What would you say…you do here?

A lot of people, in the U.S. and even here in India, have asked me what I actually do at work. Whenever the question comes up, I always have to pause and contemplate how to best explain my job function.

My official title is “Senior Manager – Special Projects” The first question that I’m sure you’re probably thinking is…”Senior Manager? I missed the part when you were a normal manager”

What I lack in actual managerial skills is made up by the family connection. India is driven by hierachy and I can get things done faster than others because I'm family. While there are nice, small perks to being related to the Managing Director such as being served coffee with nice china and getting priority at the copier, the biggest perk is that people have to kind of listen to me or at least humor my presence. Don’t get the impression that I throw hissy fits or storm into people’s offices whenever I want something but when I ask for a report or a number, I usually get it or at the worst, I get a really good excuse on why it can’t be done or why it’ll take several days.

I do feel a bit silly having Senior Manager as my title. Something is quite ridiculous about someone with 3 years of work experience who is constantly mistaken as an intern being a ‘senior manager’, which is why my e-mail signature drops the “Senior” part.

So I’ve explained the title, now what about my department, Special Projects? Well, aside from being a Senior Manager, I’m technically also a group head. Of course, this isn’t really isn’t an accomplishment considering I’m also the only person in my group. Special Projects is basically a made-up department for me since my India stint is just a stop-gap until next year.

Let me tell you, nothing makes people lose interest faster in a business setting than telling them you work in “Special Projects”. In theory, some outsiders might think this is a really cool department and that I’m assigned to well, ‘special’ projects. However, most people in business know “Special Projects” is secretly a code name for “things that other people don’t want to do” I’m sure when people empty their pockets at the end of the day, they glance at my card and chuck it in the trash.

So what exactly do I do within Special Projects? If I’m talking to a person I want to impress or a client, I’ll explain how I focus on operations, primarily within our tablet facility and that I also work on several things in finance including controlling certain aspects of the budget and valuation work. But if I really had to sum it up to you, what do I do?

Follow-up.

I’m essentially a facilitator. I do work but most of the time, I’m just following up with people and making sure they’re doing what I asked them. In fact, there are days when I’m driving home, I try to think of what I work I actually did that day and I can’t come up with a single thing because all I did was just check in with others to see the status of requests I made. Initially, I was a bit concerned that I’m not really adding any value to the Company but as Harsha said ‘following up with people is half the battle’. To give you an idea, I start at one end of the office asking people for status updates and slowly work my way down the aisles, by the time I get to the other side of the office, enough time has elapsed that I can go back to the start and ask for an update. If you mapped out my walking pattern in any given day, it looks like I’m just walking in a big circle.

One of the other ‘projects’ has involved me taking over the IT budget. I have complete control over the budget and any requests have to come through me. My uncle has told me to really dive into details and make sure to cut back wherever I can. However, I realized I was a bit too stringent when the IT Head asked me if it’s okay to buy 10 mouse pads for 1 dollar apiece. Just for fun, I still made him justify why people needed new mouse pads.

As I’ve mentioned in several blog pots, most people in the office treat me differently since my uncle is the MD. At times, it’s kind of amusing, such as when people stand when I enter their cube or how people always insist I always enter a room first. I’ve tried to minimize these unwritten “courtesies” but I feel like I’m breaking office etiquette rules. For example, one day as I was leaving the cafeteria, I held the door open for an office boy (Yes, that’s what we call them and yes, I don’t actually know his name), he stopped dead in his tracks, unsure what to do…after a slight pause, he asked me to go ahead, I said no and waved him to go by, he asked I go ahead, I held firm and told him to walk…he quickly walked by me but put his hand against the door and tried to hold it as he walked by.

While the encounters with the office help are more for my own amusement, I have been interested in some of the feedback I’ve received from people here who run their own companies. The feedback has been given in the pretense that I’m a manager and also a member of the promoter group. Almost everyone has told me I can’t be too nice to people because they’ll start thinking we’re friends and will try to take advantage of the situation. Some of the people giving feedback were aghast that I actually say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to fellow co-workers. Perhaps I’m misreading the feedback but I think they’re saying, as part of the promoter group, I’m somewhat entitled to making demands and forcing people to prioritize my needs because I’m much more vested with the Company.

I’m fairly confident they’d all die if they knew I got on all fours with a rag to clean up our booth last month in Spain when someone spilled champagne. They probably think it’s silly I did it and I’m not saying I’m that humble, but when something needs to get done, it needs to get done, regardless of who does it. This will be an interesting issue to grapple with as long as I’m India. I’m not naïve enough to say that all the workers in the Company are created equal but I still think it’s important to be nice to people, that empowers them and makes them better workers.

On a random note, I know I said I’m done with traveling for a while. Well apparently, “a while” is one month for me. I’m headed to the one country I never had an interest in visiting, the U.A.E…..Dubai, here I come.