I was recently invited to my Alma Mater to deliver a talk on what I’ve learnt through my many years in the corporate world. While the talk didn’t go as planned due to scheduling issues (story for when we meet), I thought I’d record my thoughts here. If you’ve been in the industry long enough, … Continue reading What I’ve learned
31 day challenge: Do nothing
Lately I’ve been spending a fair bit of time reading and writing about working less (watch out for those pieces here). It all began with me stumbling upon the book by Jenny Odell called ‘How to do nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy’. Curious about the content, I watched the Talks at Google session by Odell … Continue reading 31 day challenge: Do nothing
5 reasons why you will never…
Here are five reasons why you will never work on a project that will take five years to demonstrate success: Organizations are designed to orient employees towards yearly outcomes. If you don’t believe me, take a look at your performance appraisal system. Working on anything that takes longer than a year, usually rewards you only … Continue reading 5 reasons why you will never…
Don’t let the conversation die
Sometimes when you expose people to the same script over and over again, they become blasé. The effectiveness wears and it’s easier to ignore. I felt it happen to me with HR & AI. It happened with HR & technology. Then, to my dismay, it happened with diversity. Sometime in the middle of last year, … Continue reading Don’t let the conversation die
The truth behind internal equity
If you have worked in HR long enough, you have without doubt used the term internal equity/parity at least once. This versatile term can be put to use anytime a conversation around compensation creeps up. It can be at the time of hiring, internal transfer or at the much loved annual appraisal cycle when a … Continue reading The truth behind internal equity
2020 word of the year
It has been two years since I started setting ‘words of the year’ for myself and I have no intention of breaking the streak. Now, I may not be the most convincing exhibit for you to set one for yourself but, like with everything else in life, there is always room for improvement. I have … Continue reading 2020 word of the year
How not to: Mess an interview
I’ve recently had the good fortune of taking a series of interviews for a position at my organization. These interviews have not only made me question the motivation of those turning up but also why I have never thought of a blog post on the topic. While I have, in the past, written a piece … Continue reading How not to: Mess an interview
It’s all about the money, honey!
The biggest myth that has been circling the world of HR for a while now is to do with compensation. Research after research based on endless survey data tells us that role, quality of work and brand reputation precedes compensation when it comes to selecting a new job opportunity. Yet contrary to it all, when … Continue reading It’s all about the money, honey!
End of the year slump
Last week I sent the closing email for one of the projects I run. The email subject line said – ‘Chennai Technophiles signing off for 2019.’ What the subject line should have said is ‘I am signing off for 2019.’ For over a week now I have been literally dragging myself out of bed and … Continue reading End of the year slump
Manager Tax
The HR team has a large number of responsibilities, but by far, the most important is likely creating a workplace where employees can deliver their best with minimal friction; including managers. However, the last time I counted the number of internal tools in my organization that managers needed to work with for managing talent, I … Continue reading Manager Tax










