch with your current colleagues, especially those that have helped you even once. Meet up with all you know, atleast from a few days to the last day. It’s not nice going away silently and then sending a ‘Farewell to all of you’ note saying ‘let’s keep in touch’ when you didn’t mean it anyway. I wonder how many will be willing to help Raju if he calls them for something, for he didn’t take time to meet them before he left his current workplace.

Remember – Contacts are just that – contacts. It doesn’t matter who it is. Smile, shake hands if suitable, say some memorable words, have lunch together, do whatever it takes to stay in the memory of the colleagues you are leaving, for as long as possible. It doesn’t take much for out of sight to become out of mind.

Published in LinkedIn on 31st December 2018

Instilling freshness into an existing job

Whatever job we take up, we do so out of choice. It is up to us to deliver it using all the resources we have at our disposal or find another job rather than complain about the very job we once desired to have.

On my commute from office to home in the Volvo bus, I saw two young ladies boarding the bus even as they were busy discussing their professional progress, annual appraisal, benefits of one job over the other, should they consider job-hopping and things like that. Suddenly, one remarked, “One shitty job is like another shitty job” leaving my mouth open. The girls were commuting in an AC bus, with a laptop hanging from their shoulders and an office tag from their necks, so it was obvious they worked in a swanky office of a software company of repute, one of many in that area. Yet, they called their job shitty.

I could not take my mind off their casual remark. When a person is unemployed or looking out for a job, the wish is to land a good job but once the job becomes routine, people begin to find excuses as to why it is boring, not to their taste, so on and so forth. They fail to realise that this job was the very one which they desired to have when they were jobless.

Nothing remains new forever. Whether it is a job, a relationship, a neighbourhood or something else, everything loses its sheen sooner or later. But it does not mean that it has to remain so. The good news is that each one of us has the capability of making pleasant change/s in the current situation to transform the mundane into meaningful or even magical.

The photograph I have posted on top of this article is an example of what I attempt to say. It is one of the many commonly seen carts of vendors selling roasted peanuts and this one was outside a mall. There were many other carts vying for attention of the visitors to the mall, but this young vendor had strived to make his cart stand out – and his job interesting – by creatively arranging the cones in which he would give the peanuts. Surely enough, only that cart drew my attention, none other. I liked the efforts he had taken to make his cart look attractive without any extra investment.

A resort that I recently visited allows its guests to get their pets along, so they don’t have to worry about leaving them behind, and hence thoroughly enjoy their stay and recommend it to others also. The resort also has its own pets so that people who love animals but can’t keep them at home for whatever reason can enjoy their company in the resort. If reviews on social media are anything to go by, the place is doing really well, but the icing on the cake is that the resort manager and his staff now have the pleasure of having new pets visit them every now and then so there is so much fun amidst work. It’s a win-win for the guests and the resort staff.   

One of my gardening friends persuaded his office administration to spare a small area around his office building and started a vegetable garden, which he and his colleagues tend to in their spare time. The produce is distributed on need basis. They say this is very therapeutic and a healthy way to break the monotony of a desk job.

Coming back to the ladies, they could take up something worthwhile to engage in – volunteering for the deprived, visiting a hospital with terminally ill patients, even learning something new – atleast once a week.

We often fix a date for everyone in the team or the department or the entire office, to come to work dressed in ethnic wear. A few of us have had potluck lunch sessions that invariably involved sharing of recipes and exchange of health trivia during and after the lunch. A senior executive used to distribute red roses to all women – even the housekeeping staff – on Valentine’s Day. Come February, everyone used to look forward to this single rose from the gentleman. All these are examples that even small initiatives infuse excitement into the atmosphere.

Instilling freshness into the ordinary does not have to burn a hole in the pocket, or take up all the time on hand. It all depends on the willingness for where there is a will there is a way. 

I have only suggested on how employees can help themselves. Organisations or workplaces have specific functions within the HR department to focus on things to do to keep employees engaged in their jobs, so that they do not feel frustrated with the drudgery of their work and look out for ‘interesting’ options elsewhere. That will be the subject matter of another article if not another book.

Published in LinkedIn on 4th December 2018