The Great Indian Brew
R.Karthik
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I have been living in the Northern part of the country for almost half
a year now.
NCR happens to be a cultural cauldron of mystical traditions that unto
this day pervade even the most sophisticated city of Uttar Pradesh-
Noida. My expectations in terms of what I would get to see during
festivals of the North were very mild.Maha Shivrathri passed by quite
uneventfully and hardly anyone even talked of it! Very few takers that
our gods have among the Generation 'X'ers....
And when Holi was round the corner I perhaps underestimated folks'
enthusiasm for the festival.
My room partners had been chuckling and making plans all week "its
Holi this Sunday!" and I was hoping they would only play with colors
and make some merry.
And when the day arrived, I saw 5 new faces sporting all shades of hue
in our living room (guests of my room partners').Being the late riser
iam, I was invited over noon to join them for a drink.
'Bhaang'- a seasonally brewed beverage of northern India favored much
during Holi consumed by men & women of all age groups.Putatively held
as a 'prashad' (religious offering) of/to Lord Shiva, Bhaang is a
tradition herein.
And that is good reason to swig a little occasionally you know!
The 'distinguished guests' present in this gathering were as
flamboyant with their thoughts as with their drinks and gave rare
reviews of every topic/issue which came up for discussion.
If criticism was their birth-right then Intellect was their
inheritance.
What followed was nothing short of a sound discussion Involving some
of the brightest b-school minds who have had their initial 1 or 2 year
tryst with industry.
That is exactly when I thought this deserves to be the subject of a
social if not business blog.
We were guzzling up a glass after the other and yet manifesting
sobriety in its best possible form. It was a tête-à-tête that lasted 3
hours and the whole session was tinged intermittently with dashes of
'intelligent humor'. The discussions ranged over an array of topics
covering organizations, work, people and so on.
And then we ventured into the much-debated topics of salary ranges in
IT industry, employee attrition & issues.
MBAs they were all; working on technologies, consulting and other
solutions.
"So what do you think makes people quit?" I quipped
I think at the end of it I deduced fairly accurately what is causing
all the attrition; these guys (all our partyers) as cases in point,
have themselves changed jobs once within a span of 2 years!
I conducted an appreciate inquiry on each of their cases deftly
throwing a probing question or two wherever required during their
narrative.
What came out was that their aspirations (for life & career) were
greater in all terms which they nurtured in isolation renouncing the
backing of their organizations/managers.
No! It is not the archetypical HR cliché "aspirations mismatch" that
iam talking of.
A young and fairly shrewd professional gauges what kind of growth
trajectory the organization holds in store for him/her. If the
articulation of the same is not loud and lucid to the knowledge worker
he does what he is best at doing...networks, floats his CV and manages
to pull off another high-priced job offer over the weekend.
Given all the right circumstances in personal life/family too, they
admit they would have made the leap sooner or later.And it is only
this slice (occurring due to inadequate aspirations mgmt) of the
attrition pie which we can possibly address or manage. To a great
extent employee aspirations can be managed and exploited to a mutual
benefit with the right management and practices.The organizations'
articulation of career growth for its high-potential employees can't
be bleak (or even perceived bleak). "A better salary" is everywhere
and for everyone who decides to quit a job but that can't be the sole
cause attributable to all the attrition.
If you think through, you realize that salaries are only the vegetable
dressing on the meal laid down. They can only create the visual
appeal.
The proof of the pudding is only in the eating!
All this over a glass of 'Bhaang'; it did bring out a lot of thoughts
from within its connoisseurs! L
Well, it was not a bad way to have spent leisure time on a holiday!
Cheers,
Karthik