Footprints on the Mountainside

Ugh. I think it is an occupational hazard for a consultant to feel obligated to have a say on everything, regardless of how inane it sounds. The more broke the consultant, the more desperate he is to say something, anything, as advice. I found this article on CiteMan.

Overcoming Office irritations

My response to this was of such magnitude, that I thought comments wouldn’t suffice, and dragged the whole thing here.

The article opens with seeming to be about employees being unlucky in their employers and suffering from an unhappy work life. Ok, so far, so good. Looks like we have a subject.

Then, we get into generalities about the employers practices and how they are not all bad and also say, “they will definitely not turn ones workplace a place where one wants to be for a long time“!!!???!!! Does that really mean that the employer will want to leave?

Then the whole article does a nose dive and turns into that “ten tips for career success” tone, with a whole load of advice given without any qualification of circumstance whatsoever. What is happening?

We have “An employee must get himself assigned to a project.” Come again? Do employers really leave employees idling around until they get themselves assigned somewhere? Why work at all? Just sit around and enjoy the salary. Then “An employee can tell the employer that to keep ahead of competitors he wants to do research and find out the need of customers and solution to solve their problems. This will give a chance to step out and speak to people and the employee can interact with people on line or simply get busy on the telephone or go and meet them.” No comments.

And, hold-your-breath “Sometimes it is just not the day when one feels like going to work. If that’s the case and if ones work permits then all one has to do is work from home. Do the work in the same fashion as watching TV or play with ones child and send in reports twice in a day. If ones boss resists, explain that this style of working is helping him get the work done efficiently and could not attend work because of minor health problem.” Have I missed something about the corporate world completely? Is being a well taken care of employee about working from home if one doesn’t feel likegoing to work? Does the author realize how condescending it sounds to be explaining to a boss “resisting” this working from home thing? Particularly when speaking of efficiency as the explanation, while doing the work like watching TV or playing with a kid - as in, not with any major effort or concentration?

I’m not continuing with this nonsense, because I just realize I’m copying almost the entire article - each sentence is a masterpiece of “teenager-playing-dream-consultant”, and I just suggest you hop over to the article to believe it.

Is this a training article or what? It sounds more like something from Cosmopolitan - “Ten things to do when you’re bored at work“

It is really a pity there is no author here to quote, but the link leads to the CiteHR. Honestly, I would have expected far better from an HR site, but that just goes to show how the better consultants mint money with competition like this.

I have news for you, Mr. Author, whoever you are. If the employee can genuinely think of working from home, opting in for projects when he feels like it, exchange assignments in the name of multitasking and do any of the many of the things you recommend, it is the employer, not the employee that is unfortunate.

I have just one reply to any whining employee following this nonsense, and even more to the “trainer” who wrote this - If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I just love how the net connects people. I was spending some time reading around, and headed across to Mridula’s blog - Travel Tales from India. Most of her recent posts are about Nainital.

Honestly, I hadn’t given much of a thought to Nainital, as to many mountaineers, “hill stations” are like the plague, unless they are access points to outstanding trekking routes or peaks. I’d been to Nainital, pretty much like I go to a railway station. But when I looked at the blog, I felt so connected, that I felt a sharp pang of regret, that my snobbish attitude had blinded me to the beauty of the “regular haunts”. There is a reason Nainital is a well loved hill station, and in my thirst for adventure, I had missed it entirely. Speaking of not bothering to stand and stare!

Then of course, I was in a Nainital mood, and found another blog - this time by Lokesh Shah and had my fill of looking at Nainital pictures. He has some really nice pictures, and the whole feel of it is one of familiar fondness.

Now I’m off to see what else I can find. I have two hours before heading off for a climbing session at Kanheri, and I plan to put them to good use.

I was scavenging for ideas to use in my next youth programme, and found a wealth of them on blogs. I think I’m developing an affinity for blogs. Regular posts, inspiring ideas….. some people have a talent for looking for the unusual and thought provoking in routine life.

It is sad to see that blogging seems to have a bad effect on careful writing though. Is it only me, or do many outdoor and travel blogs not maintained by professionals have terrible spelling and next to no punctuation?

I only hope this doesn’t rub off on me as I roam around reading the exciting, but messy world of blogging everything that catches the eye.

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One of my freelancers was just enjoying a cup of tea with me during some spare time on a programme. He wanted some advice, and I had all the time in the world, unless something went wrong, so we plunged into the subject.

He had been offered a job with another company and was wondering if he should be taking it. He does some freelance work with Hills and Trails, Wild country Learning, us, OET, and some other companies as well, and earns, (like most other free lance outbound resource people in India) in a very erratic manner. A good month is riches and luxury and some months are a step away from being very badly broke. Not that it isn’t the same with any self employed person, but I find this particularly of concern in the outdoor adventure industry in India.

The salary offered in this case was pitiful, but it would be guaranteed every month. On the other hand, this boy would lose his freedom to choose jobs that he liked, paid well or even helped him learn and develop. It was a tough decision.

Most Indians are not too aware of adventure tourism, and even those aware of it are not always happy to pay big money. Most adventure businesses do reasonably well, but the pool of freelancers we mint our fortunes on, are not as lucky. Some of us are now taking care to offer better rates, more reliable working relationships, some security, etc.

But on the whole, an adventure instructor in India, is leading a life with its economy also in a desperate rescue scenario.

Most such people are more into the business as it doesn’t require any specific qualifications or skills beyond those they can earn on the job. So they aren’t always equipped to have any other profession. They are in a physically demanding profession, and even barring accidents, very few can work in the field as they grow older. They need to be able to figure out other ways of sustaining and providing for their futures, which is something that doesn’t really seem to occur to them.

Not having the benefits of a regular income, or investments through the work place, there is also no source of back up for money. Hardly any invest in any sizeable life insurance, medical insurance or even basic “nest-eggs” for emergencies.

I suggested the best I could. I asked him to tell his new employer that the amount offered was really low, and he couldn’t accept it, unless he was allowed to accept bookings from other companies on the days when the company employing him did not require him. In my opinion, he should have asked for a basic amount per month, with an additional smaller amount calculated according to the number of days he spent in the field. This is what I offer my regulars. Unfortunately, his new employer wouldn’t have allowed that, and I don’t have vacancies.

I hope things work out for him.

Its monsoon time again, and the world is a rich green. While we conduct rafting trips all through the year, monsoon is a special time, because the river is really full of water. We no longer are slaves to the dam that releases the water for our precious white water.

The season is good this year. The field staff have got in another raft to deal with the work load, and trips are running full. Bookings actually need to be done two weeks in advance to have any guarantee of getting a place on the raft. And all this, in spite of having enough water on the river to allow an additional late morning run as well as the usual early morning one with the dam water.

Not bad. Raka and I are in a good mood these days. We’re planning to join a group from JP Morgan who have booked with us this Sunday, and hope that this is going to be a time for us to get away from the city and feel truly like being in the outdoors for fun again.

Who knows, there’s a group from the same company on Saturday as well, and we just might make an overnight trip out of this. Monsoon is certainly not a time to be sitting in the city.

I’ll see if I can get some fun pics out of this.