Desicritics Category: BizTech: Jobs

IT Outsourcing Can Actually Increase a Firm's IT Spend

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 17:40:55 EST

I have learnt the hard way that trying to outsource on the basis of “manage my mess for less” is a sure fire way of crashing and burning at worst and being more expensive at best. Anything that is crucial to your firm’s success, you do not outsource. In other words, only outsource which is a commodity and it is easy to switch suppliers such as perhaps storage management, electricity supplies, sewage, catering, cleaning, etc.

Lo and Behold, here’s a paper which provides some more data to back up the idea that outsourcing actually pushes up your costs. The data used is crucial and I quote:

ITOS and IT spending data were obtained from InformationWeek magazine, a weekly print magazine aimed at business technology professionals. Since 1991, InformationWeek has conducted annual surveys to gather current year IT budgets from a variety of the largest US public and private firms and government entities that use IT. It has supplemented this with firms demonstrating innovative use of IT. In 1999, InformationWeek began asking firms what percentage of their IT spending is outsourced. InformationWeek recently provided the additional firm-level data for the 1998 to 2005 time period for this study with strict disclosure restrictions on the authors precluding the sharing of specific firm responses. Data are used from respondents who provided both IT spending and ITOS information for one or more years between 1999 and 2005. Observations for non-public firms were eliminated and merged with corresponding Compustat financial data to calculate the various control variables shown to affect IT budget levels in Kobelsky et al. (2008b). This reduced the overall sample to 1959 firm-year observations for 647 firms in the period 1999 to 2005

The model comprises of variables:

• itb/sls = firm IT budget for each year per InformationWeek data divided by sales for that year (Compustat data12);

• itos dummy = 1 if IT outsourcing percentage per InformationWeek data is positive in Current Year, 0 if not;

• size = log of Current Year sales;

• ind_conc_ratio = four-firm concentration ratio for four-digit SIC;

• uncertainty = standard deviation of earnings before extraordinary items for previous 5 years scaled by sales;

• rel_divers = related diversification (within 2 digit SICs);

• unrel_divers = unrelated diversification (across 2 digit SICs);

• op_ros = operating return on sales, before depreciation (compustat data13/data12);

• debt_ratio = debt ratio (Compustat data9/data6);

• ave_sales_growth = average sales growth for last two years;

• automate = 1 for firms in automate industries, 0 otherwise;

• transform = 1 for firms in transform industries, 0 otherwise;

• hi_tech = 1 if high-tech firm, 0 otherwise

• lo_tech = 1 if low-tech firm, 0 otherwise.

• year = 1 for each year 2000-2005, 0 otherwise.

90% of the sample companies partake of outsourcing some or all of their IT activities. The authors find that while on a project level, they might see a reduction in the IT costs and spend, on an aggregate firm level, the IT spend actually goes up. Note that they do control for scope and volume changes by looking at the sales growth. Within two years of outsourcing, the IT cost level of firms who have outsourced is correspondingly higher than firms which have not outsourced. While the authors suggest that this is because of capabilities are enhanced, I have my doubts. One cannot improve IT capabilities in 2 years, it is simply not possible to evolve the business and IT side so quickly that a statistically significant improvement in productivity and quality can be observed. It is, in my opinion, clearly aimed at the fact that the business case is frankly wrongly specified and outsourcing doesnt really help as far as cost control is concerned.

Business cases are rarely expressed in terms of ratio’s, in other words, you will very rarely find that the managers concerned or the IT outsourcing firm are quoting you IT costs as a ratio to say the sales revenue or operating costs or profits of the firm. This is why I am very nervous whenever I hear that outsourcing is happening which is going to drive down costs.

There is a good argument to outsource to improve efficiencies, drive a centre of excellence, to improve productivity, but for cost purposes, the figures do not bear out the benefits.

The Robin Hood Tax - A Crock of Brown Organic Matter

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:04:37 EST

Look at the Robin Hood Tax website. See the main statement:

This tax on banks – not you or I - has the power to raise hundreds of billions every year. It could give a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty in the UK – as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world.

Let's unpack this, shall we? And in the interests of disclosure, I am a banker and I am talking about this in my personal capacity, nothing to do with my current or past employers.

Thisis tax on banks, not you and I. Banks obviously live on another planet. So that taxes on banks have no impact on you and I. Here’s the first example that the authors don't know their head from their toes. Banks are intermediaries between you and I, who place deposits and it is you and I, who take loans to purchase a house or buy a pension. When you place a tax on the intermediary, you are reducing the interest rate that I get paid as a saver and increase the interest rate that I have to pay to get a house. See the economic illiteracy of not understanding how basic financial and economics work?

Secondly, why are they claiming to have big power to raise hundreds of billions every year? I mean, that is a silly statement, Why not raise trillions by imposing 100% tax on all earnings? You will raise even more. What’s the point of this silly statement?

Thirdly, give a vital boost to the National Health Service. Very good. Why? What happened to the taxes that you already levy on us? Is that not enough? Obviously it is not enough. So why don't you boost that tax? Oh!!!!!, let me see if I understand. You do not like to boost income tax, because somebody might get pissed off enough to fly the plane into the tax building or throw out the blood sucking people out of government. There is a word for this, Stealth Tax.

Fourthly, haven't you realised that the UK public sector is already showing a debt of 56% of the GDP and could reach 93% in 4 years? Instead of taxing more, shouldn't you be thinking about reducing spending? How about the fact that more than 2/3rds of the 1.2 million extra jobs created in the UK cities were in public administration, education and health. Don't you think this is a tad top heavy? And then you want to impose a tax on savers, job creators and intermediaries to increase the number of jobs even more? Same thing applies to school funding. Oh, fight against child poverty!

Then they obviously throw in poverty and climate change as well. I think they missed out making apple pies for pensioners, helping lollipop ladies with better shiny vests and feeding nuts to squirrels!!!

And this is a highly regressive tax, which will proportionally impact the poor even more than the rich. For example, if this applies to all financial transactions, then a poor man will have to pay 1 pound in tax (for example) for every 10 quid he withdraws, versus say a 100 quid for a richer man who withdraws 1000 quid. When you are faced with the choice of eating beans on toast, then that 1 pound makes more of an impact than the 100 quid when you are eating caviar and drinking champagne. So this tax is actually going to exacerbate poverty.

Finally, if you say that taxes help improve behaviour of the banks, then why don't we start imposing taxes on government departments who do not perform? How about imposing taxes on train companies whose trains are late? How about charities who spend more than say 5% on administration and marketing? Talking about charities. Here is a list of charities who have signed up to this interesting idea. Charities are supposed to rely on the philanthropy of ordinary people. They rely on the good nature of people who contribute towards society. But this bunch of charities are asking for forcible contributions. In other words, they are demanding, under force of law, for everybody to contribute to them. This is theft!

Robin Hood, after all, was a thief and a robber. And for all his noble efforts, his thefts effectively lead to the authorities actually increasing the amount of taxes levied on the common man. In this particular case, if you increase the level of taxes, then you are in effect increasing the public sector and then you will need more taxes to support them in the end, leading to the public sector taxing itself to spend on itself, a snake eating its own tail.

Also look at the list, quite a lot of unions are in there, and most of them are public sector unions. Hmmm, very good indeed, I like the way you want me as a taxpayer to give you more money so that you can have more employees. And the churches got into the act as well, thank you for robbing us! Robin Hood also robbed the public authorities and churches who were grasping, thieving, robbing clerics. It’s nice to see that they haven't changed a wee bit. So I like how confused they are by saying that they are like Robin Hood, when they are exactly like the enemies of Robin Hood. How about charities also paying tax then on their earnings? Oh? What you get are gifts, unlike us money grabbing taxpayers who get our money after squeezing just whom? We earn our money and you are asking the government to tax us and then you will come to us again for more money. Money grubbing and theft combined with chutzpah and hypocrisy.

Then they say this is only going to be applied to speculative banking transactions. Just how they will define speculative is unclear. Will this involve people who take out mortgages for buy to let? Or how about me taking out money from my bank account to buy shares? How about taking out money from my bank account to speculate on horses? No? Yes? What?

This really bugged me. I don't mind paying taxes because we get services in return. But to go about actively proposing taxes without making the case for it reminds me of the Boston Tea Party. And when people think that they are being unfairly taxed, they start protesting or committing suicide bombing terrorism. So here we have a campaign, they don't know what it is for, they don't know what previous tax amounts were used for, they don't know how it will be applied, they dont know what the implications will be, they don't know who will get charged, but everybody is having a big song and dance about it.

In Death We Differ

Suresh Naig — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:13:38 EDT

We have heard several times in management jargon that, "Everyone is important, but no one is indispensable." However, there is a dangerous trend where trade union activists are deriving a different meaning to the phrase - to dispense with the persons who do not suit them.

It happened first at Noida, when a mob lynched L.K. Chaudhury, the CEO of an Italian organization, and now it has happened again at Coimbatore. The Vice President (HR) of PRICOL, Roy J George succumbed to the grievous injuries sustained at the hands of an unruly mob. It was alleged that he was hit on the head by workers, who were protesting his action of sacking 42 employees of the Company, working in a different unit.

What is worrisome is the reaction or the lack of it from the Government and the media. Oscar Fernandes made an awkward comment about Noida incident, "This should serve as a warning for the managements." After serving the stern warning, he appealed to the managements to deal with compassion with the workers. Was it not a tacit approval of the heinous act?

Apparently, the media and political leaders wanted to show that they are with the powerless masses. By raising their voices against these killings, perhaps political leaders are afraid that the public would construe that they are taking sides with the empowered. For the same reasons, the print media underplayed this incident. Joining them are social activists, who are conspicuously absent with their silence.

All these people would have lost no time in shouting from the rooftops had this been a terrorist, a Maoist, or a person from a minority community. To evoke a sound response from these persons, the death should have been caused by the empowered establishment, or a group belonging to the majority. The same logic holds good, when a wife is beaten by the husband for them to react, because they consider women to be "Abalas", whereas men are empowered.

One expects that "Death is the greatest leveler" but sadly this is not borne out in practice. If we resort to foul play in foul deaths, it would manifest with disastrous consequences in the future.

Jet Airways Strike Ends - Victory for Labour

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:35:55 EDT

The five-day old simulated strike by Jet Airways pilots came to an end with the agreement of the management to take back the pilots who had been dismissed for forming a union, the National Aviators Guild. In return, the pilots agreed for a review of the registration of the union by the Registrar of Trade Unions. A coordination committee may replace the union.

The agitation saw over 400 pilots call in sick, and had disrupted operations for the premier airline, cancelling hundreds of flights and impacting thousands of passengers, but the pilots claimed they were fighting for a greater cause, and refused to budge. In response, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal threatened to hire foreign pilots, termed the 'sick' pilots 'terrorists', while continuing to work behind the scenes to resolve the crisis.

The government stayed out of the affair for the most part, apart from making alternate flight arrangements and encouraging a speedy settlement. Rival airlines took advantage of the situation and hiked airfares until the government ordered them returned to normal levels.

The event demonstrated the force of collective action still had effect, and while the root cause may not have been onerous working conditions as with miners or industrial labor, it fit the definition of a trade union as a "continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment" (History of Trade Unionism, 1894).

As a union of the executive class, it had further significance, since these are typically rare. My father helped co-found a similar union in the steel industry in the 1970s, standing for ethics and honesty, although it later became a mouthpiece of the management, as they often do. The right to join or abstain from a trade union is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While unions serve to level the playing field between the management and individual employees, it can also work to the detriment of employees by driving up wages and reducing employment, as in the American model. It can also mean disruption of public services and reduce customer-orientation, as we have seen with the Jet Airways strike.

It remains to be seen how long flights will take to return to normal, and whether this will have a lasting impact on Jet Airways' image,

Another Interview

Zia Ahmad — Tue, 7 Jul 2009 08:31:19 EDT

Making eye contact with words ending with a Y does not make you chinky. Making eye contact with a prospective employer in this pure land of ours doesn’t do you any favors. At best, it only makes the tongue of your mind go flat for some brief period of time. You feel as if the earth beneath your feet starts spinning around while your employer to be (or not) gives you one unsettling stare. You decide to put up your cheeky exterior and vocally pride yourself in your ability to be forthrightly honest with your employers. The interviewer glances over the dozen less one listed previous employers listed on your resume’ and glances at you again with that reptilian glare. You remember not to keep any eye contact and start staring at his toupee. Brown color is healthy for fat bald people. The more the chocolate the brighter the future is. You remember you gobbled up your last Mars bars on your way to the grocery store earlier in the January day.

The prospective employer proceeds to say something but you lose interest after you hear a certain negative conjunction and tune your mental frequency to a different wavelength. Swinging Johns at the tail end of an uncompromising banana metropolitan don't miss their Whining Janes. They keep slugging their brew of bitter resignation and pass the cup around.

As you walk out into the blazing sun with a vague hard to place feeling of despondency, you reflect on the fearsome abandon of your response to get a life and a job that ultimately is met with head scratching brittle confusion by faceless employers. You look up at the windows of their office tucked above mile high plush buildings and try ever so hard to find any sort of semblance of a thought that might reside in cobwebbed minds of faceless, heartless HR personnel.

But that’s a perception only shared by a hapless lad at the foot of the mile high building who chews and chews bile and contempt away and spits it at the drudges of his imaginary white collared foes. He snarls at the fallacious samplings of the latest weather reports, curses himself for not displaying the requisite measure of despicability enough in the interview that would have certainly wrangled him the job. He stomps his way into another forgiving marmalade evening.

One Foul Job Ad

heartcrossings — Wed, 3 Jun 2009 10:05:56 EDT

I have been following a thread on Immigration Voice for the last couple of days. It concerns a company posting an ad on Dice saying that the client is open to H1-B applicants as long as they are not Indians. No sugar coating there - those were the exact words used on the posting. Needless to say, there was a huge outcry over it and before the end of the day, the poor cog in the wheel sod who had posted the ad at the behest of the end client had been fired by his employer. Dice had pulled the ad off their site even before that had happened. At the time of this writing, the "end client" who had actually asked for non-Indian applicants only had not been touched by any of this.

The fact that stands out most prominently, at least in my mind, is that the company that posted the job ad on Dice is Indian owned and the recruiter in question is desi as as well. This is both a telling sign of the times as well as an example of abysmal depths companies like Abstar will sink to make a few quick bucks. It is no secret that shops like Abstar are owned and staffed by people who bring absolutely no skills to the table except having the legal status to set up shop in America - i.e the owner is typically a permanent resident or a naturalized citizen. Beyond that they operate like they were in an Indian sabzi-mandi selling vegetables (IT contractors) to customers ("end clients" and "preferred vendors to end client") at the best price they can get. Their business practices have about the same level of sophistication and require no better qualifications than what it takes a sabzi-wallah to set up shop at a mandi.

You don't expect the illiterate guy hawking potatoes in an Indian bazaar to have the discernment to judge what is appropriate to post on a public job board. So it does not surprise me at all that the recruiter had no qualms posting such a blatantly racist ad, I am very pleasantly surprised to see the desi brethren rise up in arms against it. We tend to far too accommodating, willing to look the other way and pretend what is happening does not touch us directly or generally be fatalistic about the hand dealt to us by Fate. It is reassuring to see that the we are still capable of collective outrage when outrage is the only acceptable response.

Fiction: Maternity Leave

Vinod Joseph — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:07:56 EDT

Rajeev wanted to sit down for a while and get some rest, but Kiyan didn’t give him a chance. To be honest, Carla had been running after little Kiyan since morning and he had no right to complain.

‘Kiyan, don’t go there. You’ll fall into the water.’ Rajeev picked up Kiyan and carried him back to the top of the steps of the beautiful Santa Maria della Salute where Carla was sitting. The moment he put him down next to Carla, Kiyan started to slowly and carefully climb down the steps. Rajeev watched with wry amusement. Kiyan took a while to get to the bottom, after which he ran towards to the pier.

‘Don’t go near the water!’ Rajeev pointlessly admonished Kiyan as he ran after him. It was so easy for that boy to fall into the water, or if he didn’t jump in, that is. And there was no getting away from the water in Venice. It was everywhere.

‘Shall we head back?’ he shouted to Carla from below as he dragged Kiyan away from the water’s edge once more.

Carla looked at her watch and said, ‘No. We have plenty of time.’ The she added with a laugh, ‘don’t be so restless.’

She was right. It was only nine thirty. The vaporetto would take them from Salute to Rialto in less than fifteen minutes. The walk to their hotel on the Calle de la Fava was less than five minutes. Unless Kiyan insisted on walking rather than be carried, in which event, it would take them ten or fifteen minutes. The return trip from their hotel to Rialto would be painful with their big suitcases since there was a small bridge to cross and carrying the big suitcase up those steps would take time. The vaporetto ride from the Rialto to Ferrovia was only another ten minutes and the Santa Lucia train station was right across the Ferrovia pier. Their train to Rome was at quarter past twelve. He couldn’t help being restless. He was always restless. Not that his restlessness was a bad thing. He wouldn’t have set up Chipmunks and made such a success of it if he was the type to sit on a fat arse and watch the world go by.

Rajeev relaxed his grip on Kiyan’s shoulders a bit. Instantly Kiyan tried to break free. Rajeev reluctantly carried him back to the bottom of the steps saying, ‘When Kiyan grows up, Kiyan will learn to swim and then Daddy will let Kiyan play close to the water.’

‘Why don’t you go inside and take a look?’ Rajeev encouraged Carla. Ultimately she would want to see the inside of the church, even though they had seen half a dozen churches in the three days they had been in Venice. Might as well get over the viewing so that they could go back to the hotel, Rajeev thought. Carla got up to go inside.

‘Kiyan, do you want to go inside the church with Mummy?’

‘No, he doesn’t. He hates the indoors, even that of a beautiful church,’ Carla brushed aside a few strands of hair from her freckled face as she spoke. It was very warm and Carla had her sweater off and tied around her waist, which made her look plumper than she actually was.

Rajeev did not press the argument. Carla was right, though it wouldn’t have hurt Kiyan to see the inside of a church.

At that moment, Rajeev’s mobile rang. Or rather it vibrated inside his pocket. As he fished it out, he yelled, ‘Carla, hold on. I need to take this call. It’s the office. Kiyan, here, go to Mummy, Daddy needs to talk to someone’

Carla’s face puffed up in annoyance, but Rajeev ignored it. If he worked for the bloody NHS, he too would keep his mobile switched off while he was on holiday.

As he suspected, it was the office.

‘Hello!’ He bellowed into his phone as Carla came down the steps and took hold of Kiyan.

It turned out to be Linda. ‘Raj, I’m sorry to trouble you when you are on holiday. Do you have a couple of minutes?’’

Yes, of course. He definitely had a couple of minutes. He owned the business, didn’t he?’

‘Today morning Jessie interviewed all three candidates Charlie had short-listed. She says she is fine with them all.’

‘Good. Let Charlie take the call. He’s going to be the direct supervisor, isn’t he? Have you asked him whom he wants to hire?’

‘Yes, I did.’ Linda paused for a second.

‘That’s brilliant! Good.’ Rajeev never hesitated in lavishing praise, which didn’t cost him a penny.

‘And what did Charlie have to say?’ Rajeev prompted Linda who was actually the office administrator. She doubled as the HR manager when situations like this one arose. Which wasn’t very often. With a staff of less than twenty, it didn’t really make sense to have a HR manager in addition to the administrator.

Charlie said he likes Toni the most. That’s Toni with an ‘i' and not a ‘y.’

‘Hmmm. If he has made up his mind, then I have nothing further to add.’

‘Raj, I think you should interview those three candidates before we make an offer. You are the best judge of people I’ve ever known.’

Linda, the born flatterer! However, he was definitely a better judge of people than either Jessie or Charlie. Jessie was strictly a hard-nosed accountant with an unbelievable inability to look beyond numbers, whilst Charlie was a statistician who was determined to miss the woods for the trees.

‘No, no. There’s no need for me to interview anyone. I don’t want to poke my finger in every pie. Charlie is perfectly capable of deciding on his own. In any event, I’m not back for another 4 days.

‘Hmmm. Aaaaah. Well….’

‘Have I missed something?’

‘Well….’

‘Go on, I’m all ears.’ `Since Linda could not see his face, Rajeev did not have to smile.

Linda seemed to sense that Rajeev was getting impatient and her tone became crisper. ‘This is actually none of my business, but ….’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’d still like to know what you have to say.’ If it was none of her business, Linda ought to shut up. At times like this, Rajeev did think he had taken employee empowerment too far. In addition to giving all employees stock options, Rajeev had decentralised decision making to a remarkable extent. Everyone was encouraged to speak his or her mind. All of which helped in keeping employee turnover low though the pay at Chipmunks wasn’t anything great.

‘I met Toni briefly when she came for her first interview. She’s very pleasant and she comes across as a very energetic person with a positive outlook. In fact I liked her a lot.’

‘So what’s the problem?’ Rajeev was getting irritated with Linda. He looked around and realised that Carla and Kiyan were not to be seen. Carla must have gone inside the church with Kiyan in tow. Which wasn’t a bad thing, Rajeev thought as he smiled to himself.

‘Toni said she hasn’t ever been on sick leave exceeding a day at a time. And she has been working for almost six years from the time she graduated.’

‘That’s good for us, isn’t it? Too many people take sickies these days.’

‘Toni hasn’t even taken any long leave.’

‘What long leave?’

‘Like maternity leave.’

‘That’s good as well, isn’t it? Oh….. I didn’t realise…’

‘She has been married for 2 years now. She’s almost thirty. She’s bound to start thinking of … you know.’

‘Ha! I see! So, she’s married?’

‘Yes she is. Her husband is a journalist. He works for …’

‘Did you discuss this with Jessie or Charlie?’

‘With Jessie yes. The moment she said she liked all three, I asked her and ..’

‘What did she say?’ Rajeev needlessly prompted Linda.

‘She agrees with me. It’s just a matter of time before Toni goes on ML.’

‘Why is she leaving her current job? From what I know, you aren’t eligible for Maternity Leave until you complete a year at your job.’

‘She was made redundant two months ago. She used to work for Jeremys. They’ve been having huge layoffs at Jeremys you know…’

‘Yes I know Linda.’ Jeremys was the biggest player in market research and Rajeev knew as much about Jeremys as he knew about his own business. ‘I didn’t know Toni was from Jeremys.’

‘Yes she is and ……………..’

‘Why don’t you ask Jessie to have a word with Charlie?’

‘Jessie wants to, but she wanted me to check with you first.’ So it was Jessie’s idea after all. Trust Linda to make it sound as if it was hers. Jessie would know if a woman was planning to get pregnant, wouldn’t she? She had two teenagers, one doing his A levels and the other tackling her GCSE.

‘And please ask Jessie to call me this evening after she’s had a word with Charlie.’ Charlie would have to be handled with caution Rajeev thought as he walked up the steps to the church to join Carla and Kiyan. Though it was almost two years since he persuaded Charlie to leave his job with one of the largest market research firms and join Chipmunks, Charlie had yet to come to terms with the fact that he was now with a very small outfit. One that could not afford to have an employee on Maternity Leave for a year.

Carla and Rajeev had one of their routine arguments on the train to Rome, which was almost empty.

‘You needn’t have booked a ticket for Kiyan,’ Rajeev mildly suggested.

‘What if the train was full and we had to have him on our laps for the entire five hours?’

‘On a weekday? Come on Carla! You know better than that!’

‘It’s only fifty Euros.’

‘It’s not a question of money.’

‘Next time we travel, you should do the bookings.’

‘When I was here last year, it was exactly the same. Charlie was with me and we had a whole coach to ourselves.’

‘I’m sure you had fun,’ Carla remarked sarcastically.

‘With Charlie? Yeah, from the time we got on the train at Milan till we got to Rome, he talked non-stop about work. Such riveting stuff it was.’

‘You could have come here with Charlie once again. You both could have kept your mobiles on Loud and discussed work non-stop.’

‘Honey, I didn’t mean to…………….’ They kissed and made up. Things would have become even better if Kiyan who was skipping up and down the aisles till then hadn’t stopped and come over to sit between them.

‘Let’s take a taxi to the hotel,’ Rajeev said when they reached Rome.

‘No, let’s take the Metro to Cornelia. We can take a taxi from there.’

‘Why didn’t you book a hotel close to a metro station?’ Rajeev asked mildly before adding, ‘it doesn’t matter. You know Rome better than I do.’

‘No, I think you know it better. You come here so often on business. My last visit was four years ago!’

‘But you spent three months here during your gap year!’ Rajeev said as he picked up a struggling Kiyan. ‘Kiyan, I’ll have to carry you buddy. If you are to walk, we’ll never get to the Metro platform.’

Carla inhaled heavily and said, ‘I hope it hasn’t changed. Each time I come back here, I am scared that it has changed and each time it has been the same.’

‘You had fun here, didn’t you?’

‘Yes I did,’ Carla said with a sparkle in her eyes that hinted at a world into which Rajeev would never have access.

‘Kiyan, do you like Roma?’ Rajeev asked Kiyan who resolutely ignored the question and continued to fiddle with the buttons on his shirt.

As they stood on an escalator that took them underground to the Metro, Rajeev asked Carla, ‘is it Line A or B?’

‘Line A, towards Battistini. It’s the stop just before Battistini.’

Rajeev’s mobile shuddered once and was still. ‘Damn,’ Rajeev said as he took his mobile out of his pocket and looked at it. ‘Out of range.’

‘Do you want to go back and return the call?’ Carla asked with extra sweetness.

‘No, of course not. Whoever it is can wait.’

‘Was it the office?’ Carla wanted to know.

‘Yes, it was,’ Rajeev conceded with a wry smile. ‘Must be Jessie. There is something slightly important going on. Otherwise I wouldn’t be so concerned.’ Might as well explain to Carla, Rajeev thought. Otherwise, there was a very good chance of Carla sulking and ruining their holiday.

‘What’s going on? An unhappy client?’

‘I’ll explain once we are inside the Metro,’ Rajeev said as they walked towards the platform wading through a bunch of office-goers returning home. The Metro was crowded and they had to push themselves in. A young girl got up and offered her seat to Rajeev seeing that he had Kiyan in his arms. Rajeev smiled his thanks and nodded towards Carla who took Kiyan from him and sat down on the proffered seat. Rajeev pushed himself to where Carla had been standing and placed his arm with an air of proprietorship on the large suitcase that Carla had been dragging behind her. It was only at Baldo degli Ubaldi that Rajeev got a place to sit, a good three seats away from Carla and Kiyan. Within a few minutes, they were at Cornelia and they got off the Metro.

They found a taxi and the taxi driver agreed that he would only charge them by the meter for the trip to their hotel at the Aurelia Antica. However, within a minute of the taxi moving off, he shook his head and said ‘Signore, this place. Very far. Fifteen Euros.’

Rajeev looked at Carla who shrugged her shoulders. `Si, Si’ Rajeev told the driver who gave Rajeev an approving nod and stepped on the accelerator.

Carla turned to him and asked, ‘tell me, what’s going on in the office?’

‘It’s a bit complicated. I would like to know what you think as well. Why don’t I tell you what it is over dinner?’

‘So that you can call back your office now?’ Carla did not seem to be angry, only resigned.

‘Well, once Jessie leaves office it is tough to talk to her. She has two kids you know.’

Carla was silent and Rajeev took it as consent. He quickly dialled Jessie on her mobile.

‘Jessie? Some one called me from office. I thought it might be you.’

‘Yes, it was me,’ Jessie said. ‘I had a word with Charlie.’

‘And?’

‘He was under the impression that if we hire Toni and Toni goes on ML, we will hire a temp to provide maternity cover!’

‘I hope you disabused him of that fantastic notion. Did you remind him that if we were to spend 20K on maternity cover, his bonus would take a hit?’

‘I did actually. It took me a while, but he finally saw sense.’

‘Thank God. I am sure that of the three he short-listed, at least one is unlikely to go on Maternity Leave in the near future.’

‘The other two are men.’

‘Did he tell you which of the two he likes?’

‘Yes, he did. It’s …’

‘Please ask him to email the name to Linda copying us both. His email should explain that his chosen candidate is better than Toni and the other chap for X, Y, Z reasons. And please ask Linda to prepare the offer letter.’

Jessie was silent for a few seconds. Then she said, ‘Charlie actually wanted to know why we didn’t weed Toni out at the initial stages! Can you believe that?’

‘Charlie is really wet behind the ears. If the Equal Opportunities Commission gets to know that we don’t interview married women likely to take ML, we’ll be in shit. I guess Charlie has never heard of the Equal Opportunities Commission.’

‘He can’t see beyond his data and various ways of analysing it!’

‘It’s not that I have anything against hiring women or giving them maternity benefits, it’s just that Chipmunks is just a start-up and we can’t afford to have employees go on ML.’

‘I know Raj! I know! For God’s sake, I am a woman.’

‘Once we are bigger, and I know that we are destined to become bigger and bigger, once we cross critical mass, we will stop doing things like this. We’ll be as generous with benefits as any of the big players.’

‘Raj, you don’t have to feel so guilty. Even the big players do their best to avoid hiring women who are likely to go on ML. I remember after I announced that I was planning to take Maternity Leave for the second time, and at that time I used to work for _______________, my boss made my life so miserable. He would have fired me if he could have done it. And after I came back from ML, he kept giving me such crappy work, I was forced to quit and go to ______________.’

‘Chipmunks will be different, once it is bigger,‘ Raj declared fervently. ‘Listen Jessie, thanks for this. You take care. Okay?’

‘Bye Raj. You have fun. Give Kiyan a hug from me. And please say Hello to Carla’

Rajeev quickly dumped the mobile into his pocket and looked at Carla’s face to see if she was annoyed with him. Carla was staring out of the window with a blank face.

‘We ought to do a Super Duper dinner today. When in Roma, eat like a Roman.’

‘They don’t have vomitoriams these days.’

‘Carla!’

‘I was just joking. The restaurants here are so much better than in London.’

‘Where should we go? You are the Rome expert.’

‘Do you remember the restaurant we went to at Ottaviano? Shall we go there?’

There was no time to say more since the taxi slowed down and they realised that they had arrived at their hotel.

As the taxi driver helped Rajeev take the suitcase out of the boot, he said with a smile, ‘three Euros for luggage.’

Rajeev looked at Carla who was busy preventing Kiyan from running away. Not a single hotel employee could be seen outside the hotel who might have helped Rajeev. With a smile and a shrug, Rajeev said, ‘okay. Si.’

They had a good room with a view of the hotel’s swimming pool. As they changed out of their travel stained clothes, Rajeev told Carla, ‘we were on the verge of making a job offer to someone. That’s for Charlie’s team. Then we decided not to.’

‘Why?’

Because she’s around thirty, has been married for two years and is likely to start thinking of a family.’

‘You don’t want to hire someone who might go on maternity leave within a year of being hired?’

‘Yes,’ Rajeev said simply and waited for Carla to explode. She didn’t. Instead she smiled and said, ‘I’m so glad I work for the NHS. If I were in the private sector, we might not have had Kiyan.’

‘That’s ridiculous. Even if you had to quit your job, we would have managed on my income!’

‘I don’t have the energy to go to Ottaviano for dinner? Can’t we find something close by?’ Rajeev was relieved at the change of topic. Carla did look tired.

They ended up going to a restaurant that was just outside the hotel. As they ordered starters and their main course, Rajeev said, ‘I’m famished. I will go for a secondi after this.’

‘Raj, don’t get carried away. You need to lose weight.’ Which was a bit rich coming from Carla, Rajeev thought. She was still good looking, though. Rajeev looked at Carla for a second time for reassurance. Yes, she wasn’t bad looking.

The waiter brought them the Frascati wine Rajeev had chosen along with a plate of Panini. He opened the bottle and poured a little wine into Rajeev’s glass. Rajeev drank it slowly with a serious look on his face and nodded at the waiter who quickly filled his glass and then Carla’s.

‘What happens if you say you don’t like the wine you ordered?’ Carla asked and laughed.

‘We need to keep up appearances honey. What’s life without a bit of charade? Do you like it?’

Carla sipped her wine and said ‘it’s good, though I would have preferred a Chianti any day.’

‘Come on now! We can’t order a Tuscan wine in Rome! When we go to Florence, you can have a Chianti! Frascati is supposed to be the best among Latium wines.’

‘Fine! Let’s keep up the charade. This wine is amazing. Splendid! Are you happy now?’ Carla laughed at her own joke.

Rajeev looked around and said, ‘look at these Italians. They spend two or three hours over dinner almost every day. An entire bottle of wine, starters, two main courses and a dessert. How do they manage to look so fit?’

‘I don’t think they eat much breakfast or lunch. They exercise a lot and they eat their dinner slowly. A siesta in the afternoon, a slow dinner over two or three hours.’

‘You are not angry with me, are you darling?’ Raj asked. ‘About what I told you?’

‘No honey. Of course not. I understand perfectly well. You can’t afford to have people on maternity! Not when Chipmunks is just taking off!’

They drank the wine in silence. Out of the blue, Carla asked, ‘do you think we’ll have another child?’

Rajeev looked at Kiyan who was strapped into a child seat and was busy playing with the plastic baby cutlery placed in front of him.

‘We should, shouldn’t we? I’m sure the NHS will survive even if you go on maternity leave once more.’

‘Kiyan, would you like to have a brother or sister to play with?’ Carla asked Kiyan who carefully considered the question and went back to playing with his red plastic spoon and fork.

Before Carla could repeat her question, the waiter re-appeared with their starters.

Top Reasons to Fire Your Employees in the IT Slowdown

Abhinav Sahai — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:07:21 EDT

Are you the owner of an IT firm who does not have enough projects and are thinking of laying-off your employees, but can’t figure out the reasons to show them the door ! Read on to find out the top reasons which you can use to fire them.

Reason 1. You send too many mails. Reportedly India’s top firms are firing employees who send too many mails and believe it or not they say it’s “disciplinary action”.

Reason 2. You tapped that cigarette smoke on the floor. How dare you do that? Even though you are in the smoking zone, you cannot drop the ash on the floor. Any guys listening? beware.

Reason 3. You did not take the BUS-PASS. You cannot afford to do that my dear employee. Yes that's true as well. A top-notch IT company reportedly fired its employee because he did not take the bus pass and was traveling in the company bus. Man, what a BIG mistake was that. I am glad I did that just for 10 days and wasn't caught. Phew! a narrow escape I guess.

Reason 4. Ask them to join the BPO. If there’s anyone who rates the sector which created hundreds of thousands of jobs in India then it’s an IT professional. So what better way to say bye-bye to them than asking them to join the BPO. Its like you don’t ask them to quit but still they will do it and your purpose will be solved.

Reason 5. Organize unnecessary tests. After so many years of studying and clearing those exams, one imagines that once we get into job we imagine and expect that we won’t have to face them again. But thanks to recession companies have started organizing tests and asking people especially on bench to take them and what’s worse is that if you don’t clear them, you will be FIRED.

Reason 6. If somehow you escaped from the above conditions even then you are not safe because this reason is something which will definitely fire you. IF YOU ARE FOUND STRETCHING YOURSELF (STRETCHING HANDS TO EASY OUT, READ AS “ANGDAYI “ IN HINDI) IN THE TEST, YOU WILL BE FIRED. This is something India’s top IT firm has implemented in its training center recently.

It appears as if companies are just looking for reasons to fire people, however impracticable they might seem, companies are least bothered. All they want is to see the staff off because they can’t bear them anymore.

Recently I met an employee in one of those firms and I’ll end with what he had to say,

“They are just looking for reasons, even if you shit in a wrong manner, you will be shown the door.”

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and its Implications

Roy George — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:12:21 EDT

Social psychologists will attest to the fact that large scale interventions often fail to produce the desired results while small interventions can cause dramatic changes. The analogy they often refer to is that of a butterfly fluttering its wings causing changes in the weather system thousands of miles away. Social systems are so precariously balanced that when a system is at the cusp of change all it requires is a small push in the right direction.

It is in this context that India’s poverty alleviation programs have to be viewed. Even after making allowances for the iron clad social barriers, the most well planned programs and catchy slogans like “Garibi Hatao” have failed to create any impact in the lives of millions of poor in India. Instead of helping the target population subsidy schemes for the poor have had unintended consequences. Subsidized kerosene is diverted widely by unscrupulous elements to adulterate gasoline and diesel. A scheme thus designed to help the poor and needy, ends up creating an illegal industry that pollutes and damages millions of vehicles. Leakages and an inefficient bureaucracy have ensured that hardly a dent has been made in the fight against poverty. The statistics continue to be alarming. A third of the world’s poor reside in India. Even by the most conservative estimates roughly 30% of Indians still live below the poverty line.

The ruling UPA government, or whatever is left of it, is seeking a fresh mandate from the people touting the Indo-US nuclear deal and the sustained economic growth in the face of a global recession as its major achievements. Yet the lasting legacy of the Manmohan Singh government may lie tucked away in a legislation passed in 2005. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ensures 100 days of guaranteed employment for the rural poor. Skeptics will argue that this scheme will also end up like other initiatives. Significant leakage, as the money filters through layers of the corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy is inevitable. Yet for two reasons, NREGS appears to have the legs to go far. The social churnings in India over the last two decades have culminated to a point were the society is on the cusp of a major change. Second, the benefits of the scheme go beyond the intended goal of providing rural employment. The cascading effect of NREGS has the potential to influence all walks of the Indian society.

All these years a crop failure was a debt trap for the poor farmer. With no back ups, the downward spiral of a crop failure has devastated millions of rural households. Guaranteed employment should provide the rural poor a basic insurance against crop failures and a base level of financial independence.

The scheme has the potential to do what other programs like midday meals and provision of free primary education has not done for the rural child. With assured work for parents, the pressure on children to skip school and find work will be reduced substantially. India is a demographically young nation and the potential that can be realized from educating the poor rural child is enormous.

The money that will be pumped into rural economies has the potential of reinvigorating the Indian economy from the bottom up and realizing the sociologists' dream of inclusive growth. The seeds for thousands of small businesses taking root in India's heartland are already being sown.

Perhaps the most important benefit will be the incentive that it provides for India's rural poor to stay put in their villages and take care of their respective lands. Poverty is forcing millions of Indians to leave their villages and head to overcrowded cities. Not only does it tax the infrastructures in cities but it leads to neglect of the country's cultivable land. Food security in the future will depend on how well India looks after its farmers.

NREGS in its present form is imperfect and needs to be dovetailed into other development programs like the Bharat Nirman Yojana. Failure to do so will dilute the scheme, create redundancies and squander valuable resources. The scheme should be tied up to training and imparting job skills and not used as a mere vehicle for providing jobs to the unskilled. India cannot progress without involving its most neglected in water management, building schools and hospitals and other infrastructure development programs.

According to government sources, 30 million households have already benefited from NREGS. Even after discounting the figures as grossly exaggerated, it is still gratifying to know that millions more of our fellow beings are not going to bed on an empty stomach.

Photo Essay: These Window Washers Are Nuts

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:31:01 EDT

I came out of the Canary Wharf Tube station, at the usually indecent time of 6:45 AM.

For some reason, looked up to notice what looked like a toothpick poking out on top of the building.

I tried to zoom in but was perhaps asking for too much from my dinky little phone camera. And then it became clear, its a window washer unit which has swung out from its normal resting place. Presumably one is being used to wash and clean the windows. This totally freaked me out.

Can you imagine being so high up on the air and cleaning the windows? Gives you the heeby jeebies.

There’s another one in the distance, I am sure it would be very difficult to clean these sky scrapers, but strangely enough, the windows are pretty clean, not dust streaked or anything. Mind you, given that London is generally drenched with rain most of the time and the weather outside is cloudy and grey, not much chance of watching the windows, is there?

here’s another building, I wondered how one would clean the corners, must be tough to navigate the rounded corners, no?

In the far building on the right, the still under construction KPMG building, one can see another window washer unit arm.

There is the main canary wharf tower. Its window washer unit was also poking out, but I suppose its hidden behind the twigs.

Here is another shot, but it got blurred, but still, if you have lots of faith, you can just about make out a blurred image of the window washer unit right at the top right of the picture.

Here’s the HSBC building. I work at one of the top floors.

And here’s the chaps actually cleaning the damn windows, 39 floors up. Scary or what? Can you see the chap just outside the window? with his left arm raised? The chaps just look so blasé about it all.

So what can you do? A half baked idea here. I quote:

This concept could only be applied to glass-faced buildings. Arrange a delivery system for copious amounts of water to be run down the glass panels of the structure on a regular basis (or more/less often, depending on the relative dustiness of the environment). This would wash grime and dust that has accumulated on the windows since the last purge. When the water reaches bottom, it would be collected in attractive water features, ready to be pumped to the top of the building when needed next.

Obvious practical jokes to be played on buildings fitted with this system would revolve around putting detergent into the water supply (thus guaranteeing a hilarious display of bubbles around the base of the skyscraper).

While there has been a film about the window cleaners, I am not sure how much fun it would be up there, with the howling wind, risk of accident and dangers inherent in this role. I suspect we will keep on needing these brave men and their squeegees to keep our windows clean.

Slideshow

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