It all started out when one constipated monkey called onsite manager wanted to get into good books with client. Without consulting any of us, he commited to the client that we will finish a certain task. He explained to us as if the whole task will take a day to complete. But the devil is in detail. It took three days to develop and three of us were staying through the weekend to complete it. When I informed the onsite manager, he cooly replied that those planing should be dealt with the client manager! Amazingly idiotic, but true. I wonder how these people get into managerial positions. They commit saying such-and-such task could be completed within such-and-such time, without knowing a bit about the work involved. They all think if we increase the resources, it should be fine. Try impregnating a woman with nine men to get a baby in one month!

In addition, I got to put-up with managerial madness at offshore. I have one guy who repeats everything twice. Everything he says, he says twice. When it happens to others it is comedy, when happening to me it is a real tragedy. He will send out an e-mail and come to you saying, “I have sent you a mail. Check it out”. Whenever he does it, he gets into my nerves.

Finish the task. Suddenly there is a crowd to pick up the glory. You would wonder, where the hell were these people when you were boiling and toiling.

Our client is using Vantive, a CRM tool which is in its dying ages, for tracking their problem tickets. As it is in its last phase, client decided to migrate to Remedy, another CRM tool. The client manager felt that Remedy is much more complex and insisted that we undergo training. And the managers wanted to catch a big fish with the smallest fish. Well in my case it turned out to be not even the smallest fish was offered. For the past two months, I have been running on all options to get my resources trained in Remedy. Every time there was some obstacle. But surprisingly I got help from unknown quarters. Finally, we had a Remedy training arranged for this weekend. The instructor was good and the class went very interactive. All the resources were very much involved. I was thrilled to see the fruit of my efforts. Of course, I still need to get the project to the offshore. But this itself is satisfying. I learnt couple of lessons during this period:

• You already have a no. Make it an yes:This is not always easy and possible. But give a try. I learnt this from a Flemish friend of mine. During this period, most of the things I wanted to do had a NO as an answer. Either I had to find a workaround or cajole them to say yes.
• Be persistent: As a true Taurean, I persisted. Sometimes I had to bend and other times bend others, but bottom line was to get the work done. Keeping the spirit high for two months was tough. In between other official happenings put me down. Sometimes how the team members behaved hurt me. But I kept my beat.
• Get an authority behind you: My immediate boss was supportive of the efforts that I was taking. Having him behind me helped me to kick some asses and be bold. There were times when I was feeling pretty low, he would come along and encourage me. It helped.

Every month, on the last Wednesday, we have a project-get-together to welcome new comers into the project and to celebrate, in a small way, birthdays and other special days of project members. Every person has to go in the front of every one and say a word or two. What I realized is that I cannot stand being the focus, even for few minutes. I like to stand out in a crowd, nut having the crowd focus on me is a big No! Call me crazy, but that is me. I sneak out in such situations, as I did today.