Coffee in Corporate

The amount of time I am spending on coffee breaks in the last couple of months has considerably gone up. Thanks to the recession hit IT industry that definitely guarantees lot of leisure time for its employees, if not a hike in their remuneration. Adding to this is the fact that I am the only sole working from offshore for my project, which means there is no one dancing on my head trying to ‘Manage’ me. This is a rare opportunity that one gets in her/his lifetime in the IT industry. So I decided to make full use of this opportunity to bum around. To hell with my employer's initiatives to improve employee productivity!

Initially these coffee breaks were meant to pull back the falling eyelids with the help of some caffeine. And obviously to checkout the cute girls from other project who comes to the cafeteria for coffee break. If my employer decides to give an award for working in maximum number of project in the shortest time span possible, i would definitely be a leadrunner for winning that award. Inspite of working in so many projects, i was not lucky enough to have pretty girls in any of those projects. Hence coffee breaks were the only opportunity I got to checkout girls.

As time passed, more and more colleagues started joining me for the extra long coffee breaks. I bet they also had the same reasons as me for hanging out in the cafeteria for coffee breaks. With more people becoming interested in the idea of long coffee breaks, we decided to make it a more organized and professional activity. After all we are professionals. We ought to do it professionally. We decided to create a ‘Coffee Group’ mailing list, and a recurring reminder was send to all the member of this mailing list reminding them to attend the coffee break. How I wish my employer keeps me a ‘paid unemployed’ like this forever!!

Now, for us, these coffee breaks are also a platform to discuss and debate about various topics. Nature of these topics usually ranges from international diplomatic issues like Uncle Sam’s foreign policies against the Asian ‘Tigers’ and ‘Elephants’ to silliest of issues like Salman Khan’s innumerable breakups with ‘Babes’ and ‘Princesses’ of Bollywood. These discussions and debates are often entertaining and, believe me, sometimes informative too. Usually I am one of the active participants in these discussions, unless someone starts discussing anything related to work. I prefer to take the backseat in that case, pretending to listen to the discussion. That is when girls come to save you. You know what I mean!!

I am definitely enjoying this countless coffee breaks and lazing around. But, while driving back home after a days work (work?) in office, there is someone at the back of my mind asking me: ‘Is this what you dreamt of doing in a corporate world in your MBA days?’ After a few minutes of taught I had to reply: ‘No, it’s not’. Then I sadly realize that the colors of those dreams are fading slowly.

After a sound sleep in the night, I am back to office next day to follow my routine and the whole process is reiterated. God knows for how long!