What's your fascinating story?

Fascinating story # 3 Ram Balaji

 

 

 

Ram works as a PR executive in a leading Newspaper company in New Delhi, India. He likes to write for print / web medium and has been trying his luck to become published. So, when he approached me, I gave him the chance to be published and without further ado, here's his story ...

 

 

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ANEETA

 

Hello Ram. Thank you for participating in this. I have read your stories and can feel your need to become, in your words, "MR. SUCCESS". Perhaps, with a little more motivation and effort, you may just reach that goal sooner than you think!

 

You have sent to me two stories, one on the concept of determination and the other on compassion. So let me not take up too much time and space and let us proceed ... 

 

RAM

 

Let me begin with the story on determination.

 

ANEETA

 

Yes, by all means proceed.

 

RAM

 

I was sitting pretty comfortable even though I was very close to take up my final exam. I never studied or prepared for exams in advance. I was waiting for the last moment to tick in. I used to take up exams as they come. In spite of the fact that my goal was to secure a graduation, I never gave enough attention to my goal. Getting a degree was my dream. Many of my friends were studying full-time and attending special classes while I devoted only a couple of hours / day. However, my confidence level was high and I only turned to my friends to check what I had been studying is in order and I always wanted to pick up new points. I used to meet friends in the street and at home discussing various patterns of exams. I always felt that it was important to score marks, not just get a pass. To score high marks meant that I step up the study hour a bit more. I used to make my own schedule for study and revision. More often than not did I end up finishing my studies a day before the date of exam.

The advantage of having to keep a note with me during my class sessions boosted my confidence and I made a quick and select revision of what I know well and possibly my selection proved an edge to my success. I did not miss out on classes as I always felt that attending to class-sessions was vital to my success and I went to the exam with an open mind and to my surprise, the questions appeared on the question paper were all I focused. It was an exciting moment and in fact, upon seeing the question paper itself, my mind was rolling up and down with full of points and I thought I could finish the paper as quickly as I could so that I go home and prepare for the next day s schedule. Each time I received the question paper, I browsed thru for the easiest and worked on it quickly. The result was an overall 70% which was a bit disappointing even though I thought I could make over 85%.

Nevertheless, a very happy moment for me and my family.
 

ANEETA

 

Congratulations! Now onto the topic of compassion.

 

RAM

 

The single most pitiable characteristic of any PR person in an organization is compassion. PR person is a mirror to see and reflect the superior and the management with which he or she works for. On many occasions, he cements the bridge between two sides. What is actually happening in many organizations is that he spends most of his time arbitrating and
counselling the sides.

In my job as a PR person, I often find myself an arbitrator. The most common problem I face with my own superior is on communication. As we all know, communication requires two-way approach in order to be effective. At times, it was surprising to see my own superior spending substantial amounts of time holding and attending meetings and keeping appointments and not finding himself accountable for non-communication of an important information to me.

 

I agree to an extent that it goes out of mind while he gets into the office routines. But it is painful to see the damage it causes to certain important activities reversing an appointment and lack of clarity in taking some quick decision, all these require an effective communication system in place. In fact, in the organization I am working, access to information is limited.

 

ANEETA

 

Oh, yes. I have many times been the victim of information not being communicated properly. Don't you think, that in this time of the internet, this should not even be happening?

 

RAM

 

I agree. A lack of communication is something surprising to experience when Internet is conquering the IT sector. PR person is at the bottom line of the organization. The onus, therefore, is on shoulders of any superior or the management to bring in place a more transparent system so that concerns of the bottom-line people can be addressed.

When my appraisal was due last year, my superior unfortunately left the organization which not only cost me a full-appraisal but created a financial imbalance.

 

Interestingly, the next superior who came in wanted to be a risk-free man. While it is apparent that this man could do a SWOT analysis, a gap exists somewhere in the organizational hierarchy to go all out to help solve this problem.

 

Like me, I am sure, many of my writer-friends could be facing similar workplace problems.

 

ANEETA

 

So, what happened?

 

RAM
 

'That particular year' saw no change in my bank balance nor did the gap vanish.  The next superior, however, promised me that my appraisal would be given due weightage in the next year.  Had there been an 'Open House' at that point of time, I would have communicated this gap to the employees across the organisation with a CEO or a rank equivalent (I presume, Open House is generally addressed by a CEO or a top official) by raising this issue.  Since this organisation does not have one, resolution could not happen. 

 

 

Incidentally, a system that one of my previous employers followed to deal with such occurrences was an open house session. This session used to be held once in a month. The objective of this open house was to communicate to the employees across the organization as to what has happened during that particular month and what are the plans of the company for the next month. This session used to pick up randomly a few problems of some employees and in fact, a commitment is made in the house itself that all issues and problems will be given due consideration and sincere efforts will be made to resolve them. The open house used to be addressed by our CEO. I am sure, most organizations must be keeping one. This session, to my mind, is a kick-starter for anyone who has clarifications and doubts regarding the functions of the organization because after all, this company was to launch its product at the earliest and the employee communication at that juncture was considered to be an important activity. We also had a fantastic lotus mail system thru which information such as new appointments, new policies etc are communicated to the employees. In the absence of an effective communication system, the concerns of the employees will remain unresolved and this will impact the company in the long-run.

 

ANEETA

 

Ram, you mention this 'open house'. Now I must tell you something interesting. In Malaysia, as most people know, there is a multi-racial society. Although the majority of the people are Malays who practise Islam, freedom of religion is practiced and it has become quite common to have visit the other races in their homes during celebrations like Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Christmas. This visiting of your neighbours during their festival is called 'Open House'!!

 

RAM

 

ANEETA

 

Yes, same word, different culture, different meaning! Thank you very much, Ram.

 

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