Talking to friends the other day, I almost shocked the assembled group (and myself) by calling IT engineers “clerks”. It was a spontaneous comment, and meant no offence because I too belonged to that category not so long ago. But I regretted saying something that could even minutely be construed as prejudiced, and wondered how that happened. So here is the explanation for those who care to hear!

My friend T. had mentioned that she received periodic advertisement SMSes inviting her to call at some number for “bikini babes” or something of the like. Apparently, some other girls also got such messages. Curiously enough, none of the guys she checked with ever got such a message. Well, I reached for the safest possible explanation: “Some clerk in some IT company must have mixed up the M and F in the database!” That’s when my point was missed, and the innocuous turn of phrase grabbed the limelight.

To make things worse, as usually happens in such situations, I explained myself: “By clerks, I just meant the BTechs…”

Pat came the question: “Oh, so you are calling BTechs clerks? How dare you?!!”

There was nothing more to be gained, or even lost, for that matter, by explaining, so I kept mum and resolved to explain things on the blog.

My memories go back to the time when I sat for MBA coaching classes. Like almost everyone in the class, I fully expected – even looked forward? – to be placed in an IT company and to work there in case the b-school plan did not work out. Imagine my sense of dismay when a classmate at the coaching centre stated categorically that one important reason why everyone should do an MBA degree was this: after BTech, all that we would be made to do at an IT company was either sit on the bench or add tabs and spaces that had been missed out in software code. In other words, jobs that “any monkey could do”! Apparently, MBA was the key that would open the escape route from such an undesirable fate.

As anyone who has worked at an IT company will readily vouch for, things are not always that bad, though they do get disappointing at times. But then, when is life without its ups and downs? One thing is clear: in the pecking order that the fresh BTech joins, the new recruit is usually the beginner, the one who starts at the bottom of the ladder. In short, the equivalent of a clerk in a typical office (as far as my limited understanding of offices goes). This was the connotation I intended. Of course, he/she will rise up the ladder with the passage of time, but that doesn’t make them any less of a rookie initially.

Now, having done an MBA, the situation promises to replay itself for most of us who will begin at the bottom again. This is life, after all, and my comment was meant to be neither derogatory nor belittling, and merely indicated the value of experience. It was, at best, a quick metaphor and, at worst, sheer ignorance.

Indeed, having worked incredibly hard at b-school, MBA grads surely need not be surprised at having to do the one thing which could be worse than what any monkey can do – tons and tons of donkey work!