Mannar & Co Thangavelu is my latest alias

Long-time readers of my blog would be aware that I work out of two different offices in this city. Of course, I have used the word “work” in a very loose manner, but as long as I am employed, I guess I am entitled to say so.

And that brings me directly to the topic of this blog. You see, for the last 6-7 weeks, I have been working out of the office closer home and in fact, I haven’t visited the one near Chengalpet in almost 4 weeks now! The reason why I am doing this is because I don’t have a team per se for this said period and am doing a fair amount of pre-sales work – both of which allow for location flexibility.

Anyways, a couple of days back, my mother asked me if I was still employed. Quite shocked by her question, I asked her the logic behind that query. Her simple reasoning was that I must have been fired and in my endeavour to maintain an “image” at home and to society, I was pretending to go to office daily. Pretty much what the great Thangavelu did in Kalyana Parisu as a Manager in Mannar & Co. You can check that comedy scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRwJu2jROLc&feature=BFa&list=PL3432E88AF6BBE40D

Things have reached the stage where she has started calling me Thangavelu!

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

I don't know about Jack, but as someone who shares the first two letters of Jack's first name, I think all work and no play is making me dull. And sick too.

I see a clear increase in the quantum of work that has started coming my way, in the office. This is especially because my boss was out sick for the last two weeks and was out on personal reasons a couple of weeks earlier.

I have been working slightly extended hours anyways and the peak really started from the 18th. On the weekdays between the 18th and 24th, I have clocked around 12 hours on an average. I have also had two night-outs - Friday and Monday - till dawn of the next morning.

All this has taken a toll on my health. I haven't gone to office from Tuesday to the rest of the week. At first, it was the RSI related pain in my right wrist. I took a day off to rest the hand. But I have been carrying a cold for quite some time and that too flared up.

At the outset, it does look like I am taking 4 days of leave just because I "worked" for a week. But I think the last week was probably just the proverbial last straw that broke the camel's back.

I clearly have to work better or smarter and more importantly, take better care of my health. Hiding away from exercise under the excuse of mental exhaustion does get many a nod of approval, but I have to stop using that excuse. It is really time for me to wake up!

It is just like last year, only this time it is different!

I have been fairly busy the last 3 weeks or so and it has been even busier from the time December 2008 dawned in my life. This is mainly because of a proposal that I am involved in. I agree that at this stage in my life I should probably be concentrating on the proposals of the personal kind, but this one is important for my professional life as well.

This week especially has been very tight. On Monday, I was able to return home at normal hours, but I had to stay awake late in the night - till 2.45 AM of Tuesday to be precise - to complete some piece of the proposal. And on Tuesday, I still got up at the usual time of 5:45 AM. And I was able to take only the 11 'o clock house drop from work and I effectively went to sleep at 12:30 AM on Wednesday. I got up at around 7 AM and had a very difficult morning. By the time I got out of my house, it was 9 AM and I reached work by 10 AM.

Wednesday night was no different and I was able to leave work only by 10 PM. Even then, after I returned home and had a very late dinner, I had to continue working till around 2.30 AM of Thursday! And once again, it was time to get up at 7 AM and with even more difficulty than on Wednesday, I somehow willed myself into leaving the house and going to work. And since I was taking the day off on Friday to attend my friend Karthik's wedding, I had to stay late till 10 PM that night as well.

So all in all, for the first 4 days of this week, I got to sleep for around 12 hours! This has really sapped my energy and I didn't go to office today (Saturday) even though my office was working today.

The last time that I had so much work to do over so many days was around August-September of 2007. The 2 months of my life that I can never ever forget and will never be allowed to forget. As a refresher, you can lead these articles from that circa:
One
One other
One more
Once more

The KEY difference between those days and now is simple. The people I am currently interacting with have been very encouraging. There were times when I was admonished quite strongly, but after I stayed up late in the night on Monday to finish up things, the very people who admonished me sent me appreciation notes with encouraging words for burning the midnight oil. You see, that's a very simple people management skill that was totally lacking from my seniors during the previously indicated tough times. At that time, I spent equally, if not more, long hours every day. And yet, people used to look only at the faults. That was definitely demotivating.

Whereas the group here has been very encouraging. Like I mentioned before, there have been instances where people have been pulled up, but the very same people thank you and appreciate the work you put in to correct the situation. That was why, even after spending so many hours on Monday and Tuesday, I was able to work thru Wednesday and Thursday. In fact, were it not for the physical stress, I would have gone to work today.

Anyways, I am rounding off the week and am planning to study for yet another exam that I need to clear. I will hopefully be spending quite a lot of the remaining weekends in preparing for these exams. If I don't clear them, my promotion is completely ruled out and worse, I could get no pay hike! If only I can read the exam material with the same zeal with which I read newspaper and magazines.....