Chicago Diary: Tid-bits from "Upstairs People"

The past few weeks of my Chy city experience have been very recreational and informative. Recreational in a sense that I have been playing club cricket and performing well, followed the wimbledon on a 56" TV with full surround system, got to win some poker games. However, the striking part of last few weeks was the amount of information that has been collected about the corporate work culture and the broader perspective I gained from it. Firstly, as interns you get to meet lot of Big shots at a very personal level. Secondly, you get to know about company that you could potentially end up working for and importanty you get wealth of information from the "Upstairs People", who claim to have "Been there and Done that". My first guess about"Upstairs people" was as good as any other amatuer intern, that they tell people what to do. However, upon closer look it occurs that these are the guys who have a 'Birds view' of things happening. Though that doesnt change a thing about people or thier personalities, it does give a new dimension of things in corporate world.

One such learning experience for me was about corporate culture was the plans, goals and actions of the employees. Ironically, everyone is trying to only climb the ladder, following the same suit as the one before them. Then the question is which one gets there first and becomes one of those "Upstairs People"? . Well, this was unravelled to its minutest detail during our "brown bag lunches" (read stuff your mind, while you stuff your mouth meetings) we got to have with these top notch guys. The summary of these interactions is more or less similar to Darwin's thoery of evolution and sustenance. One - Natural selection i.e. the company chooses people who have traits of previously successful people who served the company in long term goals, 2. survival of the fittest - company has limited resources which can only be available to ones that claim it rightfully, 3. Transendence - the successful traits are inculcated into those who are aspiring to be better.

This opens a wide array of thoughts, and one such 'Out-of-Box' approach is to explain the process using particulate models to perdict the ones that will be successful and ones that wont be. In principle, particles that move faster are at higher energy state levels either gained from external or internal source. Company can only provide certain external energy in form of money, vacation and status quo. However, since its resources are limited it tries to tap into the energy of particles that are internally vibrant. However, among those with lot of internal energy the particles that limit thier random motions and converge onto the focal point are more successful. (In true terms, the word "randomness" what is explained by the 'Company Policies' is completely non- transparent). Hence in a bigger picture there should be a symbiotic relationship between your contributions and companies growth, with a very strong emphasis on time.

Though simple, inorder to resourcefully utlize energy from 10,000 particles, you need about 50 - 100 capacitors, to store the incoming energy and prevent sudden energy fluctuations. And you need about 5 to 10 work stations that constantly tap into the energy of the capacitors, and about 3 switch modules, most often represented by 1 bright light (i.e CEO). So if you want to climb the ladder faster you either have "potential" at first rapidly converting into "Kinetic form" or have the "Capacity" to resourcefully use others energy.

However, needless to day the "Tid-bits from Upstairs people" didnot include the roles, responsiblities and enjoyment of those who actually 'Built the whole system' and are currently enjoying the light of the system. I guess we do need more "Brown Bag Lunches" Eh!