February 23, 2004

Flowers at Work

I hate writing about politics, but I'm actually doing so all the time! In my Persian blog I usually write about my everyday life, and I enjoy doing that. So I'll do my best to do the same here, and write about my personal life more, what I think a weblog should mainly be about.

I'm getting discouraged with my job. I was starting to like it. I like my Indian colleagues, because they are friendly and clever. But I have some problems with my Iranian colleagues that are actually my bosses. The Indian group is implementing Enterprise Resource Planning in one of the biggest car factories of Iran. Their project is to modify the organization and management of this factory, as well as computerizing its whole system. The Indian group is supposed to gather data from different departments, by interviewing the managers of each department. Based on the data they collect, they will come to an understanding of the whole system, and will later on work on the solution. Some Iranian parties do not cooperate with them, because they have this false assumption that these Indians are less capable than Iranian experts, and their solution will end up with great amount of unemployment.

I think all this negative assumptions are because of the factory's weakness in management of change. People are not briefed about the fact that we don't have any experts who have had an experience in this field. I hate to see people who form their assumptions based on racism or laziness or blind patriotism. I know there are many Iranians out of Iran who are quite capable of undertaking such projects. But they can't work in Iran because of all the economical, political and managerial problems in here. So what can we do? Should we leave the things as they are, or should we change the ill system somehow?

The funny point is here the organization of this project by the Iranian party. The Iranian party is supposedly undertaking a managerial project, while you see no sense of management around. I couldn't even find a computer to work with in the last few days! In one day I worked on one document in 5 different computers! Everything is out of order, and they don't know well how to manage the Indian team.

I hate being in a useless situation, and sometimes because of the lacks of management I am in a useless situation. That's why I feel discouraged. I like to be active, noisy, and at the same time hard-working rather than taking a nap on my chair in the sleepy and grey environment of this factory. Of course when I am in different shops (salons) of the factory –where they assemble the cars- I enjoy my time, but when I am in the office, I feel bored as hell. I think I have to take some flowers to the factory and put them on my desk. Perhaps the color and smell of the flowers will make the environment more bearable!

Posted by Lady Sun @ February 23, 2004 11:55 PM
NNN @ 02:00 AM | February 24, 2004

The problème of iran is not politique but is about 750 000 Iraki-Arab (like Hasheme Sharoudi AraB) that coming in Iran during the war
Iran-Irak and decide to stay and had a lot of children and now live in khozestan of Iran in place of the Irannian and had lot of money and control the country with supporting the islamique regime with their money and with their number.
We must chase them from our country!


email | website


richoz @ 09:59 AM | February 24, 2004

must you?


email | website


youthink? @ 08:04 PM | February 24, 2004

A lot of people are under the assumption that computers can do miracles. The truth is that computers can only do tasks efficiently if they are used efficiently, and they can only be used efficiently when they replace a manual process that has already been practiced efficiently. What many companies learn is that embracing computers means embracing big upfront costs, big maintenance costs, big training costs and little results. If a manual process is inefficient because people don't know what they are doing, computers aren't going to fix that. Computers don't necessarily raise the quality of your product or service, don't make your suppliers more timely, don't make your customers pay their bills quicker, etc.


email | website


Gordafarid @ 02:19 PM | February 25, 2004

vaghean ke,,,, to age too siasat nazar nadi khaili behtare.... hamin amsale shomaa ajnabi parastaa hastin ke baes shodin in khareji haa har harfe bikhodi darbareye mamlekate maa bezanan.... age hatta 2 nafar ham sherkat karde bashan too in entekhabat be hich kas joz Irani marboot nemishe,,,, inghadr az in harfaa zadin ke fardaa in kharejia mian mamlekate ma ro migiran mibaran,,, masalan kheyre saremoon maha farzandaye zal o rostam o fereydoon o siavash hastimm....kojan inaa ta bebinan chetori Iranemoon ro gozashtim bara haraj,,, mirasemoono...shoma fek mikonin in kharejiyaa deleshoon bara aab o khak e in keshvar misooze.??.... nakheyr eshtebah bardasht farmoode id,,, ey kash be jaye in hame harfo hadis be onvane 1 irani e vatan parast o mostaghel abad mikardim in khako... na inke montazere farmayeshaate aghayoone ajnabi bashim ta bebinim chi amr mikonan,,, kholase inke taa amsale shomaa ajnabi parastaa hastin in mamlekat pishraft nemikone,,,,,,


email | website


draug @ 08:40 PM | February 25, 2004

Just had a question. What do Iranians do for fun? A better question would be what does a 30 something Iranian do for fun? Here in America we go to movies, have friends and family over to eat hamburgers, drink beer, and talk about work or family or current events. We go and watch sporting events or our children’s activities.

Here's an example from my life. My wife and I have a one year old. Our first kid. When I got off work last Friday we played with our little girl. She loves Elmo. Then we put her down to go to sleep for the night, I grilled up a couple steaks on the grill for a late night dinner and my wife and I watched a horror movie that we rented from the local video store. The movie was not that great, so while we watched the movie we talked about the week or other things. After the movie we went upstairs, did what married couples do, then called it a night. I couldn't sleep so I went downstairs, and read a sci-fi book until I felt sleepy, then I joined my wife for a good nights sleep.

I would imagine several Americans did almost the same thing, maybe a little more or a little less. What did most Iranians do last Friday night?


email | website


draug @ 08:44 PM | February 25, 2004

Just had a question. What do Iranians do for fun? A better question would be what does a 30 something Iranian do for fun? Here in America we go to movies, have friends and family over to eat hamburgers, drink beer, and talk about work or family or current events. We go and watch sporting events or our children’s activities.

Here's an example from my life. My wife and I have a one year old. Our first kid. When I got off work last Friday we played with our little girl. She loves Elmo. Then we put her down to go to sleep for the night, I grilled up a couple steaks on the grill for a late night dinner and my wife and I watched a horror movie that we rented from the local video store. The movie was not that great, so while we watched the movie we talked about the week or other things. After the movie we went upstairs, did what married couples do, then called it a night. I couldn't sleep so I went downstairs, and read a sci-fi book until I felt sleepy, then I joined my wife for a good nights sleep.

I would imagine several Americans did almost the same thing, maybe a little more or a little less. What did most Iranians do last Friday night?


email | website


Saeid @ 11:18 PM | February 25, 2004

Gordafarid,
From what I understand, you are blaming all the problems in Iran, on "Foreigners", and "Foreigner Lovers". My god. I am just speechless. Iran's problems caused by people with similar points of view to you that are running the show. I guess Iran's (a country rich in natural resources) crappy economy and high unemployment (and many many other problems) are all foreigners fault. I see. We have to make sure to add a new chapter in economics textbooks. Thanks for in lighting me.

Ladysun please let us know more about Iran, if you can. Thanks.


email | website


Soroush @ 12:14 AM | February 26, 2004

I have close relatives working for IranKhodro and they usually let me know of the corruption inside the system, I cant imagine how hard it must be to work in such environments.
You brought up a good point on how iranians in that factory tend to look down at foreigners (in this case indians) and how they are kinda stuck up n have their noses up. Amazingly enought, the same story is quite true if we talk in terms of bigger iranian communities or lets say all iranians in general. We are pretty good at talking trash about racism while we are racists ourselves. I remember even me and my buddies used to make fun of an Afghan student in our class back in elementary school, or throw stones at Afghan workers...
hehehe and I really liked your last sarcastic sentence about bringing flowers to work.


email | website


asghar @ 11:50 AM | February 27, 2004

to DRAUG : the iranian fuck their wifes at friday nights.


email | website


Ann @ 02:56 AM | March 1, 2004

Asghar, while i'll admit, as an American, that Draug's question was ignorant, I think he honestly just wanted to know a little about your social lives. I'm curious too, not to compare it to my own, but to get a sense of the current quality of life in Iran. If my request is still taken in offense then I apologize.


email | website


Atmikha @ 05:01 AM | March 1, 2004

Draug,
I've never been to Iran and I am not Iranian, but I had some Iranian friends in college. Every Friday after work we would all get together as the sun was going down and BBQ at one of the many public parks on the beach. Usually it was a potluck of a mix of Iranian and American foods. Like chelo kabob, pita bread, grilled quarters of onion and tomatos, sprouts, chips, salsa. About 8 - 9:00 we started to drift home. Often some or all of us would re-congregate at someone's home to watch a video, play cards, or just sit around and catch up on the week.
We did this every Friday, without fail. I think this is pretty much what happens in Iran, Friday night is the beginning of the Sabbath, so it is the end of the work week, time to get together with family, relax have "Sunday Dinner." I seem to remember stories about getting together with cousins and spending the night, bringing sleeping mats up to the roof and "camping out."
Anyway, the whole lifestyle is much better at leisure time. The art of tea, for example, whenever anyone drops by, or even if they don't, someone offers tea, and then there is the whole thing with the little glass cups, and the sugar cubes held in the teeth with the tea sipped through it. And while everyone is waiting for all that heating and brewing and sipping and cooling, there is conversation and relaxation. It wouldn't hurt Americans to practice dressing up and going somewhere just to hang out.


email | website


draug @ 04:38 PM | March 2, 2004

Thanks for your incite Atmikha.

Too Ann, At first I took offense to your statement that my question was ignorant. Then I thought about it. Now I don’t. Don't all questions stim from ignorance on subject that is being questioned? This may be digging to deep, But in any case. I really want to know what the everyday Iranian does from day to day. I find it fascinating that we really are not all that different. Although if you look at what the media feeds us, you'd think we live on different planets, I wonder what other similarities our two cultures share?


email | website