Behavior Practicals in Europe

A much awaited Europe Tour was concluded by yours truly+mother+son last month.This blog was something one wanted to pen down immediately considering the profession I practice, but put it down to sheer procrastination its been delayed by a month.Now to the brass tacks:The most interesting part of being a human resource practitioner and a trained counselor is "people".So even when one travels one is constantly exposed to people;of different races,different skin color,language,behavior and obviously ones own weakness in adjusting among people.In the journey of about three weeks three people (of different races)managed to "re-teach" huge "human resource" lessons...This may not sound glamourous but read on,judge for yourself... Lesson 1 : Stoefel Veroni.

Who is Stoefel Veroni? He was the "driver" of our European tour,was with us for a good part of 15 days. Dressed in full formals every day this 69 year old Hollander (yes 69)would greet us with Jai Jinendra or Jai Sree Krishna(uff these Gujju tourists I say ;))and he ferried us across 7 countries and 16 cities in Europe.He retired from service ,is on pension,still drives as he doesnt want to be at home and extra money is always welcome as he says. Being a bus of Indian Tourists (please read as third world country people who illegally may migrate to places like UK)there were some things unavoidable.a)Luggage -Each person had two bags/suitcases on a minimum count.The bus had a group of 35 so on an average there were some 80 odd heavy luggages stowed away in the bus. b) Eats-From theplas to chaklis to cake to garlic chutney to chiwda we had it all packed in various containers to be consumed as an alternative to starving on bland European food. Every day we would reach a new hotel for the night and every day Stoefel would lug out each of these 80 odd luggage pieces for us (imagine its a pain carrying our own suitcases up and down)only to stow them away next morning . During the day we would mess the carpeting of the bus with left overs of all the surreptitiously consumed eats and everyday atleast twice would Stoefel use a broom,upholstery cleaner to spruce up the bus.He would sometimes eat dinner with us and sometimes as he wouldnt get parking would shrug off dinner.He danced with us at a disco in Switzerland enjoying the night and "his life".Shopped with us for his wife . There were some who dismissed Stoefel as "hes just doing a job,getting paid for it"..But is it ? Human Resource pointers a) Dignity of Labour : We need to understand no job is beneath or above us. Its something we have to do for various reasons.What makes all the difference is attitude. Stoefel was happy.Neither did he crib about the heavy work load .Infact he was sad that we had to come back that was the bonding we developed in 15 days. b)Life doesnt end because one is aging : Its a typical Indian mentality that once we "age " we "deserve" to be treated differently. We are senior citizens.We want others to take care of us, give opinions, feel insecure ,and grow old to be crochety,grumpy.Not live today as we feel we have lived(enjoyed) in our youth..So age and strength are all in the mind. What Stoefel is , that he is "alive". So should we all be ,beginning now. Lesson 2 : Unknown Chinese woman.

This woman was someone we met on the river cruise in Paris.As Chinese tourists are as large in number as Indian tourists,the ferry was looking like a Indo China bhai-bhai cruise. This lady who belonged to Manadarin speaking group broke away from her comfort zone.She first asked to click pictures with my son then insisted that she sit cheek to cheek with my mother and take a snap.Her group/relatives were making fun of her but she shushed them with a wave of her hand.She was communicating with me in gestures asked my sons name,wrote it down in mandarin and gave it back to me.She also managed to communicate she was travelling with her son,daughter-in-law and husband. All this is Mandarain. I dont understand a word of Mandarin but I understood her as much as she me. Human Resource Pointers a) Break the mould to be creative : She could have sat with her group ,clicked pictures and gone her way. Instead she made an attempt to do something different not worried that she didnt know the language, not bothered that she was being laughed at. b)Initiative : When she first asked us whether she could take pictures with us we were taken aback. Next thing we know is we were exchanging notes. That too without the barrier of a language. c)Follow your heart : It may be a bombastic thing to say but by doing that she made a memory in our lives which we will last forever.Boundaries be damned. Lesson 3:Unknown Czech Woman.

One thinks making a snow man is cute and fun.Wrong. Its hard work. We attempted to make one on top of Mt Titlis.Son and another co-traveller called Paro :) began this quest .Next thing we know is we were joined by this Czech woman who was with her boyfriend. As we worked at it labouriously she suggested we make a snow woman (again not in any language as she was speaking czech) Another group had made some considerable progress where their snowman atleast looked round. She quickly told me that I need to get loose powdered snow from a little distance away,which I did.Paro and my son attempted to make arms and limbs while this lady worked on the body.Hands were frozen,we got tired but just our intention that we complete what we started kept us going.Soon some elementary form resembling a figure was soon ready.She took off her scarf draped it around this snow-woman ,I put on it my glasses and it was a hit...Everybody who was on the location wanted to click pictures with it (some 50 people must have taken pictures of it)while Paro,Son,czech woman,myself were all smiles.People were wanting to take back with them what we created! Human Resource Pointers a)Teamwork: It is important that each do a bit of work for the whole to emerge.This way frustration is kept at bay while the job gets done.But each team member is vital.Like wise in our work spheres and family lives frustration can be kept away. b)Goal orientation : What was hard work became fun once we knew we were creating something unique.Each wanted to see what would emerge. Goal took precedence not egos or no body's age/language became a barrier. c)Resource allocation : If we probably hadnt shared our accessories this so called snow woman would'nt have been different. Shared resources worked beautifully. My human resource refresher wouldnt be complete if I didnt mention Sonal.She was our tour leader. Soft spoken,throughly knowledgable,young,hardworking yet firm with us on certain things ,she actually got us the best out of this trip.All the qualities she carried make one learn that we dont have to just "earn our living" one can actually enjoy doing your job even when the pay is not great, even when the job seems monotonous it actually is not ..because the people are different..