Why we should go home on time

Great reading I got from email today...

Mr. Narayana Murthy is undoubtedly one of the most famous persons from Karnataka(India). He is known not just for building the biggest IT Empire in India but also for his simplicity. Almost every important dignitary visits InfoSys campus. He delivered an interesting speech during an employee session with another IT company in India. He is incidentally, one of the top 50 influential people of Asia according to an Asiaweek publication and also the new IT Advisor to the Thailand Prime Minister.

Extract of Mr. Narayana Murthy's Speech during Mentor Session:
I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more. Some people do so because of a work emergency where the long hours are only temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I do not know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are in the office this long. Others put in long office hours because they are addicted to the workplace. Whatever the reason for putting in overtime, working long hours over the long term is harmful to the person and to the organization. There are things managers can do to change this for everyone's benefit.

Being in the office long hours, over long periods of time, makes way for potential errors.
My colleagues who are in the office long hours frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes requires their time as well as the time and energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday through Friday to correct mistakes made after 5 PM on Monday. Another problem is that people who are in the office long hours are not pleasant company.

They often complain about other people (who are not working as hard); they are irritable, or cranky, or even angry. Other people avoid them. Such behaviour poses problems, where work goes much better when people work together instead of avoiding one another. As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave the office. First and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I work with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His words quickly lose their meaning when he sends these chiding group e-mails with a time-stamp of 2 AM, Sunday. Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives. For instance, here is a guideline I find helpful:
1) Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2) Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3) Go home.
4) Read the books/comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the dirt, play with your kids, etc.
5) Eat well and sleep well.

This is called recreating. Doing steps 1, 3, 4, and 5 enable step 2. Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They are hard for some of us because that requires 'personal change'. They are possible since we all have the power to choose to do them. In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my oldest son. When he was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he would not fall asleep no matter how long the visit was, and no matter what time of day it was. He would fight off sleep until the visitors left. It was as if he was afraid that he would miss some thing. Once our visitors' left, he would go to sleep. By this time, however, he was over tired and would scream through half the night with nightmares. He, my wife, and I, all paid the price for his fear of missing out.

Perhaps some people put in such long hours because they do not want to miss anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this is that events will never stop happening. That is life! Things happen 24 hours a day. Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap. Things will happen while you are asleep, but you will have the energy to catch up when you wake.

Hence,
"LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY BECAUSE YOU
NEVER KNOW WHEN THE COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU" - Narayana Murthy

KAFKA ON THE SHORE

By: Haruki Murakami

The Story:
15-year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home, both to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and to find his long-lost mother and sister.
As Kafka flees, so too does Nakata, an elderly simpleton whose quiet life has been upset by a gruesome murder. (A wonderfully endearing character, Nakata has never recovered from the effects of a mysterious World War II incident that left him unable to read or comprehend much, but did give him the power to speak with cats.)

What follows is a kind of double odyssey, as Kafka and Nakata are drawn inexorably along their separate but somehow linked paths, groping to understand the roles fate has in store for them. Murakami likes to blur the boundary between the real and the surreal—we are treated to such oddities as fish raining from the sky; a forest-dwelling pair of Imperial Army soldiers who haven't aged since WWII; and a hilarious cameo by fried chicken king Colonel Sanders—but he also writes touchingly about love, loneliness and friendship.

Biasanya aku ngga baca buku terjemahan dari pengarang Jepang, karena bahasa nya ribet banget dan suka ngebosenin. Cuma karena aku suka banget sama judulnya, jadi aku baca juga. Ini adalah buku pertama Haruki Murakami yang ku baca. Walaupun banyak yang bilang, ini bukan masterpiece nya Murakami, but this book is really amazing. It's absurd, seperti kita terseret dalam mimpi indah penuh hal hal magic, time traveller, musik klasik and philosophis world of Murakami. Walaupun storynya mudah ketebak, dan di bagian akhir agak dragging, but absolutely will read another Murakami's

Freakonomics

FREAKONOMICS

By: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Kalau ada yang pernah nonton, ada serial TV "Number", di mana di serial ini matematika dipergunakan untuk memecahkan berbagai jenis kejahatan. Nah, di buku ini ekonom, Steven D. Levitt mempergunakan matematika untuk menganalisa berbagai sosial problem yang ada di masyarakat saat ini. Sedang untuk penulisannya dibantu oleh wartawan, Stephen J. Dubner.

Sebagai bukan penggemar buku ekonomi dan matematika tentunya, i really have fun with this book. Pertama karena issue diangkat adalah mengenai kehidupan sehari hari, kemudian dianalisa dengan cara & bahasa yang singkat jadi mudah dipahami dan - surprise - entertaining.Although mungkin buat yang "advance", buku ini akan menjadi terlalu sederhana.

Topik yang diangkat juga menarik banget. Misalnya: tahukah bahwa guru dan atlet sumo itu ternyata sama sama suka cheating. Why drug dealers are still living with their moms. Do you know that swimming pool is more dangerous than gun for children, how to make a good parents. Ada juga yang analisa yang mungkin menimbulkan kontroversi (apalagi kalau Levitt orang Indonesia nih). Jadi Levit menganalisa apa sih yang menyebabkan tingkat kejahatan itu turun. Ternyata bukan karena polisi tambah cekatan or tambah banyak, bukan pula karena ada innovative strategies yang diterapkan tapi the most significant factor adalah legalisasi aborsi di US. Nahhhhh...

a wedding

..'love is in the air" kayanya tema yang pas untuk tahun ini. 2 temen baik ku di kantor akan menikah bulan Oktober & Desember ini. And the most important, my lovely brother - si bujang lapuk hehehehe - give a sweet surprise this month, that he will get married ...guess when??? in September...Aaaaahhh, it's only 2 months away :)

Jangan heran, aku jadi kaya ikutan mau nikah. Ikut ikutan pilih pilih gedung, pilih undangan, makanan, baju sampai tempat honeymoon. Sekarang hobby baca majalah wedding, kalau ke malll ngelihatin model cincin kawin terbaru sampai cari tahu jenis jenis kain batik or songket buat D-day nya.

Paling seru, ikutan rajin luluran ke salon bersama ibu ibu berdua ituh. Malah rajinan gue kali dibanding calo pengantinnya. Ngebawelin Tiki buat ke dokter kulit itu hobby terbaru gue :p

Walaupun ikutan repot ini itu, but I am so exciting..Ngelihat artikel tentang perkawinan si A or si B, rasanya ikut bahagia banget. Malah sempet kepikiran kalau resign ajah kerja di advertising terus jadi wedding organiser seru juga kayanya :)

Then something bother me, do I feel exciting about the wedding ? Yes.
Do I want my own wedding now? Ternyata jawaban aku adalah no, i dont want to get married now..I realize, what I like is a "wedding" but well I guess I am not ready to "married" yet..

Sekarang menikah & mempertahankan nya sampai akhir is a very tough job. Godaan nya luar biasa banyak nya. Bukan aku merasa takut, hanya aku merasa tidak mau hanya karena dikejar deadline umur atau males diomelin nyokap aku jadi merasa harus buru buru. Bon Jovi ajah pernah bilang, marriage is not a bed of roses but the beginning of battlefield. Nah, menemukan the right man untuk berjuang bersama, I guess is not that easy..

Then aku jadi berpikir...Apakah kita menemukan dulu orang yang tepat baru kita memutuskan untuk menikah atau karena kita menyadari sebaiknya orang itu menikah baru kita berusaha mencari orang yang tepat untuk membangun rumah tangga bersama?

Damn, ternyata aku memang a complicated person :)