A Dream Job!

Year after year, when its placements time, I hear conversations amongst some of my college friends, juniors, and alumni on who is placed where; who is coming to which institute; what is the bench-mark pay this year; which sectors are hits amongst students, etc. Of-course, in my case, ever since I got my current ‘Bharat Sarkar’ job, I have struck to it diligently for six plus long years for the positives I see in it.

Having stayed here for a while now, I have often observed there are various principles and ideologies in the system I am a part of that I do not entirely endorse; Being the Idealist that I am, I have attempted, albeit in baby steps, to change a few of these in my own ways and achieved limited success.

There were a couple of incidents this week in office and some subsequent discussions with colleagues and friends which led me to take a quick re-cap of these thoughts and to ask myself if there is one such thing called a Dream Job – if so, where does it exist. Instead, isn’t it possible to have a dream for the job that we are presently in and try to accomplish that dream.

Instead of cribbing about the so-called omnipresent “system”, at the cost of sounding clichéd, is it really so difficult to change this “system” through quantifiable, measurable initiatives that will yield some results. In the role and the job that I am in, my dream is to be a part of the organization where:

• it is perfectly fine to have a view of your own and debate it with open minds.
• meritocracy and performance alone rule promotion policies
• it is Ok to question words like “precedence” and “past practice” based on rationale thinking
• it is possible to execute your function without fear or favour
• the staff are genuinely ‘anti-red tapist’ - the mind-set that the bureaucracy and government set-ups are so infamous for
• all cadre of staff – right from the security guard at the main gate to the management is accountable for what they do and own up their work
• skill-sets and interests of individuals are matched with requirements of a work-profile to determine postings
• all unproductive meetings are curtailed, if not to save time, atleast to save on reams of paper that’s wasted, meeting after meeting
• the senior management refuses protocol and is on its own
• lunch breaks are not for 2 plus long hours to go to the near-by exhibitions/fairs or for shopping or a siesta in the library!

On a lighter note, something came as quite a surprise to me in this context. When I was sharing this with some of my friends in the private sector, barring a few of the above, their wish-list seemed hardly any different!! Is the grass indeed greener on the other side?

Any comments?