Arrived

I sometimes catch myself stalking some of my old coleagues agin. Now and then,  I check upon them. To keep track of where they are, but mostly just to feel better. At the the beginning of my career, I wanted to do a lot of things, travel to a lot of places, visit , and meet people. I thought my career in IT would allow me these rare opportunities to see a little more of this world. And I worked hard towards that goal. But I was working under bad managers, and was plagued by terrible management. One of the many reasons I decided to migrate out. And it was not an easy decision. So, I try to imagine, where would I be, if I had decided to stay. And continue to suffer. Would my life have changed for the better ? Could I have stayed on and still achieved a  little more ?

The answer, thankfully, is NO.

If I had stayed, I would have been pummelled by meaningless, tedious, repeating tasks, increasing frustration, and a feeling of uselessness. And I know this because everybody else I worked with back in the day, are still where I had last left them.

My old team at e*, that company in Bangalore where I worked for 3 years. They are all still stuck in that same job, working in an over-crowded, pollutted city. None of them got that chance to travel abroad.

Poor little P is still doing data entry jobs. And that SB is still making them work. S and S are holding on for dear life. V has put on more weight, must be all that late night snack they have been having.

My old, sick, demeaning managers. Well they have done pretty good, actually. Feeding on the blood of innocent subordinates, they have become more successful. At least , thats what I infer from their shortening designations.

And my competition, yes , I had a lot of that. To be fair, we were all struggling in the same , dwindling, putrid pool of meaningless work, so we all wanted to escape somewhere. I gave up easily, and moved away. While for most of them, the struggle continues.

Competition is fierce in India's private job market. And with only a few guidelines set by the government, companies play a one sided game of micro-management. While emloyees in the sector do have the option of unions, they also understand that live is much better for them in the tech sector compared to the others. So they let it go. People work for years chasing that elusive 'onsite' opportunity, that one chance to make some money, tax free, which will enable them to buy a home in one of those crowded cities. And also , the chance to see a different country, with the company footing all the travel bills.

Choosing to move to Australia was the best decision we had taken in a long , long time. With a lot more professionalism, flexibility and wage, ones problems seem to dwindle away. For the first time, I have a good balance of professional and personal life. Last year, my manager here came to me and told me to take a few days off. Leave. For real. And he really meant it. That was an amazing feeling, which I had never experienced during my time in India. That instruction came from years of having mentored subordinates, and the employee-friendly laws of this country.

I hope more people get to see such professionalism, and kindness. But they wil have to travel away to experience that. As for me, I am living the dream.