My take4:Draw A Line

In the times of Facebook and Google+ it is difficult to draw the lines of privacy in our lives. But we should at least make an effort to keep our professional and personal lives separate because of following reasons.

First let us start from hiring process. If my hiring manager gets on to my friend list even before the interview, then he has already formed an opinion before I walk in for the interview. He would have an idea about my religious views, my political views and my lifestyle in general. This could affect my chances of getting hired, in either positive or negative way and I would definitely like to be judged based only on my professional skills rather than my personal views.

Secondly after I am hired, I would want people at my work place to take me seriously and value my opinion. If my colleagues or my boss have checked my funny or funky pictures on the Facebook, then there is a lesser chance of them considering me a mature and professional individual.

Thirdly process of ‘Friending’ people at workplace will affect other way round as well. If I have checked out pictures of my boss in Speedos or intimate pictures with his girlfriend or any personal photographs or writings on the wall, then there is a very good chance that I might value his decisions less.

When we club professional and personal activities then it is an open invitation for work place gossips. It is a good idea to have social outings with colleagues, but these should be kept socially professional.

In my opinion it is always better to keep the professional and personal lives separated. I would never want people from my work place follow me every minute of the day. These are two separate lives and to have a healthy life style these should be kept apart.

My take 3:One for All.

A famous adage goes “Team work is more work”. I agree with the fact that people working as a team, rather than working individually performs better when working towards a common goal. But it should be directed by one person who is responsible for managing the project. He/She should be the central authority and be responsible to get the task done.

Team discussions and planning is essential and productive part of a project, but if one person is not given the responsibility to lead the team, then there is a possibility that the discussions will go in all possible directions and no decision is reached, a point of gridlock. So after any discussion, optimal solution should be identified and a team should work of the solution in that direction.

Another reason to have one central authority is that, he/she is responsible to keep the team motivated in all phases of project completion. There can be many road blocks when completing a task, like the plan might not work the way it was intended to during the design, new budget constraints might come up, due to external reasons deadline might shrink. If one person takes the responsibility to make required changes to the plan or solution, then sailing through such difficulties becomes easy.

For example in my project, our team regularly has meetings in which our next agenda is discussed, progress is analyzed and any change required to the current plan is discussed. At the end, it is the supervisor who distributes the work based on the person’s ability and time crunch.

It is always easy to deal with one point of contact rather than, different people and different opinions. So I would say that any team should have healthy discussions but one person should be responsible to steer the team in the right direction to get the work done effectively.

My Take 2: Follow your Heart

At some point or other, everyone has a confusion to choose between what we truly feel inside and what everyone outside is expecting from us. At that point choosing what your heart says may be difficult, but is a sure path to happiness and success.

I always felt this in my life; I am an undergraduate major in engineering, but I did not choose to work in core engineering process because of my inclination towards business. For now, I choose a platform that supports business operations and at the same time requires engineering skills. I am really happy that I made this decision.

If you choose to work what you love to do, then life and work becomes fun. Steve Jobs, Apple founder, which is the biggest US Company as of today, attributes his success to following his heart. He was a collage drop out, took classes in calligraphy because of his genuine interest. This helped him later to design Mac computers into beautiful typographic machines.

I am sure everyone has heard it from someone or other that one should follow his/her heart, and it may sound cliché. But this statement is lot more powerful than we realize. There are a million examples to prove the same. Buddha, founder of Buddhism was a king by birth, but he followed his heart into monastic life and became inspiration for millions of humans around the earth.

Following the natural instinct has always worked, right from Gautama Buddha to Steve Jobs. For successful and happy life, all we need to do is follow our heart with little courage and discipline.

My Take 1: Whose Responsibility ?

In today’s competitive world every company tries to save an extra cent on its manufacturing cost and beat the competition by any means. In this race there is a good possibility that a manufacturer can stoop towards unfair means for monetary gain. Hence the manufacturer should be held responsible for safety of the product.

Many argue that sometimes companies are sued for very trivial issues and people walk away with millions of dollars. This is not true; one classic example is a lady suing McDonalds, over hot coffee spilling on her, causing minor burns. The actual case was that McDonalds used to serve coffee with temperatures from 180 – 200 F and this temperature can cause third degree burns. This temperature was maintained in spite of many earlier complaints because, hot coffee would force consumers to drink it slowly and which intern reduces number of free refills.

We use finished products for almost everything in life. And to save money, if manufacturer use lower quality substitute we can run into life threatening risks. Imagine the number of accidents if a car manufacturer compromises on breaking pad material, burns and rashes to the new born if baby products manufacturer compromises on diaper materials, there are numerous examples.

Another threat which can arise with irresponsibility of manufacturers is environmental damage. If the company causing the damage is not accountable then mess done to the nature will never get cleaned. Last year when BP spilled oil into the Gulf, it killed millions of animals in aquatic life. Fishes, micro organisms, sea birds are still trying to find a balance in spite of rigoros cleaning efforts.

In the final analysis, as consumer products affect many innocent lives, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure their product safety.