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- At HealthScribe India Ltd, a Bangalore-based medical transcription firm, young transcriptionists design apparel in paper, have caricature contests and 'theme Fridays'—from walking the ramp to dressing up their supervisor, wearing weird hair-dos and cross-dressing! For the more serious minded, there's yoga, Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam classes. The company even has an officially designated chief fun officer (CFO): B.S. Vijayasa organises creative events through the year with a monthly budget ranging between Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
- At Chennai's Polaris Software Lab Ltd, overworked geeks shrug off impending deadlines to 'mummify' a colleague as Freddy Koikaran aka Mr Happy, of ImageEquity, Asia's first reputation management firm, announces a humour session. Five groups are handed out tissue paper bundles and Sellotape to truss up an employee in each group into a mummy. Then there's 'Getting Even', where teams are blindfolded and have to form a square using a rope given to them. Some diversion from number crunching programs!
- At FirstRing, another Bangalore call centre, 'theme Fridays' are the rage. Everything goes: cross-dressing, ethnic, funky dressing.It's global culture in full swing: Valentine's Day, Rose Day and Halloween Day are favourites for customer service representatives. Now there are plans to add a karaoke room to encourage singers and a punching bag for employees to vent off steam. Sriharsha Achar, director (human resources), doubles up as the facility's CFO.
- At jadooWorks, an animation company, office jams are part of the weekend routine. Dressing inside out or in bizarre colour combinations are the new rage. 'Spider-web', 'calculator-game' and 'food-train' are other games in vogue. Ashish Kulkarni, chief operating officer (COO) doubles up as the CFO here and is planning to enlarge the scope of fun once the firm moves to a new studio. "We will definitely have a separate CFO when we move to our new studio, but the task will be rotated once a quarter among the members of our team," he said.
- At vMoksha Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, an e-business transformation solutions company, software professionals have weekly dos. There are also contests such as 'strawing peanuts' (sucking a peanut through a straw and walking some distance without dropping it), blowing lots of balloons and building towers with a kilo of old newspapers. Cultural activities are held on a large scale once in three months. Flying airplanes is another fun game that seeks to relieve participants from the monotony of their work. The Food Train is a game that emphasises the importance of working as a team, and deriving synergies.
- MindTree Consulting Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore-based company has year-long activities in singing, theatre and dance that culminate in the annual day celebrations. The 'Ranga Boys' band is made up of IT professionals, jamming at the cafeteria most evenings. Cricket in the corridors or a game of basketball are other diversions. Two members of the staff from the People Function department work as 'culture officers' here. The annual budget for such fun: Rs 20 lakh.
B.R. Srikanth In Bangalore With S. Anand in Chennai
