Some days you think you have already seen all.... and then in the most unexpected place you discover that there is still a lot you have never seen before in this world.
Our addiction to mobiles is really limitless!
A couple of days ago I went to the toilet and saw a guy peeing.
Well, this is normal, special in Dutch toilets where most of the times there are multiple urinals.
The amazing thing was that while he peeing in the urinal, that person was even texting on his mobile!
Now, can you please imagine how it could be done?!?
I fear we as humanity are going a bit too far in the addiction to mobiles....
Monday 15 July 2019
Tuesday 9 July 2019
Feeling as Wandering Jewishes
It's almost 3 months that I've been working in this company, and I've already seen so many different working places in this company...
Our team is new, and many renovations are going on in the building, and many many people are all around, so we have been forced to change our working place many times.
At the beginning we were guested into the area where all our "brother" teams were located, but not enough seats for all of us were available and we were growing.
After a couple of weeks we got a new location, a bit far away but still in the same building.
They told us we should stay there for two o three weeks, but just after two days we were sent back to the previous location, and then in two other days moved to an other building.
In the new building I was very happy because there was a big terrace and on the terrace a couple of strange kind of bird were making a nest, so I'd have had the chance to watch them during the rising of the chicks.
But once again two days and then back to the old location.
In the mean time the people in the old location were increasing and even our team was growing, so finding a seat was more and more difficult. I had to come at 8:15 to be sure my favorite desk was free for me.
Last week we have been moved once more to a new location, where we were promised we would have a final block of desks all for us.
But when we got there the first morning we discovered that the block we were assigned was occupied by an other team and that we had to move to a different block in the same open space.
And then at the end, during a general meeting where we presented the result of our last three weeks of work with a big happiness about our new sweet how our boss told us that it will last just for a month and then we will have to move again....
I'm really feeling as a wandering Jewish...
Our team is new, and many renovations are going on in the building, and many many people are all around, so we have been forced to change our working place many times.
At the beginning we were guested into the area where all our "brother" teams were located, but not enough seats for all of us were available and we were growing.
After a couple of weeks we got a new location, a bit far away but still in the same building.
They told us we should stay there for two o three weeks, but just after two days we were sent back to the previous location, and then in two other days moved to an other building.
In the new building I was very happy because there was a big terrace and on the terrace a couple of strange kind of bird were making a nest, so I'd have had the chance to watch them during the rising of the chicks.
But once again two days and then back to the old location.
In the mean time the people in the old location were increasing and even our team was growing, so finding a seat was more and more difficult. I had to come at 8:15 to be sure my favorite desk was free for me.
Last week we have been moved once more to a new location, where we were promised we would have a final block of desks all for us.
But when we got there the first morning we discovered that the block we were assigned was occupied by an other team and that we had to move to a different block in the same open space.
And then at the end, during a general meeting where we presented the result of our last three weeks of work with a big happiness about our new sweet how our boss told us that it will last just for a month and then we will have to move again....
I'm really feeling as a wandering Jewish...
Thursday 13 June 2019
Chaos in the Watermelon Field...
Building a new solution in an existing environment is always difficult.
Making it in a big company is more difficult.
Trying to do it in a regulated organization is almost impossible.
But what makes it really impossible is when everybody has it's own idea on what the new solution should be, should do and should fit into the existing landscape!
A couple of days ago there had been a meeting to try to make a bit more clarity on what the scope of our team work is, involving a number of "solution", "enterprise", "integration" architects.
I thought it would be the right opportunity to understand the big picture and learn from these "big guys".
I was wrong, totally wrong!
They started talking on a slide depicting an application flow, discussing what was the meaning of one or the other component drawn in the picture, arguing on the right sequence of the interactions...
After some minutes I started having a strong headache... and in a short stopped listening to them, or better listening just enough to catch if they were saying something not matching my vision and putting it in risk of being disrupted by their assumptions and conclusions.
The worst feeling was that they were discussing on things that we should then have to implement, but they were not taking into any consideration if such things where or not achievable.
That meeting really created a strong WE vs THEM feeling.
Making it in a big company is more difficult.
Trying to do it in a regulated organization is almost impossible.
But what makes it really impossible is when everybody has it's own idea on what the new solution should be, should do and should fit into the existing landscape!
A couple of days ago there had been a meeting to try to make a bit more clarity on what the scope of our team work is, involving a number of "solution", "enterprise", "integration" architects.
I thought it would be the right opportunity to understand the big picture and learn from these "big guys".
I was wrong, totally wrong!
They started talking on a slide depicting an application flow, discussing what was the meaning of one or the other component drawn in the picture, arguing on the right sequence of the interactions...
After some minutes I started having a strong headache... and in a short stopped listening to them, or better listening just enough to catch if they were saying something not matching my vision and putting it in risk of being disrupted by their assumptions and conclusions.
The worst feeling was that they were discussing on things that we should then have to implement, but they were not taking into any consideration if such things where or not achievable.
That meeting really created a strong WE vs THEM feeling.
Friday 31 May 2019
Lunch Groups
At lunch one more time you can see the implicit separation of the ABN-AMRO population.
While dutch people mostly buy their food at the restaurant, the indian people bring their food from home, so there is a long queue of them in front of the array of microwave ovens.
Since I keep on having my good old habits of bringing my own food from home, I always find myself in the microwave ovens queue...
And there I see that the indians look at me and at my food as if I was coming from an other planet!
My food is usually a rice tart or spinach tart slice, and I feel that they have no idea of what the hell is that.
They instead usually have rice, meat cooked in spicy soup, indian bread, "just" the usual food from an indian restaurant, spicy and probably testy, for sure filling up all the air and the oven with a strong curry smell...
Someday I'll ask them if I can taste their food!
While dutch people mostly buy their food at the restaurant, the indian people bring their food from home, so there is a long queue of them in front of the array of microwave ovens.
Since I keep on having my good old habits of bringing my own food from home, I always find myself in the microwave ovens queue...
And there I see that the indians look at me and at my food as if I was coming from an other planet!
My food is usually a rice tart or spinach tart slice, and I feel that they have no idea of what the hell is that.
They instead usually have rice, meat cooked in spicy soup, indian bread, "just" the usual food from an indian restaurant, spicy and probably testy, for sure filling up all the air and the oven with a strong curry smell...
Someday I'll ask them if I can taste their food!
Monday 13 May 2019
Toilets
Even the most trivial places of companies can show differences.
So I can now easily assert that the toilet of the Orange Tree and of the Watermelon Field are different.
Of course is not that the plumbing is different or that the functionalities offered are different.
The differences are in the fact that in the Field the toilets are almost never dirty and bad smelling!
I got quite a different experience when I was at the Orange,where often the toilets were in a very poor conditions, just to use an euphemism...
And I would instead expect the opposite, because of the number of Indians here.
But don't take me wrong: I'm not racist, who knows me and my story knows that I just can't be raciest, specially with Indians.
It's that when ever I eat Indian food, the so wonderfully testy spiced Indian food, I have just a couple of hours of time before I need to go to the toilet and have a post apocalyptic experience... So I thought I would have faced the result of such kind of food.
It seems that my Indian colleagues don't have my issues!
So I can now easily assert that the toilet of the Orange Tree and of the Watermelon Field are different.
Of course is not that the plumbing is different or that the functionalities offered are different.
The differences are in the fact that in the Field the toilets are almost never dirty and bad smelling!
I got quite a different experience when I was at the Orange,where often the toilets were in a very poor conditions, just to use an euphemism...
And I would instead expect the opposite, because of the number of Indians here.
But don't take me wrong: I'm not racist, who knows me and my story knows that I just can't be raciest, specially with Indians.
It's that when ever I eat Indian food, the so wonderfully testy spiced Indian food, I have just a couple of hours of time before I need to go to the toilet and have a post apocalyptic experience... So I thought I would have faced the result of such kind of food.
It seems that my Indian colleagues don't have my issues!
Wednesday 8 May 2019
When they talk to me...
When I meet someone I don't know, most of the time he/she start talking to me in Dutch.
Why?
The number of foreign people here is maybe not as high as on the Orange tree, but not so much less to justify the assumption that all here are Dutch.
No, there is a very big percentage of foreign people and it's not possible to ignore it.
And the people here are not dumb, so they could as well talk to me in English instead of Dutch.
So why?
Because I'm not the "typical" foreign for them.
Strangely enough for most of them I look much more Dutch then foreign, even if I'm not tall or blond...
It's that I look much more Dutch then Indian, and since 90% of the foreign here are Indians I get classified as Dutch!
So both Dutch and Indians (if they are able) try to talk with me in Dutch.... I have to learn Dutch quickly...
Why?
The number of foreign people here is maybe not as high as on the Orange tree, but not so much less to justify the assumption that all here are Dutch.
No, there is a very big percentage of foreign people and it's not possible to ignore it.
And the people here are not dumb, so they could as well talk to me in English instead of Dutch.
So why?
Because I'm not the "typical" foreign for them.
Strangely enough for most of them I look much more Dutch then foreign, even if I'm not tall or blond...
It's that I look much more Dutch then Indian, and since 90% of the foreign here are Indians I get classified as Dutch!
So both Dutch and Indians (if they are able) try to talk with me in Dutch.... I have to learn Dutch quickly...
Tuesday 7 May 2019
Please just listen to each other
It was sometime happening even on the Orange tree, but here in the Watermelon field it's the standard way of communication.
During meetings, discussions, work sessions, each participant talks, talks, talks, but almost never listen to what the other are saying!
I keep on observing this pattern and it makes me crazy: two persons (if not more) talking of two different things, arguing and not agreeing just because they do not understand that they are not talking of the same thing!
So one says one thing x about A, the other object with an other thing y about B, both true (maybe), not in contrast, probably compatible, but since x is not y the two persons think they disagree.... so frustrating... specially when you try to make them understand that they actually agree but of course they don't listen to you!!!!
During meetings, discussions, work sessions, each participant talks, talks, talks, but almost never listen to what the other are saying!
I keep on observing this pattern and it makes me crazy: two persons (if not more) talking of two different things, arguing and not agreeing just because they do not understand that they are not talking of the same thing!
So one says one thing x about A, the other object with an other thing y about B, both true (maybe), not in contrast, probably compatible, but since x is not y the two persons think they disagree.... so frustrating... specially when you try to make them understand that they actually agree but of course they don't listen to you!!!!
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