Job Satisfaction 2

Today i got a new complain from couple of our team mates. From morning to now as if i have no other work to do , i was thinking about this. I see the problem in many angles but still i couldn't solve it. When it comes to small things like this , my head starts rotating. Thought of going to answers.com. But never mind. I will put it in a blog. Our people will understand the gravity of this problem better and i will get some idea.

Now this is their problem. When people enter to our office, everyone is checked by the security. One reason is the security situation of the country. Second reason is the company security policy. There are certain things you cannot bring in side the company and there are certain things you cannot take out from the company. So forever there are conflicts between security guards and employees. Today these group of employees complained that every morning , securing lady digs in to their bags , takes out all personal belongings and checks. Not even that , she is giving explanations to them for her strict checking saying they must be taking bombs and unnecessary things, therefore she has to check them properly. This explanation has make them more upset. Because these are the loyal employees of the company who works for the company half of their life. Now suddenly there are new rules and new security guards who pays no respect for them at all.

I can understand how they feel. But if you take the underline facts, security guards are also doing their duty. We can't say anything to them. If we are to say not to check the employees , from next day company will have to take the responsibility for what ever the things happens. On the other hand , when people are treated like this in the early morning , it definitely effects their morals and in turn effect their work. We don't want to loose any of these people. Can we ask the security company to change their rigid security policy? All our employees are professionals. Considering that can we trust them and stay without checking? Some of the employees were scared to comment on it. Even though they suffer , they think its not a big deal. So as they always did , they bear things until it comes to the limit and then get very frustrated on life. Some people think that they them selves can handle it with the security guards. They have different ways to tackle them too. I guess no need to mention it here. But definitely there is a group which believes company should take some action? In companies point of view what can a company do to balance a strike between employees' satisfaction and security?

Law college entrance exam of Sri Lanka

We wanted to send couple of employees to a project based on an out station area. It was a very good career opptunity and most of our employees were interested in joining this project. There was only one guy who said he don't like to go. With much curiosity i asked why. Then he said he is doing the law entrance exam this time and therefore he need to go to classes .

I knew he was quite intelligent. So i asked him why don't you take the course book with you and go for the project. Because i knew he has done his previous professional exams without going to a singal class. Then he said still the law college has not issued the course book. According to him, law entrance exam is in the month of September this year. Thats just 2 months a way. But still they have not issued the course book. It was quite surprising for me. Because most of the exams i know , they issue the couse manuals before 1 year specially if they wish to change the syllabus. On my way to office i went to law college to get this clarified. The officer there told me that they have stop issuing the course book and after this they will never issue a couse book. I saw that there was a notice in the notice board which mentions the same thing he said. I came back and told what i found to my office mate. he just laughed and told me that , "yeah thats what they say. But our lecturers allready knows what the new lessons they are going to include in the book and they allready started teaching those in classes". He told me what are the new topics. But since its not nice to publish it before they do , i will not do that. But i started thinking. Who ever the students who do not go to classes or who do not have time or money to go to classes will not get the chance to know this. Same as by the time course book is out it will be very closer to the exam , and they will not be able to capture all those content. So is this some sort of conspiracy by law college to promote tution classes? I have nothing against the classes and iam glad that there are tution classes. So that people can learn much better. But still as a responsible organisation , what is Law college doing? Why the officer in book counter lies to people who come to buy the book?

Anyway some how our mate agreed to go for the project. He realise that its important. He has found a way to got class tutes through a friend. So he said he need not be in Colombo and will come to Colombo only for the exam. We had to ask everyone to inform the project manager on the dates they need leave in next couple of months which they planned to involve in the project. Because it was a foreign project and employees need to be on site every singal day. So unless its an emmergency , we will have to inform the doners that this particular person will be out of site on this particular day. I know its difficult and some times not practical. But who ever who has work for forign projects would know what i mean. We can't just go there and tell the client , there's no one on site tomorrow. It doesn't work like that. So with what ever difficulties we need to plan for it. I noticed that this guy who told me that his exams will be held in September has not applied a singal leave in September. I was bit scared whether he gave up on his studies. Feeling much guilty i went to his desk and asked him , "hay when is your exam dates. Why its not on the plan?". He just smiled and said he doesn't know when the exam takes place. I started thinking this is not the guy i knew all thsi time. He was very much of a responsibla person and now he's not even bothered to find his exam dates. Then he told me , its 2 weeks before the exam only they announce the exam dates. Isn't it terrible? I have heard our people telling that exams in Sri Lanka is much better than foreign exams. But is this the condition of the education systems in Sri Lanka? This is not a grade 5 scholarship exam. Its a professional exam. So what's so professional about the conduct of our law college with regard to this matter? If i want to find out the dates that any foreign exam takes place next year , its just a matter of logging to the site.

Finally i found out there's another guy at our office who is hoping to do the same exam. But i never see the same effort. I asked him , what do you think about this subject?Is it so easy for you? Because he hang around at office even at saturdays and sundays. So he couldn't be having much time to study. He gave me another smile and said "my father is a lawyer. He said he will make me pass." Thats it. I thought i better stop this article from here. If anyone related to law college reads this , please don't be mad with me. But please think about what i said and correct me if iam wrong. I feel its a shame how this exam in conducted. Its about the life of 10,000 people who sit for this exam any many other people who are suppose to get affected sooner or later.

Job Satisfaction

I have a friend who works in this top class company in Colombo which serves mostly foreign clients. In our gatherings we used to tease her about her company and its culture. Because some of their employees we know have a different type of social life within the company. They have one partner at home and another partner at office. This office partners of them regularly changes. I know its a normal habit in most of the offices. And she always argue with us saying its a good company to work with a respect. Day before yesterday i received a mail from her. I felt quite sad after reading that.

With her mail there was a photograph of her and couple of other friends. They were wearing very nice party dresses. Those were short dresses , but not micro mini and decent enough to cover what is required. At the end of the mail there was another photograph. Actually it was the same photograph edited by some one. It contained some, i would say not proper language to describe the legs of them and some other rubbish too. All this time my friend was quite happy at work. But suddenly this has made her very depressed and frustrated. I started thinking. Compared to the rate the photos are editing and uploading in to the internet today and compared to most other things this is a very small incident. But still irrespective of all the world class facilities provided by her organisation , she has lost her satisfaction at work. I know definitely it impact her work. She told me that its very sad that another mate who work in the next desk did it using the company email. I know incidents in some other companies where male officers have troubled seriously to female employees. But it was always said that "You know its guys. Its a joke. You should be able to bear those. You don't have patience". Even though i felt very sorry for my friend who deeply suffered due to this , i knew in such a company no one will be bothered to even listen to her. I told her , if its my company i would definitely do something. But this is not something i can help officially. All i could do is to console her.

But next day i got a call from her. She talks in an extremely enthusiastic encouraging tone as usual. I said I'm happy to hear you like this. Then she told me one of the most strange things i heard after some time. They have reported it to their company management. Management has conducted very strict deciplinary action towards the case , issued a warning letter and filed it in his personal file of that particular employee who edited the pic and distributed it. They have warned him its the last chance and if he says a single bad word to anyone works there, he'll be kick out from the company. He was ordered to apologise from all the girls in the picture. And company has sent a mail to all the employees of the office saying if similar action happens again , who ever who does that will immediately suspended. Everyone regained their places which deserved to them.

It was such a simple incident. But i saw how it affected people. It was amazing how that management solve it. I never expected that from a company which has a culture closer to American or European. But now i feel that this is what you call real decipline. Not to limit the freedom of people. But to respect them and protect them. Its wonderful. May this be a tribute to that management team.