Hi All, hope my first two parts was well appreciated (I did not receive any brickbats, that is my idea of appreciation..:) ). I was thinking about what to write next and then suddenly in the midst of the office, I found the answer, "Colleagues". I am pretty carefully using the term colleagues because they may or may not be your friends. WARNING : This may and may not can change on a day to day basis or in most probabilities, appraisal periods..:). To me, IT is all about resources, and not humans. And at the end of the day what the organisation wants is the best resource and not the best human being around. This what causes the change between the may and may nots.

               There are two kinds of colleagues you often see. Lets see the kind whom we want more. I remember seeing Ice Age the other day, and in a scene where the mammoth almost dies but saves the tiger, the tiger asks the mammoth, "Why did you save me ? you could have lost your life in the process.." for which the mammoth says "That's what we do in a herd". Well I am sure along the way in your career you all would meet such people who don't even care about the competition you provide them, and want you to succeed in life. These people will take you along with them and if they are incapable, they will lay back and still see your growth from distance and feel proud about it. These people know that the success of a team is not in individual growth but pulling the team along with them. These are rare breeds and if you ever come across someone, I don't request you to be the same good way to them, but at least don't be the second way around. These could be your colleague, some senior and even in some cases your team lead, project manager. Its not tough to think all of this kind unless and until you are confronted with the second kind.

The first kind of people are like angels, far and few and the second type is Devils. Now I know this is a far bad word. But at the end of the passage you will know its apt after all. I will describe about these people with some examples.

Have you seen people ask lots and lots of help from you through silent communication (chats,signs,harrapa culture sign languages,Restroom talks,etc)  but who tells "Huh...finally i completed it after a long struggle.." once the task is finished and when your TL is around?

Have you seen people who care more about how much YOU DID NOT finish rather than how much they finished?

Have you seen people who always complain about how someone else could not complete this section and so only these people could not complete theirs?

Have you seen people who sit next to you doing nothing and starts just after you starts, just to make sure your lead knows they are working more than you?

Have you seen people who beg with you for solutions and then tell your ideas and solutions as though they burnt the midnight oil and found them in the meetings? (Specially with you around..:) ) ?

Have you seen some more experienced people take your shit out to your lead if you don't  buy them a drink/coffee (depending upon their level of stupidity) ?

If you have seen such people, welcome to the devil's world. They are also your COLLEAGUES. If not, its my sincere advice, be prepared to meet someone pretty soon..:)

I will talk sometime later about how to tackle such people and what not to do with these people..:). For the moment though, assume its all angels around you and pray the demon is not next to you..:)...