Thursday, May 5, 2011

Latest disease in corporate circles

There is a new disease in the corporate circle and it's contagious!!

Name of the Disease: Pre Increment Syndrome aka PIS

Symptoms:
1. A gnawing feeling in the pit of the stomach like butterflies flying

2. Constant mood swings - One moment you feel confident, the other down in the dumps and finally, 'I don't give a damn' or the 'negative indifferent' attitude as one of my not-so-good friend likes to call it.

It passes on from one employee to another, so the more you share your usefulness or uselessness with others, the better are the chances of the other being affected by PIS.

PIS generally starts in the month of March, when the HR mails the appraisal forms to the employees. The discussions begin and every employee starts writing a eulogy of all the work done / not done by him/her in the past year. The D-Day arrives when the meeting is scheduled for appraisal discussion with bosses. Best dressed you with a photocopy of the summary of entire year's work enter the room oozing with confidence and soon issues that you din't know existed start cropping up in the discussion, your explanations are questioned, questions that have no answers..

Boss: (Avoiding the topic of your achievement of targets, in case you have achieved it)Well, you were hired to come up with new ideas..I don't see anything happening..
You: But, i have over achieved my targets
Boss: Well, that's your KRA, but what about the special project that you were assigned?
You: ahem..there has been no support from other departments, I ran the problem through you, but...
Boss: You are not hired to come up with problems, you should give solutions, instead..

And, the cliched line makes a kill. The over zealous employee who entered the room oozing confidence comes back confused and depressed. The next few days go in questioning oneself and then blaming the company. Then, in a month's time when all is back to normalcy, there are rumours of increment letters being on the way.

And, the cycle starts again. The confidence, the self-questioning, the blame-the-company, depression, sharing one's fear with colleagues and transferring PIS. If the colleague, at the end of the discussion, still looks confident and is not empathising with you, don't worry, he is just as scared as you, the chances are he has mastered the art of "showcasing indifference".

Wish all the best to all the employees for their increments and may all of us learn to nail PIS... :)

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