Sunday, May 17, 2009

Brand New Altis!

My brother's performance incentive for last year is a car! His company gave him a Toyota Altis after discussions and debate for over 45 days on which car it shall be. We checked out the entire range and finally decided to move away from diesel to petrol so we could get a good car. I was set on the VW Jetta but that is a very expensive car for no reason but the fact that it is European. Some day...
I have been driving a Indigo Diesel for the last 5 years and changing over to the Altis this morning was fun. Man! The car is smooth or what?
I had a lovely drive on Sunday morning to a temple about 10 kms away with my parents while my brother who got the car was in Bangalore with friends and relatives. Hee! Hee! Someone once told me, "when the cat is out, the mice shall play! :)
I enjoyed being the mouse this time.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Lay-offs

This is a sad start to the week. I came in to read about friends affected badly by the Microsoft lay-offs at Seattle and a home page article on rediff about the India office lay-off. The article talks about Microsoft's on going plans to recruit around 3000 new employees in different sectors while the planned lay-offs continue. I wonder how they decide who should be let go?

Somehow, I wonder if all these lay-offs are a sign that companies are getting rid of dead wood or maybe good wood that is more expensive to ensure cost cutting while recruiting new talent at lower "recession" prices.

As my HR points out to me, no individual gives a damn about the Company when they want to quit so why should the company bother? Are we out to get revenge then?