I arrived in the office this morning at 9:30 am, and it was completely empty. Even at 10:15, people are just beginning to arrive. I've never considered myself an early riser, but maybe comparatively I am in this country!
Since I still haven't heard anything about staffing, I have a couple minutes to share some more thoughts on the office culture here. First - office supplies. Yesterday we were asked if we needed any office supplies. Given that I always am misplacing pens, I said yes I could use some, and we were told to follow a man who would show us where to get what we needed. This man turned out to be an office manager of sorts, and one of his responsibilities is that he holds the key to the office supply cabinet. That's right - they lock up their pens and post-it notes. What's more - once I had taken a notebook and 2 pens, I was given a ledger in which I had to note exactly what I had taken and provide a signature. Really? Does it seem ridiculous to anyone else that I would have to sign out a lowly Bic every time I need one? I will have to be more careful about not misplacing my pens in this country, I think...
Another odd experience yesterday was our interaction with the in-office Vodafone representative, who signed us up for our Indian SIM cards. It was incredible how many hoops we have to jump through just to get a SIM card. We need an original passport photo, copies of our passports and visas. They also requested identification numbers from local identification cards, which we obviously don't have (thankfully they let that one slide). They also wanted our home address and work address - which by itself isn't abnormal - but apparently they are going to send someone to our home to verify that we actually live there. I'm wondering how this company makes any money if they are sending representatives all over the country to each address to verify that the cell phone owner actually lives there. They also needed not one, but TWO existing local phone numbers. This proved to be a sticking point, since we don't have any local phone numbers (which is why we're trying to get these new cell phone numbers!). We ended up giving the office numbers of two of our colleagues, since we don't have office phones either. I suppose this process would make more sense if we were financially responsible for paying the bill, but it's being billed to a corporate account! Their explanation was that these are measures that were instituted after some terrorist attacks that used bombs activated by disposable cell phones. I guess this process definitely makes every cell phone and cell phone number more traceable, but I'm wondering if that actually is preventing further terrorism.
Another interesting piece of information that we received yesterday was on office titles. My firm has some standard titles that we use globally - in the US I was a Senior Consultant, which indicates I have about 6-8 years of experience. In India, however, they have renamed all of the titles below Manager, and all of the new names have the word "Manager" in the title. For example, an Analyst in the US is an Assistant Manager in India. A Consultant is an Associate Manager. A Senior Consultant is either a Deputy Manager or a Senior Deputy Manager. There must be some prestige associated with having the word Manager in your title - or maybe it's the opposite and if you don't have manager in your title, it means that you aren't an office worker. Interesting, right?
On a separate note - chai here is delicious. I never loved chai in the US, but I have a feeling I'm going to be drinking a lot of it here. They have it everywhere - and there are even people whose sole job in the office is to bring chai to people in meetings. It reminds me of Slumdog Millionaire.
Apparently my "staffing manager" is going to arrive in the office soon, so I have to get on my guard to go meet with him. Wish me luck for a good project!
Since I still haven't heard anything about staffing, I have a couple minutes to share some more thoughts on the office culture here. First - office supplies. Yesterday we were asked if we needed any office supplies. Given that I always am misplacing pens, I said yes I could use some, and we were told to follow a man who would show us where to get what we needed. This man turned out to be an office manager of sorts, and one of his responsibilities is that he holds the key to the office supply cabinet. That's right - they lock up their pens and post-it notes. What's more - once I had taken a notebook and 2 pens, I was given a ledger in which I had to note exactly what I had taken and provide a signature. Really? Does it seem ridiculous to anyone else that I would have to sign out a lowly Bic every time I need one? I will have to be more careful about not misplacing my pens in this country, I think...
Another odd experience yesterday was our interaction with the in-office Vodafone representative, who signed us up for our Indian SIM cards. It was incredible how many hoops we have to jump through just to get a SIM card. We need an original passport photo, copies of our passports and visas. They also requested identification numbers from local identification cards, which we obviously don't have (thankfully they let that one slide). They also wanted our home address and work address - which by itself isn't abnormal - but apparently they are going to send someone to our home to verify that we actually live there. I'm wondering how this company makes any money if they are sending representatives all over the country to each address to verify that the cell phone owner actually lives there. They also needed not one, but TWO existing local phone numbers. This proved to be a sticking point, since we don't have any local phone numbers (which is why we're trying to get these new cell phone numbers!). We ended up giving the office numbers of two of our colleagues, since we don't have office phones either. I suppose this process would make more sense if we were financially responsible for paying the bill, but it's being billed to a corporate account! Their explanation was that these are measures that were instituted after some terrorist attacks that used bombs activated by disposable cell phones. I guess this process definitely makes every cell phone and cell phone number more traceable, but I'm wondering if that actually is preventing further terrorism.
Another interesting piece of information that we received yesterday was on office titles. My firm has some standard titles that we use globally - in the US I was a Senior Consultant, which indicates I have about 6-8 years of experience. In India, however, they have renamed all of the titles below Manager, and all of the new names have the word "Manager" in the title. For example, an Analyst in the US is an Assistant Manager in India. A Consultant is an Associate Manager. A Senior Consultant is either a Deputy Manager or a Senior Deputy Manager. There must be some prestige associated with having the word Manager in your title - or maybe it's the opposite and if you don't have manager in your title, it means that you aren't an office worker. Interesting, right?
On a separate note - chai here is delicious. I never loved chai in the US, but I have a feeling I'm going to be drinking a lot of it here. They have it everywhere - and there are even people whose sole job in the office is to bring chai to people in meetings. It reminds me of Slumdog Millionaire.
Apparently my "staffing manager" is going to arrive in the office soon, so I have to get on my guard to go meet with him. Wish me luck for a good project!
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