Work sucks
work
sucks in dubai WEDNESDAY,
APRIL 18, 2007
Wireless India
WORK SUCKS IN BANGALORE
“How many people report into you?”
This is what a Project Leader asks another when they meet up at a general body
meeting. It could be happening in any big software services company in
Bangalore. You are measured by how many people report into you. If you have 12
people ‘under’ you, then you feel superior to another project leader who has
10 people ‘under’ him. ‘Growth’ is the increase in the number of people who
report into you. A Division Head with 60 people under him feels more powerful,
successful, and accomplished compared to another Division Head with 30 people
under him. The number of people reporting into you is the direct indicator of
your success. Soon, every Project Leader wants to ensure his team size
increases. Every Project Manager wants to increase his team size. So on.
What you end up with is a mechanism which is continuously increasing the ranks
of the company. Every Project Leader, Project Manager and the Division Head
wants to project that he needs more people. When the mindset is to increase
the team size, reasons come out plenty why you need them. Soon, you have an
inflated industry, bloated companies, all perpetuating the notion that it
needs more people.
A task that can be done by two people in reality is done by eight people.
That’s because if you make it work with two people, there’s no reward for it.
A services organization does not earn enough. However, if you make it work
with eight people, then you are doing something good, because now you earn
more for the company. So, in effect, you weed out those leaders who are
capable of delivering the same task with less people, and promote and reward
those leaders who do the same task with more people.
So, what do you end up with? Leaders, managers and heads who are adept and
proficient in projecting more engineers for a task than what is actually
needed.
And when this phenomenon happens in every team, every division, every company,
what do you get? You get Bangalore! A city filled with thousands of software
engineers who get jobs because someone up there wants to feel he/she has
succeeded.
