What makes me come to work every day – day after day ......

With Rupali Choudhuri 

 Last weekend I met a few of my old classmates from B School over dinner and drinks. We showed off our latest gadget each one of us had, latest family update. And then the conversation inevitably took us to funny jokes about work, ex-bosses, present bosses, coworkers…and respective performance appraisal feedback sessions…was that Dilbert again! It got me pondering what makes me come to work every day. Of course I love the part where I need to wear great clothes and the social part of work. I often wonder whether I will like to work from home at all and I thank God that I don’t have to. ….I come to work EVERYDAY! Here is what I think about it:

•  Love to learn new stuff and have incredible experiences

This is the number one reason I can wake up at 3.40 am and work on something as exciting as SAP (wink…like really!) The passion to learn, sometime unlearn is indomitable for most of us. It could be for various reasons: social media, awareness…but none the less the passion to learn something new, discover a small facet you were not aware of. A lot like what Tennyson says in Ulysses ”to follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought”. It is not only about technology, new process, it is a lot more…may be a motto for you, a reason to live.

•  To earn Respect and to gain trust that goes beyond work:

I think in the last few years this word has slowly, quietly crept in and is making space within the Indian corporate scene. To the scholars of HR: respect would mean equity, fairness, diversity…but to me, it means being civil in my everyday work life. As per the CEB respect is one of the top 5 things people look for when they are looking for a new job.

We end up spending a lot of our time at work (everyday 9 hours and most of the days much beyond and over the weekends)

I think respect for the individual is the key ingredient that makes for the culture of a workplace.

To me it means acknowledging someone for doing good work, it may mean by giving a positive/negative feedback to an employee, it means giving a little space and time to a bereaved employee (employee going through stress in their personal life), it may a bit less of micromanagement, more of collaboration, empowerment. (I love these words!!!) I would also say it means a mighty chunk of trust between the employee and the manager.  Trust to me, does not mean like the US Dollar bill “In God we Trust” ….i am fairly aware of the next sentence…”all others pay cash”. To me it means a little less ….i trust my manager that him/her will guide me when I need some advice, if I say something confidential, it stays with him/her, I trust him that he would not backstab me so that his image is not tarnished…oh she never gave it to me on a Friday, I just got the documents today… (When in reality the employee probably emailed the documents on Friday evening)

•  There is more to life than work ….

Life is beyond the position description that stays in your business card, a little bit more than the corner glass office you wanted. In this context I feel very glad I work at here because we have a very strong CSR Team and the best part of it is that they involve us in the different activates the team does: painting schools, visiting old age homes. I feel good that a certain portion of my salary goes to foundation in order to support people who may be in misfortune.

 Each one of us is different, and so are our reasons to go to work. For some the list may be endless, for others it may be just be just a few. This reminds me of the Herzberg’s two factory theory of motivation: Hygiene factors and Motivators.

For some of us it is the former (increment, mind-blowing designations, the corner office, relationship with coworkers)…which is fine, whatever gets us to give our best.

For others it is the latter (the work itself, the recognition of having achieved a challenging task and the personal growth….which means it is not too much of a challenge for the management to motivate these people to come to work and give their best…as the work by itself is the MOTIVATOR…EVERYDAY!

To end I would like to quote Jerry Maguire ( By the way that is my favourite movie and I can quote so many things that made me what I am )

“Hey, I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.” …