Month: December 2006

I am continuing with my post on “why people leave companies?“. One of the factor (as pointed by few) can be greener fields (in terms of monetary gains). Let’s put a thought on who all leave for greener fields?

1. The first placement: This is applicable to all people but mainly for B-school placement days. People make the decision on the basis of money, as it is an easy way of judging companies from outside. (Cup Vs Coffee – The presentation does matter for first impression). We generally expect good coffee inside good cup (expecting better culture and management with better payments).
2. Dissatisfied employee: When a member of your team is not satisfied he starts comparing his fields with the existing market. Most of us do not do an analysis about our dissatisfaction. We generally blames our salary for it. Salary is certainly the most visible factor due to its quantitative factor. We can calculate the increase in salary at a visible surface but satisfaction improvement can only be hoped for.
3. Creative and smart crowd: If the company pays same amount to an average and a smarter guy, either the smarter will become average or smarter will leave. The incentive structure based on performance is very important (and very difficult to achieve). Smart guys wants to progress faster and the company culture should support that. Companies needs to work out a plan to separate men from boys.
4. At various career disconnected nodes There can be situations when current company may not be able to give you deserved growth due to other limitations forcing you to leave.

There can be other reasons (which I will be covering in my next post after “making a silicon valley inside your company”) but I have covered only about people leaving the company for greener fields. Let me explain why a fresher (initial phase of career, may be first 5 years) should not consider money (salary) as a deciding factor while leaving a company. Let me put a short story and explain it.

I went to the woods with God asking the same question “God, I am not earning enough. Look at my friends they are earning so much. I think I am not worth it”.

“Look around”, God said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?” “Yes”, I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light.I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.

“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed . I would not quit.” He said.

“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant…But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.”

He said to me. “Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?”

If you can survive (I repeat survive) then first few years of your career should be worked out for growing roots and building muscles. You should look for challenges and learning environment and money will follow you soon. In my words “If you follow money for first few years it will become a habit and you will always run after small money. Money will run after a well rooted man so try and grow roots for those heights”. Also remember that you can earn money even after 10 years but you can’t grow roots after 10 years.

Purpose of this post
Neither good companies can survive without good people nor good people without good companies. I have learned few things from my experience and here I put down in bulleted format :-

1. Mentors for freshers: Many a time freshers have superficial expectations from companies and are not sure of their career. They keep comparing the salaries (even now we have products in India for pay comparisons). A good mentor can help a fresher understand the value of first few years and provide a good working culture. We have always tried to do that and in my next post “creating silicon valley inside your company” I will be explaining the methods. Companies should provide good mentors for freshers.
2. Learning environment: Companies should provide a good learning environment. The teams should be a proper mix of experienced and new comers with proper diversification in culture and gender. At the end of the month with targets and sales for a person companies should analyze the learning curve for each employee. Companies should believe in creating smart workers than only creating works and sales.
3. Analysis before leaving the company: If ever you leave the company make sure you have done a collective analysis with the HR department to make sure you are on the right path.

Switching companies are good for both the parties as companies can get fresh ideas through new employees and the employees gets a new culture to work in. But remember that life is not only about companies, jobs and money, it has more dimensions to it. Keep your values very high (as high as possible). Before leaving the company do following things

• Sit with HR dept and explain them your problem as bold as possible. Leaving a company is not a crime so be humble and explain the problems boldly.
• Allow some time to the HR dept and team to help you.