Diversity

If you work from home, do you really have a weekend?

With the advancement in communications and the fact that large number of people can afford to buy communications devices made it even easier to get work done while away from office or even work full time from home office.

I have started to work from home since 2003 and needless to say, I work everyday even in weekends. The conventional office hours has no meaning when you work from home; your office is only feet away and you don’t need to get dressed to go to work, you can work in your Pajamas.

This new work style is changing how people work, its changing the traditional work habits and with this change the concept of weekend is changing.

If you look at outsourcing, its very clear is that someone is doing your work away from office. In reality, outsourcing is nothing more than doing office work away from office, either that work done at employee home or done half way around the world, the idea is same, office work can be done outside the office.

Since people can do office work at home, many will start to use the weekend to finish the work of the week ahead or do some catch up.

For the first time, a cyber criminal punished harshly in Saudi Arabia

According to the Saudi newspapers, Al-watan (reported on Sunday Dec21-2008), the Saudi court system delivered its first verdict on a cyber crime. The court sentenced a young Saudi man to jail term of a year and nine months, 200 lashes and fine of 50 thousands Saudi Riyals for hacking into a young lady e-mail files and stealing her personal photos and threatening to publish her photos.

Do you want to win or do you want to get a deal?

In a negotiation, what are your objectives, do get a deal or to win? As a manager, I have to sit in many meetings where a decision has to be made and parties must come to an agreement. In one of my last contract negotiations, the emotions were high and both parties stood firm by their position, it seemed there was going to be “no deal.”

The issue was “each company’s” CEO has a big ego that they were not welling to let go and the deal was about to collapse. I work for one of the CEOs, but I was also able to maintain good relation with the CEO of the other company.

In order for me to save the day, I had to make each CEO feel that he had won; I had to talk to each CEO separately. My idea was to make each CEO feel as if he won, although my aim was to make sure we reach an agreement and in order to do that, each party had to make some concessions.

After I sat we each CEO separately, I also called on a mediator who both partied trusted and he also met with each CEO separately.

At the closing of that business day, we had a signed contract by both CEOs. We made them feel that they WON

Global Executives Reveal Their Top IT Problems

In a survey conducted by independent IT Governance Institute (ITGI) earlier this year revealed some major IT problems faced by Global Executives, what do you think the major problems were?

1-Insufficient IT staff availability
2- Service delivery issues
3- Difficulty proving the value of information technology

All the above issues I can relate too, but I think the most interesting one is “the Difficulty proving the value of information technology.” There are still many businesses world-wide who are not able to see the benefits of having the latest Information technology implemented or can justify the cost of purchasing information technology.

At my own job where I am working now, I am not able to convince the management of the advantages of having IP telephony.

The other two points are important too and I don’t think IT staff shortages or Service delivery issues are problems to be resolved in the near future.

The next IT boom

Which country will be the next hot spot for IT jobs and IT products? Few months back, I was on a long visit to India, I had a chance to visit few cities. Various industries in India are adopting the latest IT solutions to improve their business process, sure the trend is world wide, but looking at the size of India, the size of its population and the growing educated and middle class, make India the ideal hot spot for IT services and products.

While visiting India, I saw the rapid spread of broad band use, laptops use, online banking, etc. All these type of services require manpower, technology and good infrastructures and with the size and population of India you can only imagine the amount of investment needed.

Many areas of the world are growing rapidly, but I think in India will be the most demanding.

Do you need more certifications?

During economic slow down and uncertain job markets, many people try to go back to school to get more education or more certificates, its natural human reaction, people think if they are more qualified, they will have a better chance on securing jobs.

But during economic slow downs most companies are trying to cut costs, the problem is not that they have not-qualified labor force, the problem is that they cannot afford a big payroll.

Naturally, if you are better educated or hold more certificates, you will demand higher salary and that is exactly what the hiring managers don’t want to do during slow times. So the best strategy to follow during slow times is to lower your expectations, think of ways to be more creative and be flexible with your company.

Salary increase is not always about money

Ever worked in a company where no one got a salary increase in ages? What this tells you about this company? I recall talking to a small business owner about the low salaries he is paying his employees, he said “they don’t deserve any more than what they are getting paid since their job performance is really low”, so I asked him “who hired them”?

If the company doesn’t have a fair system of salary increase, it means the company either, not growing or the company is not appreciating its employees.

In the same company above, I met a laborer who has gotten no pay increase in about three years, I have talked to him and studied his case and I found out that the company’s management actually failed to communicate with him about job performance expectations and what the company wanted from him.

As a manager, I see myself as a failure if I see my employees not advancing in their careers, if their pay remain the same year after year it means either the company is not growing or the management is not appreciating the work of the employees who will eventually leave.

In time of crisis, where America’s strength lies!!!!!!!!

Does the world still trust America as the leader of the free market? What makes America great in the eyes of the world? After the events of September 11, a French journalist stated that America will overcome these events by using its ingenuity and the ability to innovate.

In this time of global financial crisis and uncertainty around the globe, can American ingenuity come for a rescue? As an individual, I feel America’s strength lies in its ability to innovate, to take chances and unleash the power of its people.

Injecting 700 Billions in the economy will help, but the long-term solution will come only from the people who are willing to innovate and lead.

As a person, I strongly feel America’s strength lies in its ability to generate ideas, to attract telnets and to provide the platform for success.

Do you want to work for a big or a small company?

Throughout my working years, I have worked will all types of companies, from companies of only few employees to large multi-national companies.

Each company, large or small, has its own advantages and disadvantages; your decision to work for one company or another depends on your personality and your career goals.

After graduating from college, I was looking for a job, like most of us, with major companies in my field, we all wanted the benefits and prestige that comes with working at large corporations. But over the years and after I got more experience, I started to feel that working in the large and bureaucratic corporate environment acted as a road block in seeing my ideas implemented.

Large companies may give you job security and higher pay, but, in most cases, it won’t give you the chance to innovate and see your ideal implemented.

For the last 8 years, I have been either working for myself or working with small firms, I had a strong desire to see my ideas implemented and I was only able to do that by either working for myself or working for a small firm.

It all depends on your goals, if job security and higher pay is more important to you, than large corporations are the place to work and if you like more freedom to innovate and see your ideas implemented than go for small business.

Must every company give a holiday bonus?

As manager working in a new country (Qatar), I was asked by my employees to give a holiday bonus, a religious holiday is coming up soon (the celebration after the month of fasting (Rhamadn) for the Muslims.)

Our accounting department added the holiday bonus to this month (September) salaries, but the CEO of the company was absolutely against the idea, he said “a holiday bonus is something left to the management to decided on and it should not be included in our accounting records, it should not be a regular practice.”

I have been working as an independent consultant for several years now, and I can’t really recall while working in corporate America if I have ever received a “Holiday Bonus.” I still recall employees talking about getting a bonus, but I am not sure if we received anything or it was a common practice for our company.

I think in many parts of the world, its socially accepted practice, but its not required by law.