This is one of the good lessons that I learnt from one of the project managers that I worked with.
It was a completely different work that had just come to our team, and I was selected for it. I was in the training period. I had all sorts of audio, video sessions, conference calls, everything that a normal IT person would use for having a KT session. The real work started. Since I was new to the task, a person in US was supposed to monitor my work for initial one-two months. After one-two weeks, I gained confidence about the work being done, and my peer in US had the equal confidence in me, that he stopped monitoring me on a daily basis. I would complete the task and keep it, and he has to change the status each day. The work would be done by me in his name, and he just has to change the status in simple terms. In that way, we would be covering India-US time zones. The US peer was actually working at the client place, and we were the offshore team. Things were going fine , until one day this happened. I just got a call and had to leave home for some urgent reason and there was one pending task. I wanted to mail my US peer about the task and leave home. But since it is all about dollars, my PM suggested that I complete the task asap and leave. Without checking too much, I just completed the task and left home. As usual, my US peer changed the status once he came online. Next day morning there were lot of escalation mails waiting for me in my mail box. I did not know what to do and how to deal that. In came my PM and I told him about the escalation. There were no smart phones or personal laptops even for PM's that time.He had to come to office as well to check his mails. He immediately called me, asked me if I changed the status. When I said no, he just smiled and said, this is simple, you don't worry. Go, have some coffee and cheer up!, I was shocked that he took it so lightly, then after 5-10 minutes he sent a mail. The mail stated that the onus lies on the person who changed the status as the training period is still on, and that we are not responsible for what happened. A typical response from an offshore PM. The client couldn't argue much as there was nothing incorrect about the statement. My US peer was at loss of words and he took the blame upon himself. I somehow felt really bad as someone else had to take the blame for the mistake that I did. But then I realized, just like taking up responsibility for mistakes, one should also learn to pass the buck when required.
It was a completely different work that had just come to our team, and I was selected for it. I was in the training period. I had all sorts of audio, video sessions, conference calls, everything that a normal IT person would use for having a KT session. The real work started. Since I was new to the task, a person in US was supposed to monitor my work for initial one-two months. After one-two weeks, I gained confidence about the work being done, and my peer in US had the equal confidence in me, that he stopped monitoring me on a daily basis. I would complete the task and keep it, and he has to change the status each day. The work would be done by me in his name, and he just has to change the status in simple terms. In that way, we would be covering India-US time zones. The US peer was actually working at the client place, and we were the offshore team. Things were going fine , until one day this happened. I just got a call and had to leave home for some urgent reason and there was one pending task. I wanted to mail my US peer about the task and leave home. But since it is all about dollars, my PM suggested that I complete the task asap and leave. Without checking too much, I just completed the task and left home. As usual, my US peer changed the status once he came online. Next day morning there were lot of escalation mails waiting for me in my mail box. I did not know what to do and how to deal that. In came my PM and I told him about the escalation. There were no smart phones or personal laptops even for PM's that time.He had to come to office as well to check his mails. He immediately called me, asked me if I changed the status. When I said no, he just smiled and said, this is simple, you don't worry. Go, have some coffee and cheer up!, I was shocked that he took it so lightly, then after 5-10 minutes he sent a mail. The mail stated that the onus lies on the person who changed the status as the training period is still on, and that we are not responsible for what happened. A typical response from an offshore PM. The client couldn't argue much as there was nothing incorrect about the statement. My US peer was at loss of words and he took the blame upon himself. I somehow felt really bad as someone else had to take the blame for the mistake that I did. But then I realized, just like taking up responsibility for mistakes, one should also learn to pass the buck when required.
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