Of new years and meetings

The last week of December is fast turning out to be the 9th / 11th standard syllabus across all types of schools in India. Just like how they skip/fast track those two years and focus on Xth and XII th standard related portions, it is assumed as universal off period for any IT company worker. No major activity happen in this window, but for poor production support folks, who are part of the “skeletal” crew needed as insurance cover, if in case some system decides to “take off” in this period. Imagine the plight of those newbies who are mostly assigned this graveyard equivalent of a shift, where in experienced folks would be out having their break period, where in people new to the setup would be posted to man the systems when there are relatively less number of users. Depending on their birth horoscope, they may or may not have any major issue to deal with. God forbid if something does break down, they would be literally on their own, for neither their onsite counterpart, nor their local ones would be available on immediate basis. Even if they manage to reach out to their local ones, they would be advised to figure some workaround to ensure nothing burns down and hold fort till the cavalry is back on full strength a week later. Most of the green horns, never actually bother in case of major fireworks that happen in this window, for they would neither understand the gravity of it, nor the maturity of owning up. For that matter, neither are the clients who are not majorly bothered for they are aware of the lean period as well. 

For the rest of the IT world, outside of the prod support teams, all the major meetings get shifted to the first week of January. Wonder how many would’ve shifted right on their calendar during the December of 2012, when the world didn’t keep up with its predicted doomsday!! Nevertheless, Outlook calendars of January first week, across the board of employees, usually wear a blue colour, where in most of the available slots are blocked for meetings that should’ve happened a week or two early. Imagine the hubris of people, where they are not even aware of what is going to happen the next minute, planning for a meeting in the next year, leave alone next week, could be a philosophical take on all these activities. It is as if the daily sheet calendar companies can cut cost of printing those sheets for the last week for nothing happens. Christmas is not just for Christians and is already declared as a worldwide free period in school parlance. Whether you want it or not, celebrate or not, the window is already marked as holiday period. But sadly, January happens to be the major holiday season in India at least, with Pongal, republic day taking almost a week of working days out of it, depending on the day of the week they happen to fall. Poor folks, who want to celebrate will be under pressure for now the clients will be in full attendance expecting credible support. The way in which things are moving, soon we may’ve universal holiday calendars, having same vacation windows, same festivities and same duration of availability world-wide. How much ever one educate and get educated on the cultural aspects of this, there is no denying fact that one simply cannot have mutually exclusive “off-days” running into several weeks together.

With mental wellness and self-care being the buzz words nowadays, wonder when the focus will shift into this topic.