Population Inversion


I overheard this fresh-out-of-college girl at office telling her friend that her everyone in her team was “so old”. Of how nobody seemed to kid around, of how nobody ever “pranked” each other. Of how she could talk to these people, but couldn’t relate to them at all.

That made me think of the time when I started working. Back then, almost everyone in IT was in the 0-3 years experience band. The only vehicle people had was a bike. For celebrations, everyone wanted to go out for dinner, not lunch (it could be a longer affair that way, and you could have drinks too). People looked forward to foreign trips: the longer, the better. Most of us came to office on weekends not necessarily to work but what else was there to do? Besides, in the pre-cell phone era, the office was the only place one could get together and then make plans for the evening/night. Even managers used to be unmarried back then: that was how young a team was.

And now? The IT industry has undergone a population inversion. Most people are in the 7+ years band. Innova’s and Scorpio’s are not at all uncommon. Teams prefer lunches over dinner (“I’d rather be home” is the new mantra). Unless one is in a service company, people don’t even want to travel abroad. And if they absolutely must, they hope it’s a short trip. Forget working on weekends, “Working from home” is the preferred mode. And most of us have a kid or two.

That said, when this girl from office asked me the other day how long I had been with the team, I pounced on the fact that she had included the words “the team” in her question and answered (truthfully) “around 3-4 years”! After all, population inversion or not, who wants to be seen as a prehistoric relic?

Comments

  1. Guruprasad RaoFebruary 7, 2012 at 10:03 AM

    Super Post VK. Few things to add :
    1. We used to forward jokes/some-messages before, now all we do is FYI e-mails.
    2. Laptops @ that time seems to only for managers. Blackberries never heard-of.
    3. Team outing - usually to trek/adventure-sports , now is Brunch !!!!.

    ReplyDelete

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