Ahem the Appreciation(Mails)

I had been on this thought since the last fortnight or so but finally in this rainy sleepless night have managed to key it in.


"Feeling appreciated is one of the most important needs that people have.
When you share with someone your appreciation and gratitude, they will not forget you. Appreciation will return to you many times."
Steve Brunkhorst

Beautiful and True - If only it wasn't developed into a fake art.

Appreciationsor rather appreciation mails form one of the most important part and parcel of what we call our corporate jobs.
Oh well even government jobs have some appreciation I learnt when I saw my father display some of his stuff.

Its the perfect alternative cited by the hallowed managers as what one must go after instead of materialistic compensation.
Even if for a moment you believe them you will only end up in dissapointment with how much of all this is fake.
All I want to know is - if I have some one honest enough to let me in on the secret do they believe it themselevs
and most importantly do they think that all their reportees are such blind fools not to see it through.

I guess at the core there are two kinds of appreciation mails - the original and the fake

The genuine and really heartfelt ones - rare from our managers in India, relatively easier to get from overseas customers/managers
Here while some are real nice and make you feel really appreciated ,some are a tad too
profuse and dramatic to the point of being embarassing at times.

Fakes as always have more variety unlike originals - so three very basic varieties

First are the obligatory ones sent - usually in response to one appreciation - its kind of like retweet on twitter

Someone from the top appreciates someone - and so they feel obligated to appreciate to appease the original top honcho
- Good job , Great job blah blah.
And they want us to believe they appreciate. Heck !!

Second are the compulsive appreciators. The ones who appreciate as a mean to appease themselves - something like
"I am on top I have the power to appreciate."
So they send a good job - Wonderful and such one liners for every task by email

Last comes the calculated appreciations a hybrid of the above two
The ones with the right cc , with the right cut copy and paste .The ones which dont just feel fake, but in someway seem to
want to ensure its obvious the are fake - the mean art of appreciation.

Thought about it when we received a appreciation mail for some work from a Sr manager abroad in very simple
genuine almost handwritten letter kind of words.
Felt nice though,No big deal we felt ,apart from the fact that we had to do a
rarity in our project - work late till midnight for just a day.
The cc list was a bit too high up , I almost felt - why the heck.
And then a follow up mail a week later to it saying the customer too was very happy and we were like - uff let it be please.
Glad to hear and love that you appreciate.

And here it wouldve ended but for the fake drama that ensued.
First the clueless immediate manager wants to know - umm what was that for.

I reply back - I did blah blah ...
A did mwha mwha ....

And then in half an hour it gets retweeted to another cc list as I said

Good job B for doing blah blah
Good Job A for mwha mwha . keep it up

Some say this is needed to spread the word. May be it is - So a Good Job with the Fwd will suffice ,
but when you start doing cut copy paste in such manner of my own words - back to me its a fake and makes me despise you for the fakeness.

This is why its probably better to go after materialistic compensation. At least the fakes there have some use till discovered as fakes.

And so it goes...

Its been a messy career move for me, the last one I did I guess. Quite unhappy here in every aspect.
Why do you need to ask for what you deserve??
I refuse to - not a great career plan , but what the heck !!
Its time for them to get what they deserve.
Ive got to move out of this comfort zone Ive gotten myself into. More on that later.

To Blog or not or whatabout

I myself have been brooding over why don’t I write a post for quite some time, but somehow I don’t get down to it.
Sometimes I feel I’ve vented a lot in here so I probably repeat myself and then sometimes it just feels too much to key in.
Then again I have gotten into that comfort zone of just reading all interesting links links in my Reader and twitter.
and finally Ive lost my inspiration i.e my frustration with people – ive developed a zen like calm with my solitary & hopeless & dreary
surroundings @home & @office
I think half my posts are my ranting against something – some happening , some thing said by someone or worst some movie and so this is what happens by following the zen calm or accepting what we lovingly call our karma.

You don’t even bother to rant and rave for or against things. And yet and yet so much of the stuff you see in the most busy section in a book shop – the motivational books hmmm – they preach the same thing.Accept and be happy or at peace or whatever.
Does that brings peace – now does it really?
I guess it fosters a habit of accepting less than the best .So borrowing management terminology while in short term it looks good – in the long run may be it will only end up in quite a opposite way.

And so what do I write about ??

My pet hate my office – Oh but what and who do I hate there. Almost everything and everyone is sort of absent there. I lead a very solitary and powerful professional team which is involved in something oh well – lemme put it better
The link leads to a paper presented in the field of my work . And the best way to describe my dilemma is presented in the small fable section there.
I just keep wondering who Am I there? Jerry Overworked,Kevin Shorttimer,Ahmed Hardluck

No No I sure am not Anita thankfully

http://www.io.com/~wazmo/papers/seven_steps.html

I have a deep desire to forward the above stuff to all my managers(and I have a bad luck – I never seem to have one – its always multiple) with the above lines.

Movies - Oh but I never am any good at reviews which anyways are done way better by much better people all over the blogosphere. But I used to chatter about how I hated or enjoyed some. But Bollywood has been hugely disappointing whatever I managed to see.
You cant even dislike Kites – Seriously – you cant love it , you cant say what you hate it. Its more greek than spanish truly!!

Books - Ive been reading less books and more about books .
But still may be thats what I can write about.

But honestly I do wish I get myself to write somehow. Its just that life all around seems to be in a very heartbreak arena.
Half the world seems heartbroken or rather hell bent on breaking each others heart.
And then it just feels good to think you are heartless and thus hale before you realize – its too good to be true.
You are play acting exactly what you want to avoid facing.