Low Cost Perks

As promised, here are some excerpts from an article on Low Cost Perks that can highly motivate employees.

"Companies can have unique ways of making their employees feel special and fostering team building and bonding; and all this while it hardly costs them anything!

Employee perks today, are not just related to monetary benefits, but go all the way to making your employees feel special and showing that you do care for them! Studies reveal that more than 75% of employees working in mediocre paying paying jobs find happiness in perks that need not necessarily be in the form of money. Here is a list of some great low-cost ways to reward performers with perks.

Work-from-home days : Give them a break from office, but not from work! Try allowing your employees to work from home. Ease out job burnouts.

Discounts : Employees love it if they can indulge their family in some great shopping experience. There is nothing like making your employee's family happy!

Occasions : The annual closing, new year and other festivals can become an excuse for some fun and frolic, and bonding as well.

Movie Mania : A movie-day once a month will do more good than harm. Double the benefit by screening inspiring movies that could leave the employees entertained and also boost their spirits.
Free Seminars, Paid Training ... the list can go on and on."

Sounds nice. But, when I realise that the underlying motive all these is to get employees perform better, it leaves a sour taste in my mind. Would be happy if we genuinely just want the employees feel better and stay happy. Period. No talk about efficiency and better output and all that.

I wonder what sort of non-monetary perks I am getting right now. And, what sort of things will keep me motivated? In my younger days, I might have said, 'to be posted in an all-girls department'. 'Having very good colleagues' is a good reason in Gudalur. Mostly all of us are hard working and genuine, I think. Having a good sense of humour is the bonus!

Excuses - Grade I

There is a thin line between excuses and lies, don't you think? We have all heard about the child which did not want to come to the school exam the next day, saying "I am going to have stomach ache tomorrow...". But, adults are no better. Read this below:

Lot of unwanted dogs turn up at the doorstep of Britain's biggest dog welfare charity. With some Grade-I excuses. They have released the Top 10 dubious reasons its staff has heard over the past year for dumping dogs at one of its shelters.

"My dog does not match the sofa," topped the list, followed by: "The dog looks evil and has different coloured eyes ..."

"My black dog does not match the new white carpet. Can we swap him for a white dog?", was at number three.

Other excuses: "My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

I think, the best was, "The dog opened all the gifts on Christmas Eve". Creative they are, these dog-dumpers! This dog below is in trouble. If the owners change the carpet, he has to go!


One of the legendary reasons we have heard from an adivasi child in our area for why she did not go to school is this : "The elephant ate up my school!". It seems, the elephant had actually eaten the roof of the small school built in the village. Head ache and fever are quite normal and unconvincing. Terror attack or heavy floods etc. look quite crude. But, "a wild elephant was standing along the way, so I could not come", sounds quite cute.

What is the most creative excuse you have invented in the last one year? Me? I never had to invent excuses, because I am totally honest!

How is this for an excuse?

Satyam and Golden Peacock

A very interesting thing happened in Corporate India this week. India's fourth-largest IT services provider, "Satyam Computer Services" had proposed to acquire Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra, companies controlled and run by the promoter family, for $1.6 billion (around Rs 7,680 crore).
While Satyam is an IT company, the companies proposed for acquisition were real estate ones. And, they were owned by the Promoters of Satyam. The Board took the decision to acquire these companies whose business was totally unrelated to the core business of Satyam, saying that it needs to diversify.

But, the company was forced to reverse the decision just within a day following strong shareholder protests that saw its stock price fall 30 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Shareholders felt that they were not informed of this before hand; were not happy that cash available with the cash-rich IT company should go to a cash-strapped real estate sector company. In short, they lost confidence in the company's management.

Neither the move of the Board to reverse its acquisition deal nor the corporate governance principle of “delighting (the) stakeholder”, as stated on the company’s website, did anything to restore investor confidence. Shareholders started selling off the stocks and the shares fell by 30%. Satyam saw Rs 4,610 crore wiped off its market capitalisation and several analyst firms have rated the company as a “sell”.

"Yesterday’s developments have eroded investor trust in the management and the board to take the company forward,” said a note from Religare Capital Markets.

And, the irony of all this is that Satyam was awarded the Golden Peacock award for Best Corporate Governance practice for the year 2008! (Now, the jury which awarded it to Satyma will have to answer some questions too!!)

It is quite interesting to me to note this 'shareholder activism' in corporate governance. Can the same be replicated in our political governance as well? Can we have an Indian Polity Stock Exchange or something like that, which can be a barometer of the confidence of the general public in the Government? If the government takes a wrong decision and the IPSE index falls dramatically, then probably, it will be reversed soon?

But, the only problem is the already crazy mass media will go berserk. Each small thing will be a Judgement Day. It is too risky to assume that the TV watching public can be responsible citizens with long term interests of the country in mind. I guess, once in 5 years elections are good enough.

Stock market indices are as flimsy an indicator like the Golden Peacock Award in any case ...

Bonus and Pay

During the feverish discussion about the economic turmoil faced by the financial institutions in USA, everyone came to know that the failing Banks and Companies have been 'rewarding' their chief executives with hefty bonuses for their performance. People said, they are disgusted at the obscene salaries drawn by the CEOs and investment bankers in these firms. The graph below shows the raio of CEO to Average Worker's salary in USA.



Even Obama had to admit that it was not proper for the CEOs to come to Washington in private chartered flights, when the purpose of their visit was to request a bail-out!

The famous Bill Kirkman has recently written about the issue of Bonus and Pay. He argues that we must focus more on Pay, rather than on Bonus. Why are we giving Bonus to employees to perform their duties with diligence and conscience, when they get paid to do exactly that? Are we paying salary to people for coming to the office, and then are required to pay bonus to start working? He argues that a good pay should be part and parcel of the contract; while bonus should be only for extra-ordinary accomplishment.

A nice cartoon on this issue of CEO pay and bonus is in this link. Click if you cannot read the cartton below properly.


But, my experience is different from his. From young age, I am used to pay 'Deepavali bonus' to various minions working in Government. Postmen (who deliver letters) were the first, I remember. Every house is supposed to give them Rs.5 or Rs.10. Then, slowly the virus spread and we started getting people from other departments as well - just on the eve of Deepavali. Now, it seems, Sales Tax officers also go on this 'bonus collection' from house to house. Now, the disease is not restricted to Government alone. Milk delivery people, vegetable vendors, sanitation, Newspaper boys ... everyone wants Deepavali bonus.

Organised trade unions have demanded and it is part of the pay package to give 10% or so of the salary as Deepavali bonus in Tamilnadu. All estate workers, transport corporation employees get this year after year. Even small traders give special bonus to all their staff for this festival. Irrespective of their good or bad performance. Even irrespective of the good or bad performance of the company! So, why called it Bonus, I don't know.

Though grudgingly given, I think, such rewards to ordinary workers on festive occasions were fine and create a nice feeling and good will.

Saradha Textiles, one of the biggest cloth shops in Trichy, pays a pittance as salary for their employees, but gives Deepavali bonus in the range of over Rs.25000 to each of them! They would prefer to get this lumpsum amount instead of getting another Rs.2000 as salary every month, it seems.

I can understand that this is a strong attraction for most of the employees coming from rural background. But, for CEOs and investment bankers of western countries? Many people, interestingly, have argued that rich and well-to-do people like them would prefer non-monetary rewards. More about it in some other post.

Standard of Beauty

One of the most horrid things I have come across about western world is anorexia, the eating disorder. I have never understood how people can have such a disease. Day in and day out, we were worried about Malnutrition here. We had our mothers stuffing the kids as much as possible. Children had anorexia, yes. I mean, they refuse to eat anything which mother thinks is good for them. But, adults?

Four years ago, I heard for the first time about Anorexia and could not believe my ears.

Never heard of men being anorexic till now. A lesson for women - Be selfish like men; eat everything in the plate, without thinking if others in the house have something left to eat.

Situation has reached such alarming proportions in the developed countries that girls do not eat. The reason? Being thin is beautiful. The major sinner is the Fashion industry and advertisement companies. Governments even had to step in to put the record straight, it seems.

"France, the country that defined haute couture, launched Europe's most aggressive assault yet on the promotion of ultra-thinness by the fashion industry, advertisers and web sites. Since the deaths of two anorexic latin american models two years ago, European countries - particularly those known for their fashion industries - have faced pressure to better protect and regulate the health of fashion models and curb advertising that promotes unrealistic standards of beauty.
Spain has banned models with less than a specified BMI. (Body Mass Index). Last year, Italy barred girls under 16 from its runways and started requiring all models to present health certificates proving they do not suffer from eating disorders. New laws in Britain require models with anorexia or bulimia to prove they are being treated for the disorders before they can participate in London Fashion week."

In India, (especially Tamil Nadu), we used to have our standards of beauty a bit different from the rest of the world. Our old Tamil film heriones were pleasantly plump. Fat? No, never. "Just well nourished," as Obelix will say. Our famous Bhanumathi, Padmini, Savithri were all like that. And, we were proud of their beauty. My mother even today will swear that there isn't any herione as beautiful as any of them these days. Here is Bhanumathi, my favourite.

Who will need a skinny hero or heroines? Only comedians were either ultra thin or ultra fat. But, things are changing even in Tamilnadu. Though we have an occasional Kushbu and Prabhu to give solace, the new kids are tending to resemble the western models. I am scared that they may break into two in the middle anytime - so thin they are.

After all, comparison is the standard of beauty, I guess. When all of us were thin and skinny, probably, we wanted our beauty queens to be well-rounded. And, today, when child diabetes and such eating disorders are threatening our kids, we want our beauties to be thin. Like everyone in India wants to be 'white' in colour (Fair and Lovely cream), the foreigners want to become tanned (Brown and Beauty).

Where do men figure in all these standards?

What to do with Nobel Prize?

Winner of the 2008 Nobel economics prize Paul Krugman has a very pungent style of writing. Always writing about gloomy things in the Republican administration - especially, their way of providing health care and swearing by free market capitalism. I thought, after Obama won, he may be happy. But, he has started writing that Obama may not act boldly enough to bring an end to the economic malaise.


But he seems to have a funny side as well. He will receive his Nobel gold medal and about 1.2million dollar prize on December 10. When asked what he planned to do with the prize money, he said he had yet to decide, pointing out that, 'my favourite congratulatory e-mail said like this:'

Congratulations. I hope you can find a bank still standing!

Correct, where will he put his millions now? Wrong time to get big prize money, I guess ...

Children are Natural Philosophers?

Children are famous for thinking differently. Did I say 'Famous'? Change it to Notorious ...

Two days ago, I was listening to a programme in the BBC in which one teacher was teaching philosophy to the children! He said that children are the natural philosophers. "They always ask questions like WHY and HOW and HOW DO YOU KNOW", he said. "They are curious and want to know what causes everything!". Fine. I agree with his views. But, I disagreed with his attitude - I could sense that he was appreciative of the kids asking all those questions.

I bet this teacher does not have a child of his own. Otherwise, he won't be uttering these words with amazement. I am positive that he does not know the famous saying, "All nice children belong to the neighbours".

Anyway, to bolster my case, here is a nice joke.

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray

"Take only ONE. God is watching."

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note which read like this.

" Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

Now, what do you make of this? I am sure the fellow standing in the middle is plotting something against the other two. And, in any minute, he is going to come out with something terrible.

Natural Philosophers? Ugh.

Mumbai Mania

Deeply distressed by the terror strikes in Mumbai. Reading all the different things itself is taking time. Didn't have time to muse.

But, many ordinary people seem to have done their bit to save others. Like in any tragedy, this element came out once again.

NSG commondoes, fire service personnel, Mumbai Police and many other public servants are the heroes of the hour. For once, the country, media and the entire public seem to be appreciative of them and publicly cheering. This will motivate them, I am sure.

Of course, politicians are the villans in everybody's eyes. Running down each other - even during this tragedy.

Personally for me, the 24x7 news channels were bigger villans. Happened to go near television one of these days and I was disgusted at the way they were covering the operations. For them, terror is the most attractive marketable commodity.

Being Indian, will get over things quite fast and everything will be as normal as before in a day or two. But, right now, feeling sad and depressed.