IBM Handbags policy
By Sandhya

Regular readers of Techgoss are well aware that a large number of our articles are crowd sourced.  People send in tips, story ideas and even articles. Many of our contributors have full times jobs in IT-ITES, and so prefer using a pseudonym.  A well informed Tipster, who was hanging around the IBM Bangalore Reception, tells us

“
Big organizations can have the same level of bureaucracy that a government run Department has. The funny thing is this is not restricted to Indian companies. Even more funnier, it can be found in the IT sector, which takes great pride in efficiency and never misses a chance to publicly talk about its streamlined management of all issues.  The company in question is not worth a few million dollars in turnover but has close to $100 billion in revenues.

A mid-level manager (who happens to be a lady) from one of the leading Indian Telecom companies had to visit the Manyata Embassy Business Park at Outer Ring Road, Nagawara in Bangalore for a meeting with Inder Kumar, a networking expert, who is based out of the US. Inder was on a visit to IBM India.

Typically, the user enters the reception area, tells the name of the person to meet, declares whether they are carrying any gadgets (apart from phones) and gets a move on.

The lady in question did not have any gadget and all she had was a handbag. In most companies, a handbag can be taken to a meeting. However, the over enthusiastic IBM Bangalore security personnel insisted that the lady leave the handbag at the reception area. When she asked whether the handbag will be kept in a locker, the reception people said that they will not take any responsibility for the handbag, but it cannot be carried inside the building. When she tried calling Inder's liaison, that person had to literally call up the Admin and request them to grant an exemption. Understandably, the lady got a bit irate and threw a fit.  All of us at the reception were bemused at IBM’s no purse policy for visitors. After repeated calls with the IBM top management, they finally decided to let her go in. All this took about 20 minutes and people waiting at the reception were left wondering about the impression that IBM left in the minds of visitors. Not a word was said to the security personnel. Safety, bullying or bureaucracy?

Most women I know would be uncomfortable leaving their purses with strangers who cannot even promise to lock it up safely.
“

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