State Employee Recognition Day: Fill & Download for Free

This was an employer I worked for a while back, thankfully I no longer work for them.The employer hired the manager from hell to run the plant. From day one, he created a negative atmosphere that absolutely devastated employee morale, drove turnover from an annual 2.5% up to 26%, and outright stated that hourly employees were an “unfortunate necessity” to run a factory.He immediately stopped all employee functions like company-sponsored outings, employee recognition events, safety awards, and attendance awards. The employees were upset but started to do potlucks and this plant manager put the kibosh on them as well saying that disrupted operations. Same excuse of ‘disruption’ when myself and other supervisors bought our shifts pizza out of our own pockets for reaching/exceeding goals in safety/quality/production.This guy would walk the floor and give employees dirty looks or find people to yell at. The employees in the front office were terrified of him. We had a lot of turnover of very skilled tenured employees because of him.He had a habit of screaming at us supervisors when any small thing would go wrong. His favorite game would be to come up and talk about how he could fire us at any time. I finally got tired of it and told him, “Well, go ahead and do it!”He left me alone after that.Luckily someone at corporate finally listened to us and the other employees about him and he was finally let go after a 2-year reign of terror…

Real ID has nothing to do with free travel inside the US. It is a form of ID which verifies you are actually you, not someone who fraudulently got an ID card from an unsuspecting or dishonest state employee, for nefarious purposes. It is another layer of protection against terrorist activity I am sure. And yes, protections against anything erode your freedoms a little but considering the consequences vs inconvenience, I will take this one any day and twice on Sundays.

To find the answer I worked 28 jobs in 28 weeks in all the 28 states of India. Based upon the experience, recently I have presented a talk, here it is.What’s your dream? This is my favorite question, I usually asked myself thousand times before I am allowed to ask others the same question. And the best answer I used to get from the innocent kids or from the adults with kid’s innocence.What did you want to be, when you were a kid? If I talk about myself. I am always a dreamer.When I was one year old, every moment was a dream for me.When I was 2 year old, I saw a butterfly and I wanted to fly sitting on it.At the age of 4, I saw the superman, and wearing a blanket on my back tried to be superman. And obviously I fell down from the chair.At the age of 6, I had fever and my mother took me to a doctor. Her stethoscope touched me, and I wanted to be a doctor.At the age of 9, I watched Godfather movie, I had a weird dream to be a Don.At the age of 13, a friend appreciated my painting, and I wanted to be a painter.At the age of 15, my brother taught me the guitar chord, I wanted to be a rockstar.With the flow of dreams I forgot when I entered into my adolescent stage… And one fine day my father asked me “What do you want to be, a doctor or an engineer”. And that’s how I became an engineer. This is my story. When I realized that’s not what I wanted to be, quit my software engineer job, did my Postgrad from school of Ideas, worked on various project like digital solutions to some big corporate to first time ever rural brand activation through folk theatre called Jatra. Started few of my own ventures like a picture dictionary of 2,50,000 word definitions called EZeeDictionary, International short film festival Bhubaneswar and a story telling concept called Fetcha Kucha… I keep exploring and did what I always love to do. In between I met thousands of people, whose story was similar at their adolescent stage, after intermediate many of them choose a career path just for societal status. They wanted to be something and ended up with some other profession.Why most of the people compromise their dream in their adolescent stage and choose a stereotypical path of engineering and medical. Now don’t tell me that every Indian kid have a dream to be a doctor or engineer!! Are we lacking creativity?? are we lacking of imagination of becoming something else?? Or it is just a parental interference and societal status that force us to choose a path between doctor and engineer. Why do people having feared to follow their passion, chase their dream to become what they really wanted to be. And I realized that it’s very much necessary to break that stereotypical trend in India, and spread the message of “Discover Your Passion”.I wanted to inspire the youngsters of India to become what they really wanted to be, instead of living a compromise life of what they never wanted to be. That’s how I started One Week Job India;Where I did 28 different jobs in 28 weeks throughout 28 states of India. It was a life time experience. I started this journeyin mid may, which ended on December 2013. I tried all sort of jobs in every corner of India, travelling around 25000 km in all possible transport mediums. Jobs ranging from photographer, Mud artisan in kumartoli Kolkata, Volunteer in a HIV positive society, Story Telling Instructor to lamas in a Buddhist monastery, Cremation assistant, hardware store guy, journalist, floor host in a bar, Boat house driver, Play school teacher, Content writer, Data entry administrator, Technical supervisor to an e-commerce start-up, Movie marketing executive for Bollywoodpoly farm worker, rafting trainee, mountain cleaner,TRP analyst, Tea Factory worker, Hotel ManagerGolden Temple Sevak, Bullet Mechanic, and when almost jobless Sundal seller in marina beach . More than that it was very difficult to sell condoms in rural bihar. It was a part of contraceptive rural campaign by government of IndiaWhile spreading the message “Discover Your Passion” I observed people who are living with their passion are very different. They are the happiest people in their work; they are very much satisfied in their job. Whenever there is an issue like “Job Satisfaction” raised in big corporate, people dig on the points like HR policy, workplace environment, Salary hike, Employee retention rate, working hours, manager subordinate relationship, and employee recognition etc. But no one wants to go to back to basics!! The root cause unconsciously unintentionallystarted long earlier, when you chose your final education for a profession. If you are not following your passion and choosing a career just for fear of societal status and parent’s interference; how you will be happy. Thus A kid wanted to be a singer ended up as a doctor, A kid wanted to be a painter ended up as an engineer and A kid wanted to be a writer ended up with a Personal banker.Now tell me how you expect to be satisfied with your job!! If most of them are living a temporary life. If you are not living with your passion, how will it be possible to live a lively life?My Interest - I enjoyed much when I worked as a play school teacher, During basic education, One should encourage kid's interest to convert into their passion. Which is missing in many educational institute in India. Realizing the facts I feel to start a school very soon based upon my learning.Trust me those people who follow their passion, stays in any corner, they are the happiest people on earth. While following your passion and chasing your dream, Ask often yourself “Whats Your Dream”. Listen to your heart always. If you are passionate about something just go for it. Don’t listen to people; always listen to your inner voice. You will always find people around you to intimidate you like - It is very difficult, this is not perfect time, you don’t have time, what will happen if you fail, You are new – will you be able to do that, No one have tried that before, It is very risky, This idea might not workAnd many more “what if”. Don’t listen to them!! Are you able to answerable to yourself, that’s enough!! Visionary people see the world in a different way than their peers.Never live a temporary life. Like you hear!! I will work in a company for 3 years then I will start something of my own. Let me go to abroad for five years, save some money will start my own once I return back to India.They would have started already if they really wanted to. People living with passion never wait for perfect time; Situation finds its own way. Few of my employers started their business in the college hostel itself. That can be the best example against all these calculative brains.Be clear about what you want; Give happiness the priority in your life. If you are living a temporary life, and have aspiration of doing something else throughout your life, and you never dare to step ahead. , you won’t be happy with that regret for lifetime.Discover your passion, set your dream, and Follow your passion. Don’t think too much. Just dare to step ahead, and start chasing your dream, your PASSION will drive you towards your dream.A beautiful moment of my one week job journey I would like to share. When I was working as a rafting trainee in Jammu, One of my colleagues said a beautifulline – I love what I am doing, I don't care what people think about me. I don’t know how it will happen but I am very much sure, at the end of my life I ll have my own cruise, and my last procession over there offshore without a captain. That man has a dream. Thank You.