Thanks!! Appreciation!! Recognition!!

I appreciate that, the organization recognizes the hard work you have put in to make this project a success, we thank you for the extra zeal and commitment you have demonstrated to make this event success.

A employee never just works for money. Off course money is a defacto factor in a job, but there is much more to it. When one puts in hard effort day in and day out, then they have a right to and they always expect a word of thanks or appreciation from seniors.

I doubt how many of you are aware that there exist a entity which defines "Employee Recognition' as the application of a scientifically confirmed behavioral psychology principle that employee performance and retention are strongly linked to consistent, appropriate positive reinforcement of behaviors that promote the organization’s goals". Leaving this quite scientific definition apart, don't you feel appreciation plays a major role in how an individual performs his/her duties? Being motivated increases throughput of an individual which cumulatively improve the performance of an organization too..

But on the other hand, if there is an employee who have never received any words of thanks would make him obnoxious, detached and he/she may start loosing commitment which may be hazardous for everyone around if such feeling starts pilling up..

Appreciation, thanks, recognition are not synonyms but they work more or less in similar way in real life.. When you are satisfied with any xyzee's role/commitment you may say thanks, may appreciate him/her in front of all and then recognize him/her by giving awards, bonuses, promotions, monitory raise, stocks...

Punch line is that recognition matters, and people do love getting recognized and they are always ready to work hard for it. So organizations, why not appreciate employees, thank them and recognize their efforts and grow cumulatively. Remember to never demotivate an individual as it could be fatal and at times procrastinating appreciation too could be. :)

Status Messages!!

Yeah I am talking about instant messengers only.



I had deployed a job and in the meantime was looking at the IMs I use, YM, GTalk and MOC to be specific. And I enjoyed reading the status messages of my contacts once again.

• To err is human and to blame it on a computer is even more so
• We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of time: Premature optimization is the root of all evil
• Positive self talk
• One of the reasons why people hold on to memories so tight is because memories are the only thing that doesn’t change when everything else does!!!
• In organizations, real power is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacity to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles and positions..
• We don’t know what we don’t know.
• Well behaved people never made a history

• If you win, you need not explain but if you loose you should not be there to explain
• Beautiful weather in beautiful Netherlands
• It doesn’t matter how often a married man changes his job, he still ends with the same boss
• Of all the words in English, worst three are “Could have been…”
• Get busy living or get busy dying
• Not life but good life is to be chiefly valued
• Stay hungry stay foolish
• Ek ajnabi jhoke ne kal poocha mere gum ka sabab, sehera ki bhigi ret mei meine likha awargi
• Life is simple not easy, don’t try to understand life just live it
• Chand sa mukhada – Ali Haider
• Smile is a curve that makes everything straight
• There is no sincere love than love for food J
• The more mariners I have around me, the much more safer I feel

Interesting huh..

The reason I feel people don’t keep status messages in MOC (for those who don’t know what MOC means – it stands for Microsoft Office Communicator), is because they use it for official purpose but YM, GTalk, Rediff Bol, AOL messenger are all mostly used personally only.. So we may find dumb and non catchy status of people on MOC like Online, Busy, Do Not Disturb and Away. Man grow up people do have emotions also and not just availability.

I really respect the innovativeness of the guy who must have come up with this idea of status messages in messengers. Being human is all about having emotions, feelings, opinions, availability and lot more..

Moa status message says “all paid jobs absorb and degrade mind”. What is yours for the day??

Firefox Rock!!

Are you techie... Do you use shortcuts while working on your machine..? Do you lay back in front of your machine for hours browsing through www... That means you are internet freak.. And still you don't use firefox. Don't tell me that.. The kind of power and flexiblitiy today firefox provides is I doubt can be compared to any other browsers present in market. They are the leaders in browser market space. Mozilla have got real big plans for firefox browser's power. They have add ons for web developers, different skins for a normal internet user and lot more.

Checkout

And to add lot more to the features of firefox, mozilla is coming up with firefox version 3. They plan to have a big bang download day .. So enjoy the world wide web and use firefox upto its fullest!!

IT slabs for financial year 2008-09

Today I was just busy entering my declarations for this financial year. The 3rd party vendor which provides the payroll processing for our organization knows the domain and their tasks very well. They have actually provided a wizard where in you just need to enter your declarations under different sections and the tax payable gets calculated momentarily.

I found this tool to be too convenient for an individual to handle their budget and expenses. You can make changes any no. of times in a day throughout the year and your latest declaration till particular date of a month would be considered for tax calculation for that month.

Still to keep the readers of this blog aware of the slabs for this financial year, I am mentioning below the slabs for financial year 2008-09,


Taxable income slab (Rs.) Rate (%)
Up to 1,50,000 NIL
Up to 1,80,000 (for women) NIL
Up to 2,25,000 (for resident individual of 65 years or above) NIL
1,50,001 – 3,00,000 10
3,00,001 – 5,00,000 20
5,000,001 upwards 30*

*A surcharge of 10 per cent of the total tax liability is applicable where the total income exceeds Rs 1,000,000.
Education cess is applicable @ 3 per cent on income tax, inclusive of surcharge if there is any.

Now how about the HRA exemption calculation. I feel pitty about the people who don't understand such a simple calculation and have been paying tax for years. For all those dear friends of mine here is how the HRA exemption from tax is calculated,

If you happen to be a salaried employee claiming House Rent Allowance (HRA) from your employer, you are eligible for an Income Tax exemption under Section 10(13A) of the Income Tax Act.

Find the minimum of the following three options:

1. Actual house rent allowance received from your employer
2. Actual house rent paid by you minus 10% of your basic salary
3. 50% of your basic salary if you live in a metro or 40% of your basic salary if you live in a non-metro
This minimum figure is the allowed income tax exemption on house rent allowance.

I think it is prudent to work this HRA exemption factor out so that you can structure the other components of your variable pay better.

So guyz keep rocking and save as much tax as you can!!

Life

Howz life treating you..? How has been your life at xyz organization..?

These questions seem to be very easy to answer momentarily. But I really want to again start the discussion WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT.. Today the world is moving at such a fast pace and so is life.. I am a software professional, I have worked on what people screemingly claim to be complex softwares and have found bugs which were real interesting.. But I never got to find any bug in life...

The above question is answered differently by different people. If you ask any person with biology as a major in college, he will define life in terms of molecules, hydrogen and oxygen, different kinds of species that exist no earth and the speculations that they exist on other planets too.Thats the science perspective to it.. But I feel that there are things and parameters which cann't be measured by any metric system and I feel that is what defines life.

Life is not just about living.. This seems to be a very vast topic to me. I would like to mention here whatever I have seen, observed and learnt in my 24 years of age. It seems to be a kind of vicious circle to me. Where to start from. Okay first of all I will jot down personality traits of some people around me.. First of all madam K. I haven't seen anyone so much content from life. She seems to be satisfied and happy with whatever she had, has and will have in future. She doesn't have any dreams, aspirations and expectations from life, she lives life in present without thinking about future and with very less thought about past. One friend of mine Mr B.. He is happy with life, but as it happens with any young guy, he has got lots of aspiratioins in life and then I feel his life gets affected by people around him. He seems to be pretty much satisfied with life as far as there is no development at his friend's front. Then comes Mr K. Actually I know couple of Mr Ks. But I mention about the "K" who is close to me. Mr K has always been on the back seat as far as living life is concerned. I feel life cann't be lived fully without your anticipation. But he is a great believer of hindu mythology which states, your destiny is defined and so you are not craftsman for it. You are just here to spend that tenure, no matter how you feel, what you do to fight back or how you enjoy it. I have also encountered people who are so much bothered about what others around them are doing and then there are guys who are least concerned about their surroundings.

I heard someone someday saying no one learns in mother's womb, its the experience and your learning apetite which makes you successfull. And I am trying to learn the world and live life king size no matter what circumstances I encounter...