Looking Inside Professionalism

Today while browsing through orkut, I came across one article titled: Why I hate Narayanan Murthi of Infosys? Tempted by common human instinct, I stopped to look at what is the hot content inside. Sujoy, was the name of the person who had written that article, severly critising the work and culture at Infosys and finally blaming the man behind that NRN Murthi.He had stayed in Infosys for around ten months. During that period he was put into shift works and worked for an outsourced project. Being an IIT student, he felt it was disgrace on his part to work under such environment and finally stepped out with an impression that Infy can't cherish his dream of working in a true Indian IT company with quality work. It was big article, where he had compared the works of NRN Murty with that of Akio Morita of Sony fame. Finally he had concluded that it's a totally unprofessional company driven by vested personal interest. That give rise to a question worth millions. What really means by professionalism and how it’s linked to personal interests? Every now and then working in corporate world we hear the buzz words like - His working style is totally unprofessional, he has no professionalism inside so on and so forth. So what is this professionalism? Is that something which is definable? Many people have their own definitions of professionalism. As per Webster its "The expertness characteristic of a professional person". Other way we can say specialized characteristics of a skilled person. Many people in the corporate world use this as an arsenal against their colleagues/sub ordinates /bosses to sprout their unhappiness over something/someone. They claim that true professional culture can safe guard from unwanted disastrous events which otherwise will not only malign the company's reputation, but also lessen the individual growth. But does professionalism is really different from individual expertness? Can it be isolated from individual expectations? Is it possible that person is really bad at personal level but a true professional? My experiences till date force me to say a big NO to all these questions.

When we grow old and pick up a job to start an independent financial life, we bring in individual expectations to the work place, which we choose to work for. Apart from technical things, that work place demands, we learn how to deal with various types of persons, how to tackle the difficult situations, how to execute task on time with all hardships. There we give a new dimension to our not refined bookish knowledge. Now we are into practical world where time is to money, work is to worship, profit is to business. In order to achieve these three factors we do tasks accordingly. Some people become work-alcoholic- Severely obsessed with their work, some try to make fool of others around them to get their work done. Still some just execute their responsibilities and come back home. Now germinates three satisfaction levels: One whose expectations are high befitting his hard work. He demands all perfections from everyone around him. Anyone working lesser hours than him comes under his surveillance and criticism. His level of professionalism is confined to working late hours and delivery before time and always believing that he is the best. Those persons rise faster in their career ladder. But what they miss is companionship. They don't have time for others so as others for them in the time of need. Once the work juggernaut comes to a standstill, they find what they have missed over the period of time. Needless to say that they, as per definitions are true professionals. Then comes second category whose course of action revolves around making just fool of others and getting their work done. They work less show more, always complain about their system and find problems within it. But never do anything to change the system. In the race for the “Survival of the fittest” they also get their share in many occasions, rise to ladder of so called success, cultivate the hatredness of fellow colleagues, helps in dismantling the company reputations and finally one big hand in collapse of the entire system. These people are not only very dangerous for corporate world but also dangerous for entire society. But we often here from them severely critising others for not being professionals. Then comes third category who does their and go home. They are the biggest cross section of the society who just do whatever been told to do. So if they become professionals or not depend upon those other two categories who virtually become mentor for this third category.

Now let’s go back to Sujoy’s case again. He calls someone who has shown new dimension to India’s software industry a fool, unprofessional, selfish, self- centered money minded person. He even went to the extent of comparing Infy to a cobbler’s workshop. Language he used “Like Cobbler’s repair shop is to Nike showroom as to Infy is to Oracle”. What a comparison. Pat on his back. At the age of 23-24 he could visualize the painstaking activity of opening of a new company and that too managing 30,000 odd engineers, whom he considers all fools.
This is not his mistakes, rather his immaturity which assimilates the highest level of frustration sandwitched between his own self interests. He could not get what he wanted. So he reacted. If he were in New Jersy doing the same low level work for some big firm for bigger salary, probably he won’t have reacted the same way as he reacted. This is not just personal conclusion rather a generic observations. People shout, complain, when they don’t get what they want. And those who don’t get after several trysts are probably those who don’t deserve that. And the level of frustration they show upon colleagues and sub-ordiantes. Even their bosses don’t go away from their deceptive attitude. These second category always tell lies in front their bosses to make them happy and then do the reverse with their sub-ordinates. One thing Sujoy should remember that negative attitude doesn’t give big success in life. Whatever happens attitude towards others and attitudes towards life should be positive. If he didn’t get what he wished, probably he could explore other options. But that doesn’t mean company is bad and people are all fools. Any organization that is giving bread and butter to many, adding value to country’s economy are all good. Yes, the level of work, business acumen, type of culture vary. But one fact remains firm- Any enterprise build upon strong ethics, morals, business expertise will flourish and those build upon falsity, bamboozle will perish no mater how ever big they become in a short span. We have seen debacle of Worldcom, Enron to name a few. Sujoy lost his temperament because his level of frustrations took the driver’s seat. But those who believe in themselves should not carry on their lives with Sujoy’s notes. Big empires demands big commitments and still bigger is feeling for others. Man by default lives in a society and any course of action pitted against societal obligations can’t be coined as “Being professional”. Sujoy may or may not learn with the passage of time but certainly we should try not to pat on our back thinking that we are professional and just doing the reverse.