Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe view from Gondola.

Leap Year

How many days does a leap year has and how often does it occur?

I remember learning about this during my school days. Since then I don't recall a single instance where I forgot that "leap year has 366 days and it comes every 4 years".

It was time for me to train a new member in the team. We being in financial operations team and managing customer contracts, should be well versed in all these basic information. A bit of ignorance would cause nightmares to us. I was keen on training the person providing every small information. However, my style of training was to ask a lot of questions.

Here is the training scenario. We had a list of customer contracts to auto-renew effective 1st March 2007 for one year. As 2008 was a leap year, I explained we need to renew it until Feb 29th 2008.

I completed a few out of the list and trainee was pretty confident with how the process works.

As I said, I used to ask a lot of questions to make sure the trainee follows what I am doing. The next contract I was supposed to renew, the training session followed as below.

Me: What would be the end date of the renewed contract?"
Trainee: 28th Feb 2008.

Me: Why? Why not 29th Feb 2008? Isn't it a leap year?
Trainee: Leap year was only for the previous customer. This customer does not have leap year. (!!!)

I have shared this experience with few of friends and no one could stop themselves from laughing. Though this answer sounds funny, trust me I was appalled for that moment. Before even I burst out from anger, I straight away walked into the restroom and washed my face with cold water.

The Best Interview

It was a very busy day for me. Couple of meetings and then interviews lined up. It was very usual that the reception person calls me when the candidate is in. I first talk to the candidate casually to put them into a comfort zone. I followed my practice, but I felt the candidate was reluctant about talking to me. I did not worry much and straight away jumped into the questions I had. It was the shortest interview and this is how the interview took place.

Me: Where do you work?
Candidate: .... Company

Me: Could you please brief me with your nature of work?
Candidate: I .........contracts. (she used only 3 words between I and contracts)

I began to sense, probably the candidate is not interested in this position.

Me: Why do you want to join our organization?
Candidate: I do not want to join yeah, you called me for the interview and I came.

Me: Oh sorry. Thank you for taking time to come here.

I escorted the candidate to the door. At that moment, I felt she was totally unprofessional and a bit rude too. Somehow this interview had left some mark in mind and I was constantly thinking about it for quite few days. Now, if I sit back and think I feel she was frank and it was not being unprofessional. But the big question I have is "why didn't she tell the HR she is not interested. Why did she waste her precious time attending the interview which she was not interested".

Do people fall into obligations?

Growing E Commerce Business

We frequently go to Walmart either to buy something or to check out if there are any new arrivals.

I and my spouse were looking for a rice cooker. We were skeptical about brands and were undecided about which one to buy. I can say we spent more than 15-20 mins in that particular section.

There was one more couple looking for some electronic item in the same section. The person came and introduced himself to my husband and asked about the return policy. I am sure everyone in the world knows the return policy of Walmart ( I would have walked to the customer service counter if I really dont know the return policy,). My husband was pretty straight forward in telling how does it work. Then the conversation grew and in between when my husband asked him "what do you do?". The answer was "I work for .... company and I do have a e-commerce business".

Guys, there lies the catch why the conversation was endless, "E-commerce".

I have come across such incidents every time I go to Walmart. Last Sunday we were looking for a shoe rack and we were not sure which section has shoe racks. I noticed a couple who came behind us for more than 10 mins looking for an opportunity to initiate a talk and finally said "hi, how are you". We had to literally avoid them.

There are lot of people who are into selling different types of products. It has become a very fast moving business. I am not aware of how exactly it works. Talking to people who are into this business is like getting hooked.

Honestly, I am not against any of these. Its individual interest to opt it or not. However, I am not okay with the way they approach. Now, every Indian I meet, I have a suspicious pair of eyes to look at them.

One of our family friend who was new to this place, overheard a couple speaking in konkani. Since our friend belongs to the same community, he thought of extending his hand for friendship. Surprisingly, the couple started ignoring our friend and did not bother to talk. I guess, they thought our friend was also one among those "E-Commerce Businessmen" :)

Paypal

Paypal has been a very reliable online service to pay or get paid. We can transfer money from our paypal account to any other banks and also to purchase anything online which will not disclose our credit card details or any other personal details.

Creating an account on paypal is super easy.