I first saw this movie some 4 years back, just saw it again today. I have seen it probably around 20 – 25 times now. One of the best SPY movies ever. You can't get more authentic than this I suppose. Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, both of them have given excellent performances. The screenplay is flawless; there is no lag in any part. The director brilliantly maintains the tension and pace throughout the movie. Cinematography is really good with the story essaying from Vietnam, USA, Beirut, Germany to china. Apart from the strong storyline and screenplay the other thing that stood out was the background score that is haunting at times and pure adrenaline rush when the story moves at break neck pace. A must watch for all fans of espionage and spy genre.
Cheers
Pradeep
This was my last email at my previous job that I always wanted to send but only did it when I finally left the company. I'm happy that at least I passed on my views to the Boss man before leaving. I've added some explanations below in brackets, which were not part of the original mail.
I hope you and your family are well. Firstly I apologize for the long email.
After 3 years and 7 months, today is my last day at [company]. As I’m sending my farewell mails to all, the one person I always wanted to have a chat with or convey my opinions [positive and negative] about this company is none other than the CEO.
This is not a complaint mail, this is more of a Thank you mail and I have just expressed a few of my observations and concerns which I feel I owe this company which was a great place to work.
I joined [company] way back in Jan 2006 with the Picture Research department; I had to shift from my hometown Chennai. I moved only because of the love for Picture Research and it’s close to 4 years now, I stayed back even after the team was shut down a year ago. I stayed with [company] only because I could manage to be myself and put in my best efforts without compromising on my honesty even though there were many changes during the past years, which were not morally or ethically right. These are just my opinion and there have been a lot of things happening of late in this company, which concurs with my opinion.
The first day at [company] I saw a Caucasian male sitting in one corner and working, later to my total surprise I found out that it was you, the CEO of the company. That said a lot about the company, about the ethics and values of what actually matters.[Open office plan instead of having seperate rooms for senior management]
I used to brag to all my friends that I work in a company were I don’t have to care about the usual politics, bureaucracy and unhealthy competition, which unfortunately are the norm in majority of Indian companies. I know that these things are common to business around the world but it’s a lot more in my country.
[It might sound as if I’m bootlicking the CEO, but in fact its just genuine respect for a humble person]
I saw that all [company] employees put in their best efforts not thinking about time or personal choices when it came to getting the job done. I have seen people sitting for 15 to 20 hours just to finish work and nobody forced them to sit. I too have worked for long hours at certain occasions without expecting anything back just to get the light boxes to our clients. All this was done voluntarily because we used to love our jobs. [Company] was such a great place to work and all the credit goes to having a system were employees don’t have to worry about their salary scales or working hours etc ... basically the company took good care of the people and all gave their 100% to the work they did. I believe this was the secret of the phenomenal success of [Company] which grew stronger and stronger during the initial years.
I come from a different background and this is my first corporate job, I was with the Indian film industry working as a sound engineer. I never saw myself going to an MNC and work like all my friends did, but Picture Research changed all that and I had the best time ever during my first year at [Company].
Unfortunately a lot of changes happened due to a new CEO, of course I can understand that any company has to change or have new systems to grow. But most of the changes brought in by the new person were very short term which looked like it was being done just to please his bosses and not for the betterment of the company and its employees. Of course you would have received a lot of complaint mails on this by now and I always knew that any complaints sent would have been anticipated and covered for. That’s the reason that I never sent a mail on this even though there were quiet a few of us who were really unhappy with the total work culture of [Company] changing for the worse. The policies brought in were favoring the elite and not the actual employees who gave their best day in and day out.
I can give just one example, which might make sense; there were quite a lot of departments who were doing night shifts, which earned them a shift allowance. There is only one department [CS], which actually does the graveyard shift now, but the allowance given to this department stays the equal to other departments who just do an early shift. What is the use or perk of working in a rotating shift every month when there’s no difference for your efforts. Will an employee give his best in these conditions or does one think that the company doesn’t care about us so we don’t have to care about it. This was not the case when I joined the company that’s the reason at least now I had to let out my frustrations and disappointments. Of course as CEO you have other pressing issues than to check on these, but if the management is ruining the basic framework of any company then whatever ideas or visions the company has may not be achieved with an unhappy work force.
[Company] is still one of the best company’s in ………Park but it was way better than what it is now and I’m happy that I had been there to revel in that work culture. Of course the self centered CEO is no longer there but some of the people who used to enforce his line of thought are still here and hopefully they come to realize what is actually good for the company and its employees and not for a few at the top.
I can only talk about my experiences and observations so I have to say a few things about the Picture Research department. The PR team was so successful that we managed to do 100% PR from India; all credit goes to all the picture researchers and the managers ……., …… & ….. and ……. [3 UK managers and 1 India manager] When the PR team was shut down a lot of things didn’t make sense and a couple of us had quite a lot of questions. Nobody asked any questions except one or two because we all knew that the decision was already made and nothing would have changed it. I somehow saw this coming much earlier due to specific reasons.
The things that didn’t make sense to me:
I always wondered that we send all these light boxes day in and day out, how much do we actually contribute towards sales. This was my thought in the first couple of months [in 2006] after I started with the team and I did put this question to …….[manager]. Back then there was no study or there was no system to actually monitor and we were told that it was pretty difficult or nearly impossible to track the actual sales done from the light boxes we send.
The PR team was a creative lot and all of us were happy with what we did and we always gave our 100%, nobody can ever challenge our quality. Unfortunately as we were a good unit and stuck together we were not in the good books of the now Ex CEO. We all stood by our manager who had his differences with a lot of issues and as Team Leads we also conveyed our concerns. We were considered as a rowdy lot who never falls in line.
The truth is that [Company] was one company and everybody [Both India and UK office] worked together to give the best possible service to our clients. It changed to - UK being a client, which means that there is no common goal. India office only tries to please the UK bosses and that was the saddest part, which resulted in people not working together but working against each other. In my opinion this work culture is a wrong one and it will only harm the company in the long run. [Company] will only be successful if it remains as one company and not as different units, this is my humble opinion.
A Berlin Wall was erected between the UK and Indian employees. Once, there was total cooperation and it declined to zero communication. This was done to achieve total control of the company by the new CEO; most of the teams had to fall in line except Picture Research as our work was totally different were we had to work together. Both the managers, [uk] and [India] were always there for our concerns and needs. Unfortunately this didn’t go well with the Indian Management, so we were considered as a bad team. The team was caught between a power struggle between the UK management and the CEO but we remained neutral.
The thing that really surprised me was when a team, which provides free service, was given 7 new team members. Did we have some great plans for PR or what was the real motive behind this?
When the team was shut down we were told that there was a study done regarding the actual sales done by PR on how much the clients actually use PR to buy images. I honestly could not believe that suddenly there was a foolproof system to track sales. So if a study has been going on for a while, how come the TL’s or the manager didn’t have much clue about this at all? Nobody was kept in the loop. I can understand that top business decisions are made at senior levels but it was surprising to believe that even the manager was kept out of major decisions. So a team, which provides free service, which only had around 5 or 6 team members, was suddenly the largest team in the India office with 12 members. Were the people hired genuinely to share the workload or was it for other ulterior motives.
On paper, as a team we would have looked really bad - that the management spends so much money on the PR team and they don’t contribute anything to sales, so we can be shut down. This was just a thought that was in my mind, which didn’t make any sense, because if I run a company and I pump in money I would expect returns. But I would never pump in money to a team, which actually doesn’t contribute much in the first place. It did make sense, as the Indian management was unhappy with us, so we were shut down.
It is ironic that we are offering free PR for a good number of our clients now and everyday the list is getting bigger and bigger. I was expected to move out of the company when the PR team was shut down but I did stay back due to personal reasons and I also wanted to learn about the rest of the business aspects. I am really happy that I have stayed longer than some people who had not contributed anything to this company. I just wanted to let you know my thoughts on these issues and the intention is not to mudsling. I have worked hard for this company for the past 3 odd years and I was never afraid of sharing my views. [Company] was like a 3 year MBA course for me, I have learnt a lot of things here which I could have never experienced anywhere else.
Honestly I don’t know if this mail will reach you and if it does I again apologize for such a long email.
I wish all the success for you and [Company].
Thanks & Regards,
Pradeep
[I did receive a reply from the Boss man, thanking me for my views and the hard work that I had put in all these years.]
