I am increasingly frustrated by some of the policies that are followed in top-tier IT companies in India. One thing that really irks me is the inability to bring in small eatables or drinkables(biscuits, fritos, kurkure) or even a can of coke to eat on my desk while programming.
My dream when I was a college kid was to have a bottle of coke(or pepsi) on the side, loud music banging through my ears and line and line of beautiful, world changing code being written.
But most IT companies, do not allow food inside the premises, some going to the extent of banning tea and coffe on the desk. It was not until I spoke to a F&L manager recently, that I understood the reason for this seeming idiosyncracy.
The reason was RATS!!!! Apparently, rat infestations are common. He highlighted an incident in a company he worked with, where RATS invaded the server rooms and tore the main cabling crippling the network.
I was aghast!! Million dollar servers running million dollars worth of software which keeps an army of 4000 people busy working, all bought down by Rats? (Not viruses/not malware/not theft/not hackers but rats). A scene right out of the Tom and Jerry comics.
There is no mention of rats in any ISO code or any other standard which data center people are supposed to follow. The problem of rats is surprisingly hard to solve. A simple google, did not find me one good simple(read cheap) solution to fixing the problem, other than calling in exterminators and putting a lot of rat poison.
Ofcourse, a knee jerk reaction to this is that many IT companies(who claim they are fun places to work in etc etc) , stop you from taking even small eatables into the company premises!!!! I personally believe that this is a huge dent in productivity. For some people programming and eating go hand in hand. For others, it is a time saving opportunity lost.
I am more saddended by the fact that none of the big IT companies I know off seem to be doing anything other than the obvious, "do not allow food" inside tactic. Many of them cite the excuse that Indians by their very nature are "sloppy" and "undisciplined" and cannot be trusted to keep premises clean enough to ward of rodents.
I am even more aghast at the fact that our big IT companies which employ millions of our best brains have not come up with innovative solutions to tackle this issue. I wonder, what such technological innovative solutions can be.
Granted, pest control is not in the domain of the normal "IT Engineer", however innovative solutions are. I can think of a few:
1) Wireless Networks- Go wireless wherever possible people. Makes things a whole lot easier.
2) Secure Cables- There must be something(Steel covering) to put on cables that would prevent mice from chewing on them
3) Poison- Ofcourse poisioning would be the best way to have Pest Control.
I would love to see if there are any more innovative ideas(I admit the ones listed above are a little lame.) to solve this problem.
5 comments:
Try ultra-sonic pest control control devices! I hear some of them are effective!
I think this is not fair from your analysis to poison rats for the sake of your desk eating habits.
Better have your food at some places where it is supposed to be taken. Spare the life of rat in that case... (http://www.stopanimaltests.com/feat/hiddenrats/).
And to really enjoy songs and not disturb those sitting besides you with loud noise of it, complete your work on time and listen it at home...
but for coke, tea and coffee.. i think it should be allowable..
My poor ex room-mate tried all the humane ways to dispose of a rat that had found it's way in our place and was trapped. He tried to leave it at a far away location so that the rat would not come back and lo and behold before he knew it, it was back. (We are pretty certain it was the same RAT). Not until, we had to "put it to sleep" did the rats finally stop visiting our place.
The intention of the blog entry is to see if there are humane ways to get rid of a rodent problem whilst maintaining our virtues and vices...
hey Vikrant,
didn't know you've started blogging! ... but found it refreshing to read a whole blog of original thoughts. And you're spot on linking it with productivity. I suppose google allows it(the food), so may be you could ask someone there.
Some of these IT companies you mention have already invested in buying ultra-sonic pest control devices. Rats are one part of the problem the other part is the general sloppiness you have mentioned. I know of instances wherein people have left perishable foodstuff in their drawers and left for onsite. The smell of rotten food takes some days to clear away in our ac environment. One more problem is the aroma of Indian food.
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