Monday morning 1st December. I get up early, dress up and go to IBM
Rational office in Koramangala. This is the office i had attended my
interview in and so it was perfectly legal for me to assume that I
would be going into the office, contacting some HR person and will get
the joining formalities done..and get some postponed :) for I had as
usual kept some stuff for the 11th hr and had not been able to do them
:)

I fill up some form at the reception and get stuck since i do not have
an employee id. After some time when a manager arrives he informs me
that I have to go to some other office to complete the formalities. I
go there and pain the HR that i have not been given an employee id in
the offer letter. Turns out that this id is given only after
successful completion of paper work for which a chest x-ray and a
letter from the previous employer about the acceptance of my
resignation is essential. If I dont get these i dont get to join on
that day and will lose a days pay :o

So i rush to a diagnostic centre..ask whether an x-ray can be done and
the reports received in an hour..pat comes the question "Are you from
IBM?" :)) Turns out i have to go some place else since the radiologist
has left. So i rush to another place..same story there.."Are you from
IBM?", they ask :) I give then a smile and say yes, get the xray
done..then search for a photo shop..get 4 polaroid photos done (I
ignore the insistence on the offer letter abt white background and get
photos with red background..) Soon i also realise that I no longer
have precious documents like my BE and Mtech degress and my passport
with me :(( I get tense for a while but then conclude that i could
only have forgotten them in the IBM office and call up the people
there..seems the HR female is not available and so I have to wait till
i get to the office to find out if my documents are indeed there...I
collect the x-ray and then go to the office..search frantically for
the documents..they are to be found nowhere..throat goes dry..then i
see the HR female looking at me..she says.."if u are looking for your
originals they are with me don't worry"..then an atheist thanked god
:)

So everthing is now set..I fill up the forms to the best of my
abilities..cursing and abusing..but i do get it done..Then i reflect
back on the happenings in that office..It is an office dedicated only
to new joinees. It is called the "IBM Welcome office"..people come
there in hordes everyday and the HR female there goes through the same
hell everyday..yet she manages to keep a smile on her face and make
individual remarks like "I have found that all Rational employees are
jovial" :)) I admire her and thank her for saving my originals and
being patient with all my doubts and queries..

Most of the other people were from IBM Global Services and were given
fundaes in sessions about following dress codes and stuff..I know i m
not gonna follow it :) so i sleep through it..

So all done i submit my papers and then i m asked to meet an
RDM(Resource Deployement Manager) The hordes of people that join in
first have to report to this person and then he makes some entries
into his excel sheet..greets everyone with equal enthusiasm "welcome
to IBM and have a great career with us". New joinees have to come to
the same office until they are assigned to a project. So the welcome
office is a welcome bench..To meet the RDM i have to stand in a
queue..the whole place almost resembles a government office..except
that some of the people here a bit more helpful and courteous..IBM has
a pretty well developed bureaucracy in it.."get the x-ray or u ll not
be joining today"..general "get this.get that..go here..go
there..please wait..i ll come after some time" are common..although
this is largely an issue with scalability and the number of people
employeed there, but one still feels frustrated at the state of
affairs...Anyways i meet the RDM and then i talk with the HR female
for a while, thank her again for my documents and then leave for
good..after a day of frustration i m finally an official IBM employee.