After what I can only describe as the worst two months (professionally-speaking) of my life, I am ready to start afresh this Monday, October 20. I can’t wait to get started!

Last July, when I joined this company I just left, I had no idea what to expect and what was in store for me. After I started, I realized the culture was too diametrically opposite to what I was used to, and what I was expecting. And mind you, it was not the “company” that was the issue for me, it was the “people” I worked with: they were stuck in the past and were absolutely not interested in moving to 2014. For an extremely transformational initiative like a new business intelligence platform, that kind of culture would absolutely not cut it.

However, what happened in August and September of this year puts that disappointment way lower on my displeasure list. A new executive comes in, has a major political agenda, finds a few “insiders” to make them her advisors on all matters, and starts making terrible decisions. Some of these decisions were reversals of crucial initiatives which were more than halfway done, and some of them were firing consultants who were the only ones with the skills to get their respective jobs done. As a result, the entire program moved out by at least 2 months. I didn’t like some of these moves, but my thought process was simple: if I can improve my own skills and execute to a goal, I will still be ok.

Alas, she had me on her agenda as well. As in, she wanted me out. She did not want to fire me but she made it extremely difficult for me to survive in that environment. The word that comes to mind: victimization. She removed the people who reported to me so I lost my management role. She passed judgment on my 9 months of work saying it was “nonsense”, without letting me defend it. She made the assumption that I did not want to be a part of “her team” and as a result, started pointing fingers at everything I had done and everything I was doing. Like for example, monitoring when I left the office and having me switch timesheet hours for every hour that she deemed inaccurate. EVERY HOUR. Even though we are not paid by the hour.

Ultimately, I went on a sick leave followed by vacation and then ultimately quit because by then I had a few offers in my hand and felt reasonably confident I won’t have to go back to that godforsaken place. The past two weeks have been great because I have actually had time to flush out all that negativity and get ready for a new beginning. Fortunately or not, the wife is in between projects so she was also around so we were able to spend some quality time together without the distraction of the kids around us.

I have seen extremely political work places and I have seen work places with negativity especially if the company is not doing well, but this lady has been the absolute worst person I have had the chance to work with/for and would highly recommend staying away from her and her employer as far as you can.

Cheers!

While I have been less than impressed with how service providers behave here in India, what happened this morning as I got to my work really, really annoyed me and made my flip my table.

I have long suspected that my desk was being used by someone else when I was away. Of course, I haven’t been able to prove it, or convince the facilities folks about it. Nevertheless, what I saw this morning was enough to prove it.

I was unpleasantly surprised to see food marks all over my desk this morning. As if someone ate their food (sloppily, too) at my desk and left without cleaning up. It was absolutely disgusting to see those food marks all over the desk.

I barely found space to put my computer down and take some pictures to send to facilities and have them clean it up.

My irritation is as much with someone using my desk and associated problems like my chair being constantly switched, but the absolute unprofessionalism that one of my co-workers showed by not cleaning up after eating. It’s not like my cubicle seems abandoned - there are a bunch of cables lying around and of course, a giant monitor and my freaking name plate!

If my co-workers behave this way, what am I to expect from “the common man”? These are educated people working for a multinational company and if they care so little about such things, the situation is quite dire in general.

I know this may seem like an overreaction if you read it in vacuum, but the fact is I have been seeing similar unprofessional behavior all over the place across several people interactions I have had since I moved back.

At this point, it has been about 30 minutes, and nobody has responded from facilities. :-/