'IT'ty, 'BIT'y conversations...

Change is one of the phobias that most of us have in our cells. True , but this fear can be in various proportions and intensities in various individuals. This phenomenon can be seen at its diseased worst in the employees of this organization which I visited the other day. The chief executive of the enterprise has, in the recent past, picked up a fascination for ‘IT’.

With our man’s new interest in Information Technology, the company is sweeping all over its various factories. IT education has been made mandatory to all employees and the added carrot or rather the stick is that – promotions and upward movement in the organization is linked to IT prowess.

But what does poor Mr. Rami Reddy have to do with this entire melee.

He has seen change in the last two decades and was always a silent unthinking spectator. Work life had always its sanctimonious reverence and it was too sacred to be shaken by the machinations of governments and the leaders. Things always happened for the better. The screen ‘god’ had emerged from the green rooms of the top management and set out to ravage the company landscape. The benevolent Maintenance head, was always there to provide spice to life and at times a little ‘peg’ to boost the moments. All in all there was the must-needed tranquility in the offices.

Then came that thing – computer. That small television screens seem to fascinate everybody to no end. How can one trivialize all those important information lying around in lazy dusty bundles ? Is there no sanity in the ambience any more ? How could a ‘Kam-puter’ do jyada work? Now CEO Garu insists on all employees in the office to go to Secunderabad for a training program. Imagine what will Kalyan think of his father. What face will I put on the next time I teach him arithmetic? His Appa has still to learn!

This was a short conversation I was privy to, sitting in Rami Reddy's office

“ Reddy Garu , have you heard about the computer installation in our office. There will be a computer in every table. It seems we will not have files on our tables any more.”
“ So ?”
“ At least we will have space to keep our tiffins on the table. There is a rumor that the machines get very hot after a while. Maybe we use it to heat our food during the lunch time.”
“But I heard that the air conditioning the entire office.”
“ In that case we get kulfis also from home.”
“ Our record room is also going to be demolished. There will be a ‘customer complain booth’ in the same place. Now those filthy contractors will trouble us more for their bills and tenders.”
“ But of course the computer will be on our side. It won’t team up with rogues and scoundrels.”
“ But what if the computer starts taking bribe ? Our pocket money will reduce, na ?”
“ Oh my God ! There is also a rumor that these machines are actually robots spying for our CEO. It will send all-important messages to him by something called ‘e-mail’. It is some kind of courier service.”
“ Yes, yes I have heard about that; and if anything incriminating is caught, they will send vigilance by this same e-mail and have us put into some ‘datawarehouse’.”
“Oh! What is this world coming to? There is no ethics in the office anymore.”