Article

This article was contributed by Prabalika Borah. Prabalika heads the Hyderabad operations of Blue Lotus.

When I joined Blue Lotus I was told the Hyderabad office is well-placed, it’s neat, and blah blah blah... After a month in hotel White Pearl, Mumbai, I arrived at our Himayatnagar office. At first glance, the office appeared compact and smart. And the little toilet looked in good enough condition until Mouli, in his list of dirty outstation toilets, included the name of my branch in what was my very first offsite.

Embarrassing, no? So I come back and begin a close inspection.
I remove the curtain next to the toilet and espy brush, soap, rug and other cleaning paraphernalia. Then I peep inside the non-descript bucket. Yuck! It’s laden with fungus! Water in Hyderabad is hard, so standing water tends to form a layer on the container it’s stored in if not cleaned regularly.

I immediately fire the old maid who would keep doing her own numbers. Then I clean the junk from the loo. Suresh rolls up his sleeves and joins in. Anil’s desk is always the cleanest and tidiest. He is finicky about stains on walls, doors and on the telephone. In fact he actually sat with down detergent and cleaned the stains, to set an example really. That was one mad drive and it was possible because we all felt the need treat our office like our individual homes. I discarded the old mat and instructed the maid to not pass over the nooks and corners. For e.g., no random stuffing of rugs into the first available corner; the same applied to polythene bags. They are to be folded neatly and stacked and used as garbage disposal bags.

Anil and I both conduct surprise checks every now and then to ensure cleanliness is maintained. It wasn’t just Blue Pearl who took the initiative of a cleanliness drive. BLUE SAINTS did too. October has been a great month for them what with the team first acquiring a new client in the shape of Oceans Connect, and the subsequent arrival of Prashant Gunjan to further reinforce the team. Prashant tracks media movement and shares the information with all of us. With Diwali approaching, the Pune branch took up the cleanliness drive with gusto. Right from clearing personal drawers to rearranging files to instructing the maid to clear cobwebs from the windows and ceiling.

In the midst of all the cleaning, Mayuri realised that that such an exercise helps team members bond as everyone is working towards a common objective - cleaning the office! It generates a great sense of belonging. There’s the subtle transition from ’the office’ to ’my office’.