Biography 294: Office time

 When I was a kid, I saw my father go to the office very early in the morning, maybe at 7 am, and his office would close before 5 pm. So, he would have some time for his family in the afternoon.

Later, office hours changed. 

I think this early morning office schedule is good. It allows people to start utilizing their time from the morning, making good use of sunlight. If they can return home early, they can then make time for other activities, such as a part-time job, running a business, taking care of family, enjoying leisure time with loved ones, going on small city tours with the family, helping children with their studies, and so on.

But they only had one day off per week. I believe everyone needs at least two days off each week—one to catch up on household chores or go out somewhere, and the other to relax.

Biography 217: Argument with the company owner.

 Once, our office increased working hours. They said they needed us to work more because the company was in trouble. But still, I couldn't find out how increasing our working hours would increase company money. Instead, this would raise utility bills. Workers would be tired and unhappy and would have a bad impression of the company.

I was single, living with my parents. I was willing to learn more and do better in my career, so this was not a problem for me at all. But there were other girls in our office; they were facing trouble. Some were married, so their families expected them to return home and take care of them after work. One of the girls was pregnant. She definitely didn't want to work more and put more stress on her body.

Anyway, I heard that they wanted to request that the office management change this decision. Shampa came to me and asked me to join the girls as a girl. I thought we should stay united, so I said OK.

Our company owner came to the office in the evening, and the girls decided to talk to him. We all walk together. Near the door, I don't know how I was standing at the front. Anyway, I entered the room, and with me, all entered. The company owner looked at us.

Nobody was saying anything, so to avoid the awkward moment, I started talking. Without any preparation, without knowing what problems were going on with the girls because I had never had any meeting with them, I kept requesting to change the time. When our arguments were going on, sometimes Shampa supported me, but no other girls said a single word.

We were talking inside a glass room. So, the boys were watching us from outside. I kept pushing the argument until the company owner said, OK, I will have a look at this problem.

When we left the room, the boys became angry with the other girls. They said, why you guys didn't say anything, why only Shahana keep talking. Shampa said, I said some! Sharmy said, I knew nothing would change, so I didn't say anything.

I couldn't achieve anything from this initiative, as the company didn't change its timing. All the girls were punctual, and no one showed any trouble with the extra time.

Later, our Project Manager, Mr. Rana, told me you should prepare before discussing such a topic. You could bring up the pregnant women issue and other feminine issues where the company had nothing to say.

Yes, one thing I achieved from that argument was that the project manager started respecting me. If anyone complained about me, he always took my side and trusted me.

Biography 212: Taking lunch in the office.

  I don't take help from others as long as I can. When I started working, I couldn't make time to prepare my lunch—I never did before. I didn't ask my mom (I was living with my parents) to do so. I decided to eat outside. I like outdoor food. But now I know very well that no matter which country you live in, try to eat homemade food as much as possible.

So, I started enjoying my discoveries. Each day, I went to a new restaurant, food store, or convenience store and tried something new. Those were not healthy foods, but I had sound health to absorb them all.

Some of my colleagues used to bring food from home. At lunchtime, they used to sit together and take their lunch. I started buying from outside and then joined them. But some of them didn't like this unhealthy procedure. They insisted that I should bring food from home. But I didn't want to put effort into it and not put extra work on my mother.

One day, one of my colleagues, Jahangir Alam, became very angry with me. On that day, I ordered a bun stuffed with meat. It was pretty oily, and I wanted to discover how it tasted. But Jahangir shouted at me. What are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself? I won't let you eat these. He didn't let me eat! I was kind of scared of his anger.

Now, please don't take it wrong. He had his girlfriend in those days, and he is happily married to her now, has kids, and lives in the UK. In those days, he used to share his love stories with us, such as how it started, what happened in Nandan amusement park, a story about ordering food, some problems that he faced during marriage, his sister taking care of him like his mother, etc. He came a little late on my birthday with a bunch of yellow roses. He said he wanted to give me yellow flowers as a sign of friendship. But he couldn't find it in the flower store. Finally, he had to run after a man selling flowers and got all for me. He used to say this whenever he saw me, "Shahana aar korona banana. (it's in Bangla)" I still don't know what bahana (Excuse) I made ever.

We, all colleagues, became friends (at least, I thought so) and always try to stay connected. We are in a FB group; previously, we were in a Yahoo group.

Because of him, that night, I went to my mother's. I was expecting my mom to say no because she was busy and wouldn't be able to prepare my lunch in the morning. So, I would be able to tell them, no, I can't, let me eat from outside. But my mom agreed within a second. She said I prepare lunch for your father every morning; I can prepare one more lunch box for you, too. It's easy.

Trust me, I didn't like that. I wanted to try different foods from outside.

My mom started giving me lunch in a hot pot. It was a full meal: rice, curry, salad, etc. The Food was delicious. I stopped eating at restaurants. Maybe Jahangir just helped me not to ruin my health, which I did later.

Biography 204: Attended regularly on time.

 From my school life, my parents sent us to school every day. When most students were absent on rainy days, our parents always sent us to school, probably because of my mom. She believed we may miss some part of education if we miss school. She tried everything possible to give us a good education. However, in Bangladesh, teachers don't teach us much when most students are absent on rainy days because most of them are not there. Sometimes, they (teachers) used to say, Ok, you guys can open the book and read anything by yourself. We opened the book and kept chatting with each other or playing games in our seats. The teachers didn't mind as long as we started disturbing the other class by making noise.

My older sister always got angry because of my parents' attitude. I didn't mind. Maybe I didn't know I could be absent from school by my choice.

It made a habit in me. When I started working, I always went there regularly and wasn't late. In my first job, the office declared to all employees that I was never absent one day and was never late for one day in the whole first year. My colleagues were surprised. Mr. Alam, one of my colleagues, said, "How is it possible? You must fall a fever at least for 2 days in the year!" I didn't. I had a sound body. And my parents made this habit in me that I am regular and on time.

Give enough info when you talk

[English version has given below]

আমরা যখন কথা বলি, আমাদের সব সময়ই স্পস্ট করে বলা উচিত এবং যতটুকু তথ্য জানানো দরকার সেটা পুরোপুরি বলতে হবে, বিশেষ করে আপনি যখন অফিসে কাজ করেন। এই তথ্য আদান প্রদান দুপক্ষকেই পরিস্কার করে করতে হবে। না হলে ভুল বোঝাবুঝি, অহেতুক খাটাখাটনি হবে।

যেমন কেউ আপনার সাথে কথা বলতে এসেছে কিন্তু আপনি খুব ব্যস্ত, তাই তাকে বললেন, পরে আসুন। এখন সে কত পরে আসবে, কিভাবে জানবে যে আপনার ব্যস্ততা কতক্ষনে শেষ হবে? একঘন্টা , দুই ঘন্টা নাকি ১ দিন পর বা ৭ দিন পর। পরিস্কার করে বলুন, "আমি একটু ব্যস্ত আছি, আপনি লাঞ্চের পর আসুন" তাহলে দুজনে জানবেন ওই ব্যক্তিকে আপনি কখন সময় দিচ্ছেন। এবং আপনি ওই সময় অন্য কোনো কাজ রাখবেন  না।

When we talk, we have say it clearly and give all info that is needed. This communication is very important especially in offices for both employee and employer. Then it will reduce misunderstand and extra work in many ways.

Like, someone came to you to talk about something, but you were too busy to talk with them, so you said, "Please come later". When they should come? After one hour, 2 hours or 1 day or 7 days? So, you better say, "I am very busy now, so please contact me after lunch". Now both of you know, when this conversation is going held and you won’t keep any other work on that time.

চেয়ার (Chair)

[English version has given below]

আমাদের অফিসে সবাই খুব বন্ধুভাবাপন্ন। কিন্তুএকটা বিষয়ে ভীষণ স্বার্থপর! সেটা হলো চেয়ার। কেউ কারো ময়ুর সিংহাসন ছাড়তে রাজি না। একটু খুলে বলি। সবাই একই ধরণের অটবির রোলিং চেয়ারে বসে, তারপরও কিভাবে যেনো নিজের চেয়ারটা ঠিকই চিন্তে পারে। ভুলেও যদি বদলে যায় তো আবার প্রতিটি চেয়ারে বসে বসে নিজেরটা খুজে বের করে।

[৩০ শে জানুয়ারি, ২০০৬ ভোর ৬:৪৭]

In our office, all are very friendly. But they are very selfish in one issue. It's about their chair. No one wants to leave their honorable chair. Let me explain, in our office, we all use same designed rolling chair. But still, somehow everybody knows, on which one they regularly sit. If by mistake all chair mixed up, they find their one by sitting on each chair. :)

Take some dry food and water with you when you go to any office for any service

Whenever you go to any office for any service take some dry food and water. Because you never know how long they will keep you waiting. It could be 5 minutes to 15 hours. And you can’t go out always to take food from a Queue. This tip is really very helpful if you have any work in government office.

Yesterday I was standing in a Queue for 1 hour because of power fail. They left the desk because server was shut down. After one hour electricity came but the desk man left for lunch. He came back after half an hour (didn't take much time for lunch, I must say) and again left for toilet. Again I had to go to other desk and found that person left for lunch and he went to his house. After one hour of waiting someone suggest I could go to other desk instead of waiting.... I expended a long day without food and water. Didn't want to take any chance to lose any person who might come back anytime after their breaks.