Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I have ranted about this before, but I sincerely cannot understand the way some people work. I have often seen that when people are behind schedule with regard to translation assignments for our firm, they have a very easy answer, my disk went corrupt, electricity has gone off. And some times when it has genuinely happened to me during the torrential rains in Chennai, and we were off power, I used to cringe with that excuse.
And "Disk Corrupt Salvaging Data" is an excuse that I get a lot of times from the translators here. And a few translators overseas. Of course I get different ones from abroad. like skidding on snow, and very easily a family member 'dies' or gets admitted to the hospital, and of course Blame-it-on-the-PC excuse. And even if the PC excuse were an honest one, I can't but help getting irritated when people fail to keep their word. Or rather, deliver their words in this case.
And thereafter you ask them for a status so that we can ascertain what we should tell our clients, there will be no reply, and their phones will be switched off, and mails not replied to.
Its enraging to say the least.
Arrrrrrgh for wrong work ethics.

20 comments:

Agoglife said...

To say the least.. there are 2 types of people in the workforce world,
one belongs to 'completing the work with the best ability no matter what..'
and the other 'finding excuse to not working, no matter what'..
These classes exists in my company's group, who get paid a big bulky top range salaries..

Nazreen said...

Yea..very true..People have to be taught etiquette first before taking up a job..I also recently read in Yahoo that according to a survey, talkin aloud on phones is the most annoying thing at offices.So I'd be really happy if anyone started a course on etiquette!!!Many definitely need a dose of it:)

SHEETAL AMBAR said...

Wrong work ethics is normally the cause of laziness and ignorance Chinmayi ... People sometimes take a whole lot of advantage when the boss is lenient and patient.. So this leads to laziness and ignorance.. When the boss is strict and demanding sometimes only then can they get the work done on time.. But it would really get into our nerves when these people take advantage..

I would suggest be patient yet clever when dealing with such people !

Great to hear from you again Chinmayi .. You've become mine and my mum's fave blogger... Esp my mum I have to say..
Regards to ur mum Chinmayi ! Take care !! Good Luck !!

Karthik Sriram said...

Perhaps this is what you do - but why not build these delays into your project - Like, if you know that a particular task is going to take 2 weeks (inclusive of these "delays"), give the translators a deadline of 8 or 9 days - so, even if they have the usual delay, they finish the work by the actual deadline.....

Anonymous said...

The Blue Elephant has a demanding boss it seems :)

Reminds me of the good old college days. Used to come up with creative excuses like, "spilled water on the finished papers" etc.

I heard that the outsourcing firms usually reduce/cut the pay for delays. Hmm.. still the problem exists? Must be really frustrating! Hopefully you will soon find a solution.

Anonymous said...

Set expectations. Have two part delivery. Have a status call a few weeks ahead. In other words, project management.

Ananth said...

Hello Chinmayi,

My first time here at your blog - and definitely my first time to meet a successful yet modest person.

The fact that you just rant about the excuses irritating you instead of adding one from your side, portrays your perfect work ethics.

Kudos, and keep up the great work!

Ananth

intruder said...

"Its enraging to say the least"

Indeed... gotta love the ones that say oh i never got ur email and you on the other hand know for sure the mail did not bounce back.

"Set expectations. Have two part delivery. Have a status call a few weeks ahead. In other words, project management"

yea project mgmt helps to set deadlines, pirorities and resources but what if your team fails to deliver because of major inherent problem within the team itself. project mgmt alone is not the answer.

Unknown said...

Chinmayi,

This happens every where not only regard to translation assignments. People miss or come late for simple appointments and come with hundered reasons to justify that. Ultimately it depends on one's priority.

-Anbusivam

Anonymous said...

Have you ever heard of Theory X and Theory Y by McGregor. Well it does look like all the folks you outsourced come under Theory X( in herent dislike of work and will avoid work if given a chance). I dont think you have much of a choice except to have people on your comp's rolls and pay them.

Remember if you pay peanuts you will only get monkeys :)

All the best

Chinmayi Sripada /Chinmayee said...

Anonymous whose comment didnt get published: I pay well and before time. I ll unabashedly say that I have an excellent reputation there.
Anonymous: Most of the time its also avarice, people take more work than they can handle. You gotta be in industry to know what I am talking about, and this happens 99% of the time only with Indians.

Chinmayi Sripada /Chinmayee said...

karthik: yep i follow tht, after previous mishaps, tht doesnt seem to work either.
Hari: Most of the times it need not be a team, but an individual translator at work. So probably there are other issues!
Anbusivam: Agree :)

anitha shalini said...

Hi Chinamyi, its been a while since I left a comment - I have a full time job and I also run a transcription company - I've been in your shoes. Initially I used to be very down to earth, kind and casual with the vendors who did the work for me, but I learned pretty fast that I would have to change my attitude towards them. First thing I did was let more than one vendor compete for the same account(job) - I openly told them that I was giving part of the work from the same account to another vendor and would continue using the vendor which came back with better quality and turn-around. Unfortunately I also had to start putting on a bossy no-nonsense attitude as opposed to my previously friendly and kind approach. I never depend on one single vendor for any one account - I always have two or more vendors waiting to take up work and I keep them constantly aware that I would not hesitate to pull out the work from them if they slack. This is not how I want to be. However, I learnt that its the only way to do a business involving contracted outsourcing rather than direct employment. Just wanted to share what I learned the hard way.

Vijayashankar said...

In my 17 years IT career, I have seen enough on procrastinations. If you dont know to live with it, ou are out off what you ought to do!

BTW, the more you grow, the pain you get into.

Rgds
Vijay

Selvam said...

The foremost important aspect of running an organization is HIRING the right people for a job - qualification, motivation, and pride.

Qualification: Easy to judge during interview/conversation

Motivation: Little more difficult to judge, but by asking the right questions, it is possible to figure out how well they are motivated. People are usually motivated by money, job satisfaction, and PRIDE/Self-esteem.

Pride: Based on my experience, this is the toughest one to judge during a hiring process. But, I have found out that this is the one factor that separates an effective employee from the others.

Obviously, there are other external factors such as family, habits, etc., that influence all of the above.

I am pretty sure with more scrutiny on motivation and pride during the hiring process, organizational performance can be improved significantly.

Anonymous said...

Interesting input from Anitha Shalini

drashkum said...

AFTER ALL WE ARE HUMANS WE CANT BE COMPUTERS !!! LIKE THE COMPUTER CRASH HUMANS TOO BREAK DOWN

Aboorva said...

If ur plans have failed, ask ur self if there's a better plan waiting to be discovered

Unknown said...

Ethics is something like Advice - it is available from others for people to take but very few are prepared to take that.

But to avoid such disappointments, I think you can tackle it only through strict Service Level Agreements (its very formal, but would help).

Chitra said...

Hi Chinmayi, First time into your blog and here is my comment. Perfectly understand your situation...i used to work as an HR mgr with a s/w firm and i hv seen so many of them giving very weird reasons for work not done. When you are out of india on work..its even more bad...sudden request of "work from home" coz of health reason, personal work etc etc and most of the time work never gets done from their end. Very creepy and annoying.