Happy Halloween everyone! Also Happy 92nd birthday to my Grandfather.
I work in a very international office and I’m learning things every day. Last week we had a pumpkin carving party and a mildly amusing thing happened. My boss stopped by my office to pick me up and we walked to the party. As we walked, he asked me what it meant to carve a pumpkin. I explained, and he asked why anyone would do it.
Good question.
Of course I have no interest in discussing the absrdity of religious and cultural customs. Steeped in history, these customs don’t need to affiliate themselves with any sort of logic. What I would like to talk about, though, is management. I see myself managing people one day in my career, and for that reason, always try to pay attention to successful and less successful managerial strategies. Kind of like a freshman at preseason who knows one day he will be a senior, I feel that I should pay attention to how my elders do things, so that when it is my turn, I know what to do (and what not to do).
I have previously noted that a successful technique to create team bonding are group activites. Being forced into awkward situations usually makes people rely on each other. There are some good events that enable this forced interaction, and pumpkin carving is certainly one of them. But what happens when cultures don’t mix that well? Sure, my boss didn’t really get why we were carving, but he didn’t mind, and made a funny evil pumpkin.
For example, someone else carved an ancient symbol that to hm represents good luck, welfare and prosperity. He took the symbol from Hinduism (I think) and it appears frequently in his country. To me, though, the swastika is a symbol of hatred and suffering, and I was momentarily shocked to see it carved at a company event. Luckily I am well-educated and well-traveled and I knew what had happened. But it was shocking.
So this doesn’t have too much of a point. But I am interested in the new challenges provided by an internaional workforce, even one centered in one geographic place.
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