.

As the year draws to a close, I have realised that my leave balance for the year is intact. The compensatory offs (in return for working on holidays) and the balance carried over from last year was enough for me this year.
I even wasted a couple of leaves by applying for them and then going on those days anyway. (Because I have been accused of "taking liberty" with my leaves by the powers that be).
As has been oft said by people around me, this ITDonkey is a chicken of the species. :(

CC

My bank has reduced my credit card limit to 5000 rupees, stating "security reasons". I wonder if its for theirs or mine. Not that I had gotten around to exploring what the "earlier" limit was anyway.
They are just playing it safe with IT guys, I believe.

On another note, the manager is considering exempting "married" people from the miserable night shifts. So, Anushka and Anushka, if you are reading this...
And does he mean that "single" people dont have a family??

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If the grapevine is to believed, banks will now begin classifying IT guys as subprime.
Righttt....After being knocked off the marriage aspirations list of Indian girls, yet another one for the ITDonkey.

Which reminds me.... I have got an alarming propensity of doing the absolute wrong thing when being observed. I was watching the marriage video of a close cousin today, in which yours truly makes 3 appearances of about 2 seconds each. I am yawning rather loudly in 2 of them, and have my mouth full of food in the third, which I had stopped chewing from the shock of finding the camera directly in front of me.
Old ladies watching the video will come to logical conclusion about how I got to my present shape by only sleeping and eating.
Well old ladies, you are wrong.... endlessly sitting motionless and tapping away at a keyboard has got as much to do with it as is anything else.
Anyway, in their eyes, I would already be subprime, and not someone worth recommending to their grandnieces. Not that I expect or even want to find a partner in this manner, but feels bad anyway. In the same manner when the bank says I wont be eligible for that car loan I didnt ask for.

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A quick update...
I have officially now got 4 bosses.
Thats right....4 people for 4 underlings.
Infact, a post named "Associate Project Lead" was just created to accomodate the new guy, which has already started creating friction between the three earlier bosses.

As of now, I plan to put up an unofficial hassle index for each of them, depending on how much each one of them hassles me.

Current standing in descending order :
Top Boss - > The leader.
Old lead - > Tolerable, to some extent.
Newer tech lead - > Doesnt interact much.
Newest process expert - > The middle order doesnt let him interact much.

For updates, watch this space.

And this is before the Z.O.P. brings back another team lead from the US by the end of December.

Which reminds me, Z.O.P. is not a client move, but our own initiative, as we move from an hourly billed project to a fixed price project.
I have absolutely no words to express my immense anger at the moment.

The Z.O.P.

So it has happened. Almost that is.Became a direct victim of the credit crunch. Even as I type this out, a meeting is progressing at 8.30am CST (8.00 pm IST) announcing the bad news to the offshore team mates.
Starting January 2009 year, we will proceed towards a ZERO ONSITE POLICY. (Z.O.P.)
What it means is that they wont have people located at client side at all. Every single thing will be 100% offshored.
This happened after the management decided to pay a visit to our call centre wing. And suddenly realised they dont have onsite personnel at all, and were functioning just fine. In multiple shifts, across all timezones, including a couple of overlapping night shifts.
"Aahhaa!!" said they... and out came the calculators.
"Analysing our current relationship with the customer , it has come to our notice there are some gaps in value proposition we offer them.." , a bespectacled man must have droned to an audience of bean counters.
"For every resource we bring back , it will result in a saving of 75% , and if a corresponding resource at offshore is given 1.2% over and above our current investment in resource , it would result in the nett savings of over 5.97823 %.. " , all very exciting figures, if you are an MBA in power , like the above gnome eyed fellow.

The management must be terribly excited. "What a fantastic idea!!!" , they must be thinking.

What would be implied though that we can subject the software guys to fantastic amounts of misery , and convince the customer that there is value in that . So that fat cats like us can continue to get fatter.

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The mayhem caused by a bunch of ragtag gunmen in Mumbai is over.....for the time being (I desperately hope that I am wrong here).
This begs a question... How safe are we really ?
If the motive is to find a large concentration of humanity at a place, the following places come to the mind : Train Stations, state bus depots, large hotels...and..err IT Companies.
Lets face it guys..... we are all but sitting ducks for the anti-humans. Ofcourse we have security at our gates, well armed with...err...whistles. They are well suited to the tasks normally required of a security person at an IT Company. Guiding vehicles, checking visiting workers and keeping a general eye on things. The keyword here is "normally" . But confronted with the grimiest slime from the gutter, like the ones in Mumbai, I wonder how effective they will be.
Maybe they should make a shootout drill compulsary, like a fire safety drill. Hit the floor! Dont move! Unfortunately, stuff like this should come naturally to us.
Heres what we might have to do while leaving for work :
Laptop bag - Check.
Lunch box - Check.
Swipe Card - Check.
Cellphone - Check.
9 MM in the holster - Check.
Yes, I do hope they allow private citizens to bear arms now. I know that it will bring a huge set of their own problems , but how many choices are we left with now ?
Its worse than the wild west now, you shoot or you get shot.

PS: I am serious.
You can place an order here.
This , apparently, isnt being sold to private buyers.

Panic ?

Our primary client will be sending out RFPs (Request for Proposals) for various projects, including mine, in December. All the Indian IT biggies, are understood to have an expressed an interest. That.... and some Mexican firm too, and nearshoring is a good option, say the United Voters of Obama.

This, combined with the overall recession atmosphere, has our management worried I guess.
The number of pointless prep talk meetings have increased drastically. We already had our fourth in the last couple of weeks. "What can we do make this place better?" , they ask... usually without the expectation of an answer. I usually spend the time making little dots appear in patterns on the different pages of my notepad (Which invariably everyone carries into the meeting, but noone ever does anything with it.)


I keep asking myself, is it such a bad thing if this thing goes ??

On another note, my project details were suddenly changed last month. From September 2009, its now down to Dec 2008. This isnt the case for everybody.
Annndd... a big list of around 200 people to be laid off is being drawn up. This is one of those confirmed rumours.
So am I on my way out ?
I dont know. Watch this space.