Why Some People Always Piss You Off, No Matter What?

It is a fact that there are some people you come across in your life who you would never like.

No matter what.

Some people just piss you off.

And there are strong reasons for the same, some of which may have to do with your outlook in life which may be deeply embedded in your sub-conscious mind.

So why some people always piss you off, no matter what?

• They try to demean and belittle you
• They try to act smart
• They request you for something but don't approach you in a nice way
• They maintain stoic silence as if they are superior to you
• They pounce on you like a vulture in case you make a mistake
• They play dirty politics behind your back
• They are frustrated with their personal affairs
• They have huge jumbo-sized egos
• They want others to pump up their fat ego 
• They are part of the coterie of the top dog
• They are stooges of the top dog and don't stand for what is right
• They are "yes sir" henchmen of the top dog
• They are part of the inner circle
• They are dead-woods who are allowed to hang on
• They are narcissistic who love troubling others
• They focus on what's wrong
• They focus on finding faullts
• They oppose change
• They oppose being challenged
• They like others to respect their authority and power

In case you are unfortunate to come across such people either in your neighborhood or at your workplace good luck to you!

You have signed up for some really bad times.

Fasten your seat belt as your life is going to pass through turbulence!

What is Making You Sick These Days?

The question - what is making you sick these days? - is a wonderful question that you should keep on asking yourself once in a while, preferably couple of days every week.

If you are feeling sick and uncomfortable, it is a clear indication for you to try to fix something that's currently not going well in your life and if that's not possible, just move away from it.

You get one life to live. And living it in a way that makes you sick and uncomfortable constantly and not just occasionally is no way to live your life. You deserve better.

So what is making you sick these days?

• You are stuck in a bad, toxic company. The people around you are unprofessional, immature and create negatives vibes in you.
• You are not able to sleep properly as you find yourself stuck in a bad, toxic company. Random thoughts related to toxicity you have been experiencing keeps haunting you.
• You see the stooges and their top dog going for lunch together everyday. The back-room dealings of this group pisses you off completely but there's nothing you can do.
• You see the coterie and extended coterie working in a tandem and making your position weak and untenable.
• Your life is going smooth other than this one thing - you are stuck in a bad, toxic company. Finding another job has become the sole purpose of your life at this point.
• You see a lot of second guessing and irritating, unprofessional emails coming from the stooges and their top dog.
• You have been trying to get out of the toxic company you currently work at but have failed so far. You are desperate to get an offer so that you can quit and move on.
• You don't want to work at the toxic company, have not been able to get another job and can't even quit as you have got bills to pay.
• Your spouse doesn't know about how much toxicity you are handling at your workplace. Of course, you haven't told her any of the nonsense you are experiencing.
• You get irritated easily on small things at your home and with your family members. And then you feel bad immediately when you realize the need to control this tendency of yours.

It is useful to write down the above in the situation you may be currently experiencing in your life.

The good thing is some things would be making you happy as well. Do note the good things also and feel gratitude that so many things are going well for you.

And yes, it is extremely important to fix whatever is making you sick currently or find a way to move away from it.

You don't need to tolerate toxic and negative people. You owe this to yourself.

And if you decide to quit, just quit without any malice and anger.

Also remember, you don't owe the toxic and negative people any explanation whatsoever. They don't deserve even an ounce of it!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Life is just about these three things - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Yesterday is history.

Yesterday is gone.

You can't do anything about it. Nothing.

Today is a gift.

Today is with you. Grab it. Use it nicely and judiciously.

In fact, only this very moment as you read this (only this) is with you.

The last moment is actually a part of yesterday. Similarly the very next moment is a part of tomorrow.

Tomorrow is mystery.

Tomorrow is yet to come. And it will be there tomorrow, obviously. Plan to use it well and do that for sure when it becomes "today".

Tomorrow brings with it hopes of things that will bring you joy and happiness or at times fears of things that will bring you misery and sadness.

You would love to hear only about good things and you would be eager for them to happen soon or at the right time (like the arrival of a new-born in the family).

However, life is not always good. It brings with it a lot of bad and ugly as well.

Sometimes you would anticipate bad things to happen though you may not want that (like someone terminally-ill in your family is about to die).

So always remember the following about Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Do not regret about yesterday but do learn from it.

Do live in today and do enjoy the time which is here and now. This time will be gone in no time!

Do no worry about tomorrow but do plan for it.

How a Toxic Workplace Can Make You Sick?

A toxic workplace is a direct result of and is generally characterized by the following:

• Unbalanced organizational structure - Those heading different areas are at peer-level as far as their roles are concerned but are not at par as far as their grades are concerned. This simply means those who are at the lesser grades have lesser power in the organizational hierarchy.
• Coterie of the top man - The top man in such organizations nurture and promote a close-knit inner circle. This exclusive old boys club is privy to all the key information while others are provided only sketchy information and that too not always.
• Too many emails - Such organizations thrive on too many emails being sent back and forth. The top man and his pet coterie love writing long emails once in a while about issues that ideally should be getting discussed in a face-to-face meeting.
• Holier than thou attitude of the coterie - The coterie in this case acts like a privileged lot. They go for lunch together, act as a bunch of college boys rather than professional colleagues and come across as boorish and biased.
• Negative emails - The coterie is also adept at sending emails laced with venom. They would write any non-sense to defend their position and to pulverize the others. As they are pet stooges and part of the coterie, the top man will choose to ignore their acts.
• Lack of professionalism - The coterie will talk about professionalism but act in an otherwise manner. The way they write emails, the way they speak in meetings, the way they do not respond to meeting invites and the way they act as smart ass show their professionalism or rather the lack of it.

All this can make you sick. Very sick.

• You may start carrying toxicity back to your home
• You may stay awake in night thinking what kind of a deep shit you are into
• You may start experiencing health issues
• You may start loosing your calm and composure
• You may start wondering how come you got into this hell-like workplace
• You may start analyzing your work situation in terms of how to stay positive

Despite all the good theories that glorify what a progressive organization looks and acts like, the fact is that toxic organizations are more common than one would like to have.

If you are one of those unfortunate ones trapped in a toxic workplace, it is important for you to stay positive and professional. Always.

Remember, there is always a dawn waiting at the end of every dark, long night.

Is Your Organization Infested with Extra Terrestrial (ET) Employees?

Many organizations, especially small-sized which do not grow even at a reasonably low rate, are ideal breeding ground for the ET employees.

Such employees are, really speaking, dead-woods for whom special roles and assignments are carved out of nowhere.

They are assigned to special initiatives and groups which may not really be needed otherwise in the very first place in another organization.

And lo and behold since they are pet stooges of the management, they are invited to many meetings. Even such meetings where they are not really needed.

They would throw garbage in the name of sick wisdom. They would question everything with an intent to show how smart they are and how much deep understanding they have as compared to others.

At times they sound impossible and are generally hard asses to crack. They think only they know everything about everything.

The ET employees are generally jerks and would have only one intention at all times - make extra-terrestrial statements to show that they are really needed!

The need to again and again prove that they are really needed is so dominant in their behavior that they spread toxicity all around them.

However, as they are pet stooges of the management, they are put high on the pedestal. After all, who doesn't like having their feet licked by a pet stooge?

And those who nurture and promote the stooges may at times themselves be ET employees.

As the organization growth is stunted, they also need to make extra-terrestrial statements to show to the lowly employees that they are also really needed just like the stooge ETs!

In such an organization there are three distinct group of employees:

• The core or inner part of inner circle - this comprises of those who nurture and promote the ETs. Some of them may be ETs themselves. And yes, they would never leave!
• The outer part of inner circle - this comprises of the ETs. All of them are invariably stooges of those in the core inner circle. And yes, they will also never leave!
• The others or outer circle - this comprises of those who are professionals unlike the ETs above. And yes they are always on a lookout to move on!

If you are in such an organization and are a part of the outer circle you deserve to be congratulated. Despite the ET employee culture around you, you have managed to remain a professional.

Hats off to you. However, you are in grave danger if you stay for too long. You may end up becoming an ET employee. You got to move, fast.

Don't wait to turn into an ET employee. Move. Fast.

Competence is Inversely Related to Lack of Ownership

If competence is low, then lack of ownership is high. And if competence is high, then lack of ownership is low. They are inversely related.

It is not hard to come up with examples of this.

Someone who is not able to get his group managers to comply to the defined processes shifts the ownership of the compliance to the process facilitator for that group and even to the head of the process facilitation team.

The lack of competence in ensuring compliance leads to disowning of and lack of ownership of compliance and its off-loading to someone else in the organization.

When someone is competent he will manage to get things done in the area under his control. After all, those in that area report into him.

However, if despite reporting structure enabling it, if the person fails to get things done then he is totally incompetent.

And how would such a person hide his incompetence?

The simple and easy way is to disown the tasks this person fails to get through.

Lack of ownership and true commitment are the true hallmarks of an incompetent ass. And he uses it to the extent of it getting obnoxious.

You need to be careful when dealing with such persons at your workplace. At times, they may be hiding under imposing titles like VP, SVP, EVP.

This is a serious situation you may find yourself in some organizations.

And if you have to deal with several such persons in an organization who also happen to be at high levels you are as good as dead.

In this case you should start counting your days. No, not to die but to quit such an organization!

Why You Need to Put Up with the Shit at the Place You Currently Work and What to Do About it?

The title uses the phrase "place you currently work" and there's a very solid reason behind it.

If you work with an organization where you experience extreme levels of toxicity then you may be longing for and trying hard getting off the burning ship.

However, until you can move out, it is no more an organization in a real sense, but simply a "place you currently work" or rather a "place you hate to go but still need to go"!

You may be severely disengaged. And you may be in a state of mind where you are ready with the resignation notice and just waiting for a job offer.

But why do you need to put up with the shit at the "place you currently work"?

Here are some of the reasons:

• You have been trying hard but haven't managed to find another job. Again, even if you find one, don't be desperate to take it up before a thorough evaluation. You don't want to move from one toxic place to another
• You can't leave your job because you got to pay your bills - utilities, doctor/medicines, EMI, school fees, groceries, etc.
• You do not have any source of income other than the salary you get from the current job. And you don't have enough investments to  continue with your current standard of living using the returns from your investments.

Basically, you have no choice from a financial perspective.

At such a time, it is very important for you to remember the following points:

• Do not resign in frustration till you get another job
• Visualize what is the worst that will happen in case you get laid off or fired before you can find another job
• Take extreme care of your physical health, sleep well, eat well
• Stay positive and professional at the "place you currently work"
• Remain relaxed, calm and composed so that there is no adverse impact on you mental health
• Make sure you do not carry your frustrations at the "place you currently work" back to your home and your family
• Take stock of your finances to figure out where exactly you stand from a money stand-point
• Assuming you loose your job today, calculate based on the above point, for how many years/months you can survive on your investments at your current standard of living
• Cut down your expenses to what is essential, better still become a minimalist
• Work furiously towards attaining financial freedom so that you can deal with things in your life from the level of f**k you
• Pay off all loans that you may have as early as you can and become 100% debt-free
• Buy a house but do remember the point immediately above
• Ensure you are adequately protected with the right kind of insurance - term, medical, accident and disability, and home insurance
• Keep the lights on as far as your job search efforts are concerned and in fact increase the focus!
• Keep yourself motivated by imagining the day when you will accept an offer letter and send the ever-ready resignation notice
• Lastly, don't bottle up your frustrations and thoughts and do vent them out by writing them down (maintaining a blog for this is a fantastic idea, and it is free as well if you choose the right platform!)

Remember if you are in such a situation, you life may be very miserable. You may be feeling desperate to get out. You may have started to become negative in your outlook.

This may start reflecting on your behavior both a the "place you currently work" and more dangerously at your home and with you spouse, kids and parents.

You should realize that this spiral of negativity is not good for you in whichever way you look at it. And you must immediately stop your descent down the spiral of negativity.

In such a difficult and tumultuous time in your life the key message you should always carry in you mind is this: Stay positive, calm and composed. You owe it yourself and your family!

IT Services Business Model Made Simple

IT services business model is quite easy to comprehend.

The primary "raw material" in this type of business is the human brain. And since brain is inside a human being and put to use for IT services work, the primary cost driver is the employee salary.

The primary "revenue source" in this type of business is payment received from customers for person-hours consumed or milestones achieved.

The good thing about this business when done in an outsourcing mode is that you incur expenses in a certain currency, say currency (E) but bill your customers in another currency, say currency (B).

The key point is that the exchange rate between currency (E) and currency (B) should be such that:

1 unit of currency (B) = N units of currency (E)

For example, if currency (B) is USD and currency (E) is INR, then based on the exchange rate today (13-May-2016) the above equation can be written as:

1 USD = 66.76 INR

The above equation is the backbone of the entire IT services business model.

Just imagine what will happen if  1 INR = 66.76 USD instead?

Catastrophe would be too mild a word to describe what will happen!

Following Google sheet provides a simple template to analyze the revenue and gross margin of an IT services business.

IT Services Business Model

As you can see yourself it is quite simple and easy to comprehend!

A Frog in the Well Doesn't Grow Big but Grows a Big Ego

Those working in small organizations are like frogs in the well.
(Image courtesy: http://cliparts.co/clipart/32574)

They don't grow big but grow big egos!

Someone might be working for 10 years and doing the same thing.

Of course to inflate the ego of such a person, he gets promoted from Grade 5 to Grade 6 to Grade 7. With higher cost to the company of course.

Such long timers get amply rewarded. However, they are no better than toe-sucking stooge of the top man.

Despite promotions there is no real career growth though for such folks.

Such companies lack business growth and hence tend to slowly drift into a situation where their margins start declining gradually.

After all feeding the blood-sucking frogs with big titles and bigger egos is a costly proposition!

But since the top frog and the stooge frogs are "the company" (being the founders and the early joiners forming the close-knot coterie ) and not merely working for it, they tend to get special incentives and perks.

They may be highly incompetent (which is generally the case) and to cover up for that they become adept at blaming others, play dirty politics, write flaming e-mails, show attitude and run vicious campaign to malign others.

They also get bigger rooms which is dwarfed only by their elephant sized egos they carry inside a stunted frog-sized body.

How to Handle a P for Pig?

Handling a pig is so very difficult!

And pigs in the corporate world are even more difficult to handle.



(Image courtesy: http://cliparts.co/clipart/8452)

So how do you handle a pig?

The first important rule to always remember when dealing with a pig is this - Do not become a pig yourself. Never.

As George Bernanrd Shaw, the renowned Irish playwright, critic and polemicist so famously and rightly said:

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."

You can never win over a pig in the dirty tricks department. Never.

Another rule to remember is this - Pigs not only survive but thrive in the middle of garbage. They are cunning and shrewd and can create troubles for you.

What to do when a pig speaks non-sense, silly and immature things in a non-sense, silly and immature manner?

The rule to handle the above is to ignore the pig-shit (whatever the pigs speak is no better than shit) and show your anger and disdain in a composed manner.

Remaining composed when dealing with a pig  is a very critical skill to have.

So that's another important rule to keep in mind - try to remain calm and composed. Remember you can't expect anything other than pig-shit from a pig.

Pigs make pigs as their friends.

Here's another rule to handle pigs - figure out who are the friends of the pig? This would tell you how many pigs you have to deal with, in all?

In case the number of pigs comes out to be too large, you know you are in for big time trouble.

So here's the last but the most important rule. If you have to deal with too many pigs start looking for the exit.

Think about this - if you can never win against one pig what chance do you stand when you have to deal with a large number of pigs?

If you are that unlucky one stuck in a pig-infested organization, you got to be on your toes.

On your mark, get, set, go!

And if you don't do that fast, you will remain in deep pig-shit that longer.

Is Your Company Professional at the Fore but Lala at the Core?

Comparing a professional versus a lala company is a very interesting exercise.

The conventional wisdom is that a professional company is a professional company and a lala company is a lala company and never the twain shall meet.

This, however, is too simple a view.

In India, there are several companies which are "Professional at the Fore but Lala at the Core?"

Surprisingly, many of them call themselves as MNCs.

How to determine whether your company is one?

Well, it's not that hard to figure this out.

The biggest tell-tale sign is that the company's management has Indians both in the India office and in the office abroad (typically in the US).

Those in the management are a close-knit coterie consisting of the loyalists and the stooges. And management in such companies is nothing more than a pack of jokers.

Anyone working in such lala companies must always remember about "Why It's Dangerous To Work For An Organization Led By A Pack Of Jokers?"

Here are some more tell-tale signs:

• The top man has a close circle of trusted lieutenants. The only real qualification of the trusted lieutenants is their loyalty to the top man.
• The top man is not used to anyone challenging his ideas and thoughts. The trusted lieutenants would get the order enforced mostly by hook and crook.
• The top man promotes those who are his stooges and sing paeans in his praise. And if you don't do do,  you stand no chance to go up in such a company.
• The top man and his stooges literally run the show and make all the central decisions. There is no real delegation.
• The stooges force the people under them to remain unsettled by crossing the line and going to those below to gather information to show the people under them their true place.
• The top man starts a new initiative every month but maintains a hands-off approach. He also puts one of the stooges in charge of escalations knowing that it has not worked in the past and will not work going ahead as well.
• The top mean beams with silly pride when praised by the stooges and feels even more elated when others praise him.
• The stooges maintain a close circle withholding crucial information, play behind the scene games to discredit others and use office to sharpen their political skills.

In such companies the top man and and his stooges show as if they are professionals at the fore but can never hide from the smart folks down under of their being a true lala at the core!

Note: Lala is a Hindi word. In case you are wondering what the meaning of the word lala is, read the following: http://sanjaylakhotia.blogspot.in/2011/07/professional-vs-lala-company.html

Stuck in a Rut and Going Totally Nut!

There are times in you life when you would find yourself stuck in a rut. You can't move up, down or sideways and you can't move out.

And you suddenly realize that its been several years in the rut and you have become part of "them" and are no longer "you". You have been trying to get out but have failed so far!

You may see bias, unfairness, partiality all around you, loyalty being paraded in a naked manner, silly stuff being done every day and stooges getting promoted.

You also notice that the stooges have also been stuck for a very long time in a much bigger rut and are doing almost the same thing they used to do 10 years back!

What scares you the most is that very soon you will also hit the 10 year mark. It keeps you awake in the night, it makes you count every second when you are at work.

You are desperate to get out, you are frustrated with your plight, you just want to get rid of the toxicity around yourself.

But you can't.

So stuck in a rut for too long you are going totally nut!

You can't see any lights towards any exit path leading out of the rut you are in.

You also see that the top men and their loyal dogs are not afraid of the rut and that is because they are the ones who created it in the first place.

You are eagerly waiting for that one chance to get going.

And the question that you ask yourself every day is just the same.

When? When? When will you get the chance to escape this sick situation. For how further long will you need to suffer? How long?

In-Hand Salary - What the HR and Recruitment Folks Don't Want You to Fully Understand?

An earlier blog post CTC Break-up - What HR and Recruitment Folks Don't Want You to Fully Understand  dwelt upon the CTC break-up and provided details of its various components.

HR and recruitment folks are true followers of the below quote by Prof. Aaron Levenstein:

“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”

For an HR and recruitment guy this would actually mean the below:

“CTC break-up is like bikini. What it reveals is suggestive, but what it conceals is vital.”

The vital information that CTC conceals is the "In-Hand Salary" or the "Take Home Salary" - the money which actually lands in you salary account on the last day of the month.

And as they say the rest is history and soon forgotten for ever!

So let's analyze an example of CTC salary break-up to understand how to figure out the In-hand Salary hidden beneath the details.

Use the following google sheet to understand this better.

Calculation of In-Hand Salary from CTC Salary

Suppose you are currently in a company C.

You can play with the numbers in "Yellow Cells" to see how various components are calculated and to figure out what the In-hand Salary, Deferred Cash Benfits and Net Cash-flow would be under various scenarios at company C.

• On Paper - the assured that is promised to you in your salary letter
• Actual/Adjusted - the actual/adjusted that goes/will go into your salary account (including the actual incentive/bonus, once declared)
• Projected - the assumed that you expect from the upcoming performance appraisal.

The paper CTC includes incentive/bonus but the calcuations for "On Paper" and "Projected" ignores this component. "Actual/Adjusted" would consider this component though.

The key to a good understanding of CTC salary and In-hand Salary is to categorize the various components into the following heads:

• Taxables - these are fully taxed. Basic salary is the most fundamental component of this and "Flexible/Special" column is generally used to match the paper CTC figure
• Tax-frees - these are not taxed with certain restrictions. They may be clubbed with "Flexible/Special" but for the purpose of the above sheet consider only that part of "Flexible/Special" that is completely tax-free
• Deductibles - these are part of CTC but is actually used by the Employer either due to certain statutory and legal need (PF) or to save tax (NPS). Some of these like gratuity, insurance don't even show up on the pay slip
• Uncertains - these are part of CTC but are paid subject to certain conditions and may be recovered by the employer in certain  situations. They are, as the term also indicates, uncertain in some sense. These are fully taxable though.
• Exemptions - these are useful to claim tax benefits. Along with the tax-frees, these help bring down how much you pay as income tax and hence help increase the In-hand Salary.
• Deductions - these are shown on the payslip but you don't get it. They result in lowering the In-hand Salary. PF (Employee Contribution) falls under this head. Also, NPS (Employer Contribution) falls under this head.

Using the above you can easily calculate the monthly In-Hand Salary.

You can also calculate the Net Cash-flow, which includes deferred cash benefits in the form of PF and NPS. You may not get the deferred benefits every month but you would eventually get it, with some returns on it as an incing on the cake!

The google sheet does all the above calculations for you to get all the above figures instantly once you have entered the values in the "Yellow Cells".

In another blog post How to Evaluate a Job Offer? one key point that was touched upon under the reasons to quit was was this: Decent hike over your current salary - consider both In-Hand Salary and Net Cash-flow (never go by the CTC Salary!)

Suppose you are currently in a company C and you get an offer from another company O. How do you compare them on the above point?

You can use the google sheet to do this comparison easily. Put the required CTC Salary details under Company O - both under "On Paper" and "Actual/Adjusted", as required. All figures will appear automatically.

You can compare the hike ratio for both In-Hand Salary and Net Cash-flow from this sheet easily. Remember to compare both as you will eventually get all of it!

What Do You Want From Your Life?

What do you want from your life?

This is a very important question indeed. The most important perhaps.

This is what you probably want:

• Live till the age of 100 years (live very long and more importantly in extremely good health till the very last day of your life)
• Work in a place and with people who are nice (and even if that is not so, you should remain nice and use emotional detachment to stay positive and upbeat)
• Attain financial freedom (work towards reaching a state where your income from investments exceeds your expenses, month after month, till the very last month of your life)
• Take care of your family and enjoy your relationships with your spouse, kids and parents (give your family enough for them to have a safe and comfortable life)
• Be a minimalist, buy as less stuff as possible (focus on accumulating experiences over accumulating stuff)
• Adopt a spiritualistic attitude in life (remain energetic, remain nice no matter what happens in life and remember time is running out and also in the end nothing matters)

So what do you want from your life?

Write it down like above. Look at it very often. And do make sure your are living each moment fully conscious of what you want from your life.

The idea is that when your are about to die and you look back and think about how you lived it, you should have no regrets. You should actually be happy to die.

Why Staying Away From Our Parents and Kids Is So Very Scary?

We are in this world because of our parents and our kids are in this world because of us.

So there is no reason for our parents and kids not to mean so much to us. In fact, our parents and kids should mean everything to us!

Our affection for our parents and kids is completely unconditional. If something hurts them it hurts us too. This also creates an emotional weakness in us when dealing with our parents and kids.

Though staying away from our parents and kids, maybe in another city, can lead to stronger emotional bond with them the thought of living away from them is a very scary one.

Following thoughts come to the mind:

• I'll not be around to see my kids grow up
• I'll not be around when my kids are sick
• I'll not be around to comfort my wife when she needs me
• I'll not be around in case my parents pass away suddenly
• I'll not be around on my kid's birthdays
• I'll not be around on important family occasions
• I'll not be around to celebrate festivals with them
• I''ll not be around to comfort my son when he cries for me
• I'll not be around to embrace my son and hold him in my arms
• I'll not be around to touch and caress the cheeks and hands of my son
• I'll not get home-cooked food
• I'll not get clean shirts and trousers every morning
• I'll not get to talk to my wife, parents and kids when I reach home
• I'll not get the needed love and care when I fall sick

Then should you stay away from them? The answer is - no you shouldn't.

However, at times, life puts you in a strange situation where you have no choice but to stay away.

The decision to stay away is indeed a very tough one.

Staying away is scary, for sure.

At the same time, staying with your parents and kids but being in a situation that lowers your self-respect is equally or may be even more scary.

You may be handling shit in your current situation and handling shit is what you would continue to do if you don't move out of that, and that too as fast as you can.

Staying away is scary, for sure. At times, though, you have no choice. Those are really bad times.

All of us have our share of bad times. And bad times can come back again and again.

That's life. Good people are made to suffer. Bad people prosper, they get promoted.

CTC Break-up - What HR and Recruitment Folks Don't Want You to Fully Understand

In case you are a corporate animal but don't clearly understand what CTC is, here is some much needed information.

CTC stands for "Cost To Company" and is your all-inclusive cost to the company.

You need to carefully note that everything the company spends on you, be it PF, NPS, Gratuity, Insurance, Incentive, Retention Bonus, Basic Salary, Perquisites is eventually paid from your CTC.

It even includes the perquisite amount for the "supposedly" free lunch in many organizations.

So as you can see there is indeed really nothing called free lunch!

Bonus for meeting target performance is also a part of CTC. 

However, you may get more or less or even none depending upon many factors. So in some sense it can be seen as being outside the CTC.

Following sections provide a typical CTC salary break-up and explain the various components in greater detail.

Basic Pay

Basic Salary 

This as the name suggests is the most basic part of CTC and is also the most important one since it drives many of the other salary components.

Basic Salary is fully taxable.

House Rent Allowance (HRA) 

40% to 50% of the Basic Salary. Tax exemption on HRA is the minimum of the following three: 

• Actual house rent allowance received from employer
• Actual house rent paid minus 10% of basic salary
• 50% of basic salary in case of metro, 40% in case of non-metro

Benefits Pay

This includes long-term retirement-oriented benefits.

This is directly deducted from the CTC and never comes your way!

These either carry no tax liability for you (Insurance) or not taxed at all (PF) or taxed at the time of actual payment (Gratuity)

Employer's Contribution to PF (Provident Fund)

Minimum Rs. 1800/- per month (12% of Rs. 15000/- which is the wage ceiling set by EPFO) to a maximum of 12% of the Basic Salary

Insurance

This also goes from your CTC, so there is really nothing free about the insurance cover

Gratuity

4.81% of Basic Salary

Choice / Flexible Pay

This includes several components some of which are driven by the Basic Salary.

This component of the CTC provides options to save tax albeit within certain limitations.

Meal Coupon  

Tax-free till Rs. 1100/- per month (Rs. 51/- per day for 20 days)

Conveyance Allowance

Tax-free till Rs. 1600/- per month

Medical Allowance

Tax-free till Rs. 1250/- per month

Leave Travel Allowance (LTA)

6% of Basic Salary

National Pension Scheme (NPS) Contribution

Tax-free till 10% of the Basic Salary

PF (Employee Contribution)

Minimum Rs. 1800/- per month (12% of Rs. 15000/-) to a maximum of 12% of the Basic Salary

PF Adjustment (Employer Contribution)

Adjustment in case Employer's Contribution to PF in the CTC is at Minimum and not 12% (always ask the prospective employer to provide CTC with Employer's Contribution to PF set at 12%)

Special/Other Allowance 

The final place to dump the "adjustment" amount to get to the magic figure of CTC

Others

This includes other components that are related to miscellaneous aspects such as performance, joining and retention.

These are fully taxable just like the Basic Salary.

Incentive or Variable Pay

The secret weapon of the company's management to engineer profitability (in case it is poor or even if there is none) by short-changing the employees

Retention Bonus

The dangling carrot to force the money-minded and good for nothing employees to firmly stay put

Joining Bonus (One Time)

The dangling carrot to entice an offered candidate to join

Note: Some of the above CTC components are subject to government and statutory guidelines and may be treated differently in the future.

How to Evaluate a Job Offer?

When you decide to look for a job change it clearly means you don't like something at your current place of work!

(Image courtesy: http://cliparts.co/clipart/96793)

You should carefully analyze and note down the factors that drove you to to look for a change in the first place. These factors are very useful for evaluating a job offer.

After applying to hundreds of organizations and after interviewing with a few that decide to call you and consider you beyond the resume screening stage and if all goes well till the very end, you end up with that fantastic e-mail in your inbox.

"Congratulations! we are pleased to inform you that you have been selected; please find attached the salary details. Please note that this offer will be deemed cancelled within 1 day if you do not accept the offer in writing/email."

Suppose you are currently in a company C and you get an offer from another company O.

What do you do next? How do you evaluate the job offer?

The best way to evaluate whether to bite the bullet and go ahead with the change is to do a "Stay versus Quit" analysis for C and "Accept versus Reject" analysis for O.

Company C - Reasons to Stay

Even though you want to leave, every company has something good about it!

Examples include:

• Tax-friendly salary structure
• Get to stay with family
• Work pressure is manageable
• Company is stable
• Office is close to home and driving time/distance is bearable

Company C - Reasons to Quit

These are the reasons that got you started on this journey to move out!

Examples include:

• Decent hike over your current salary - consider both In-Hand Salary and Net Cash-flow (never go by the CTC Salary!)
• Sick reporting structure
• Problem people with big egos
• Issues related to disparities in experience versus role versus grade versus responsibilities
• Forced to report into someone who is highly toxic and totally incompetent
• Lack of motivation to do work  beyond the bare minimum due to above
• Coterie culture formed by the top man
• Group of stooges around the top man
• Glass ceiling created by the coterie and stooges
• Top man and senior folks don't inspire confidence in company's future

Company O - Reasons to Accept

You went through the hiring process and invested your energy because you would have certainly liked several aspects of the prospective organization!

Examples include:

• Better designation and job title
• Escape sick reporting structure
• Escape all reasons mentioned above in Company C - Reasons to Quit
• Get to work in an interesting area
• Chance to get into a different though related line of work

Company O - Reasons to Reject

As you went through the hiring process you may have made certain observations and in addition got to know several aspects from your sources that appear concerning!

Examples include:

• Excessive work pressure
• Office politics and cultural issues
• Work nature may be very different from what has been promised
• HR policies not in line with accepted norms in the industry (too less leaves, no work from home)
• Reporting structure different from the impression that is created around it
• Net salary not significantly higher though increase in CTC shown in the offer may appear that way
• People in top management do not seem too professional
• No laptop even at senior levels
• May need moving away from family
• Exit option not clearly visible

The last point is worth highlighting.

You should always be completely aware of "What Most Companies End Up Lying About When Hiring Someone?".

Even before you join a company you should have a clear thought out exit plan firmly in place!

The reason is when you join Company O it immediately becomes Company C and even though you decided to join, just like every company has something good about it, every company also has something bad about it!

As the curtains come apart, the play starts and the various scenes unfold in the new organization, you may soon realize that you need to look for an offer from another company O!

What Most Companies End Up Lying About When Hiring Someone?

Most companies choose to tell (or not tell) their prospective hires certain facts and figures during the interview process which cannot be labelled as truth exactly.

These facts and figures may, in fact, border on falsehood and are mostly what can perhaps be termed as smart lies.

These may be in terms of the following aspects:

• Reporting structure for the position for which the candidate is being hired - smart lies are very common on this aspect especially related to solid versus dotted reporting and role versus designation inequality
• The real place and the associated power of the position in the overall organizational hierarchy - this is what finally leads to organizational politics
• The policies in respect of employee benefits - HR folks are adept at smart lies in respect of selling of benefits such as insurance, leaves, promotions, rewards and recognition, etc.
• The informal power structures - analyzing who goes with whom for lunch is generally a precise way to understand the "actual on ground" political and power environment in an organization
• The presence of dead-wood in the company - this relates to certain roles being created for keeping some individuals due to loyalty factor who are actually no longer needed
• The working hours - the official and the real working hours may be so apart in some cases such that it makes a complete mockery of work-life balance
• The thing called culture - every company and especially its top man would claim that her company is the best and has an open, progressive culture and that simply can't be true
• Stooges of the top man - this is something no company will ever accept but presence and promotion of stooges is a sad reality
• Long time loyalists - the long time loyalists are the stooges as well in most cases and roam around breeding mess, interference, politics, incompetence, exceptions to policies, etc.
• Budget with the position - again another aspect where one should expect to get a lot of surprise and is driven by the overall level of professionalism and maturity in the organization

It is commonly accepted that it is a good idea to assess the effectiveness of HR not just in terms of how many they are able to hire but also for how long someone who is hired stays along.

And for improving the above parameter it is important for an organization to study the above aspects closely and carefully and then initiate actions for their remedy.

Otherwise, attrition rate will be higher than that what one would want it to be. Way too higher!