I got very excited because it was a large project that required hardcore SharePoint development which would push my skills to a number of levels up; but things wasn’t as pretty and excited as I thought to be. The last 7 months was the worst “work life balance” experience I had in a very long time. These past months were packed with intense pressure, countless overnights, long working hours, frustrating environments and all the negative things I wouldn’t want to live on.

Long hours is probably an understatement here, it’s more like insane, inhuman working hours because I am talking about having worked multiple 35 straight working hours, numerous 12 straight hours of conference calls, normal 14-16 chargeable hours in a day, forced to work on weekends, special non-working holidays, etc. To top it all, we don’t get legit overtime pay but some cheap premium and food/transpo allowance that is just enough for your expenses.

The experience was downright frustrating, disappointing, exhaustive and I wanted to be transferred to a less demanding project. I wouldn’t expound on the project transfer anymore but the bottomline is that it wasn’t an option.

Anyways, just before go live, (in non-IT terms, launching of a product to production), the project was on a scrambling mode and we had to push ourselves to deliver things that were planned as well as a long list of things that were unplanned. Unplanned tasks would normally be traced to poor planning, poor management, etc. and deep inside I wanted to complain. I was exhausted and another non-sleeping overnight was pushing me on the edge. Instead of arguing on the timeline, I decided to motivate myself and focus on completing the task at hand for an “In Your Face” performance. I didn’t want to hear how weak we were, I didn’t want to hear complains that we didn’t deliver, I didn’t want them kicking us on the ground. All I wanted was to deliver an “In Your Face” result.

It might not be pretty, but it worked and I was able to muster enough strength to hold on until the end.

As to whether I want to continue working on this kind of environment, the answer is definitely “no”. I am currently evaluating and reflecting on my next steps. Whatever is my decision, my priority is to deliver until the end, and have a good exit.

Muddy Girl with Drinks

I found the picture above over at BizLevity and Mark is asking you to choose the caption from among the following list:

1) Soo-wee. Soo-wee, baby…
2) “Hey, do you want to do something really dirty?”
3) “Easy, cowboy. You gotta be this big to ride this ride…”
4) “You’ve already made honor roll. Wanna try for magna cum loud?”
5) “You’re damn right I’m good at math. You’ve got exactly three seconds to get your hand off my ass…”

I think the caption choices should be:

1. No matter how messy this situation is, this soda (or beer?) cools me off…
2. This soda is all I need…
3. Baby, I’m as cool as you are. Cheers!!!

I believe the photo presented can be a strong marketing campaign…

Visibility Management

I have previously written that one of the solutions to moving up the corporate ladder is being visible in the organization.

One of my colleagues has this message in his messenger status: Manager’s impression is more important than performance.

I am aware that the message is his sentiment during our appraisal period and I jokingly told him and my other colleagues that we ought to rent a billboard in front of our office showing us in corporate attire.

Visibility inside the organization is very important especially when you are working in a large organization and 20 – 50 managers within your project would be doing evaluation of the staff. To get ahead in the corporate world your own personal brand and visibility status should be as large as a billboard.

Image source: flickr by Robyn Gallagher

Wisdom of the Flying Pig

The majority of the changes are in color, addition of block ads, and most notably the header which I had designed by Joan (her site to be updated).

The old design

The new design

I also like to thank

Adam for letting me know that this site breaks in firefox. I have never been a fan of firefox until version 3 came out.

A lot of people demand promotion thinking they were fine with their performance. They should think about this first:

Cows drink water and gives milk in return.

The next time you demand for promotion, pause and ask yourself this question — What have you given in exchange for what you have received?

Remember your not just a cow…

image from flickr user law_keven.

I was reminded of a scene in Grey’s Anatomy where Chief of Surgeon Richard has applauded McSteamy about his “Now” strategy instead of the overly impressive 10 year plan of most attending surgeons vying for the top position.

Sometimes we lose sight of our immediate and pressing problems because we spend a lot of time thinking so far ahead building long term plans and strategies.

Building long term plans is fine as long as our “Now” strategy is given enough attention and continues to improve things around us.

image source here.

External actions and not your good intentions is who you are at face value.

Use your good intentions to produce high value results. Never deprive yourself of credit and recognition because you feel good intentions is what’s important.

Good intentions matter in life but not with your boss.

image from flickr user monkeyc.net

The author, Alex Shalman, lists “9 Fundamentals of Healthy Money Earning Bodies” namely:

Drink A Tub Full of Water
Sit Up Straight You Slouch
Daily Cardio Works The Discipline Muscle
You Are What You Eat
Create Daily Habits For The Win
Take A Mental Dump
Love What You Do
Set Your Targets
Daily Schedule

“Sit Up Straight You Slouch” put a smile on my face as I was guilty of it while reading the post. Anyways, go and read the full article here.