Family Matters

Family is an oft-used (or abused?) suffix in the corporate world. With best compliments from XYZ family. More often than not, the “F” word used in such cases means: We are a group of individuals pretending to be of one mind. We love our differences so much that we never give up on them. Each one of us sticks out like a sore thumb in our team. A family of sore thumbs. (Yukkk!)

Before
Impressions! One97 gives you the signal for a complete U turn on this one. Having been around for two years, I can say so without feeling like a sore thumb. We were less than 100 when I joined. We were of course family back then. Work would happen overnight on projects with horrid deadlines like it happens for weddings in a family. We would greet each-other like cousins. Space crunch forced us to have mega-lunches each day, which caused a lot of chatter like what happens over huge dining tables. If we had problems with each-other, we would sort it out among us. Any eventuality like someone falling ill met with people offering their cars, cash, credit cards and full-time help with movement to hospital. One hears stories of when fire struck an old office, how everyone gathered in clusters working from somebody’s home. We would share our joys as we shared our sorrows.

After
We are almost 500 now. We are spread across buildings, or at least floors. It is natural to imagine that now we cannot be family. But we can! The only difference is that now the one big family has branched out into many small units. So the teams have become the branches, with members supporting, standing up, and watching over each other. Tiffs happen. But people never stay sore with each other beyond a day or two at max. Teamwork, eh?

The culture spreads with our first name policy, majorly subsidized travel together, the bus trips to and from the office and having fun on Fridays. What really makes us one big family are things like the waves of applause originating from one end, and spreading all over the floor for reasons unknown to the other corner, but the enthusiasm of this other corner is no less: truly a One97 phenomenon!

Extended Family
When I was growing up, there would be days when my dad would come home obviously stressed out. He would depend on his family to de-stress, but never shared his work-woes.

Cut to today. I see how the extended family, i.e. the spouses at One97 and in certain cases even the children indirectly or directly participate and contribute.

•  We have had people having their spouses test our apps and point bugs and flaws in the user experience.
• A little girl came in handy when we needed a child’s voice. Voiceover fee: a couple of chocolates.
• A little boy had his views on what kind of apps would work with kids and so on.
• How can one forget the rigors of waiting for their spouses to turn up when late, and support in general?

So you see, dear family: family we were, family we stay and family we will always be.

So says Smita

| Category: Work and fun @ One97 |