I am Vrunda and I work at IIMB — so technically one of those “incompetent, inconsiderate government employees who just want to get through their work day”. Except that I refuse to accept that. Let me clarify also that I am in no way connected with academics or admissions, I work in a different section altogether. And following are my personal views.
While I sympathize with you and the travails you went through, I strongly urge you to consider the following :
1. Maybe yours was NOT the only request for rescheduling. Administration cannot just accept one request of rescheduling and not the others. Have you thought about the nightmare of rescheduling multiple appointments involving multiple people (panel!)?
2. Maybe you could have considered changing your plans to accommodate the interview. Of course, maybe your business trip was important too, but then you have to give the similar benefit of doubt to the members of the interview panel too, isn’t it?
3. Have you ever thought about who these “incompetent inconsiderate government employees” are? Surprise surprise — they are human being too just like you, who want to succeed, do well, feel happy, get recognized at workplace etc. Except that the system has never thought about it. In a world-class institution teaching business management, do these employees get courses and training on developing their potential, operational efficiency, managerial competence, customer relationship management etc? Does the system make plans for their career growth and continued motivation — the kind of things that they teach the corporates? Take a guess. Have you wondered why their “administrative competence is not even close to the global standard” and what can we all do about it?
Before we all crib and point fingers at “incompetent inconsiderate government employees” — let us ask ourselves how many of us are willing to be that — to work at salaries far below private sector, with no other perks or prospects of growth, no incentives for excellence in performance, no development of potential?
I have been at it for a year now and I know how difficult it is — how strenuous it is to keep up the motivation to do the good work. And yet some of us try. Because we know that someone has to do it — we need good people, efficient, motivated, good workers in the Government bureaucracy. I know how many times my teammates have gone out of the way to accommodate the needs of those we serve and how little recognition exists for their effort.
Dear Manas, you benefitted tremendously in your career by gaining IIT degree — care to do something about the institution and the people behind the screens who keep it running? It is easy to crib in a blog :) ain’t it?
And oh, I would be very interested in hearing how out-of-the-way accommodating the US universities and Govt system turn out to be :)
Sorry about being so blunt, but let us not always just complain about at the faults in our systems, let us also do our bit to identify the problems and fix them.
Wishing you all the best!
