A 9 to 5 job….what a joke?
Poornima Mohandas -
Saturday, July 12, 2008 12:24 PM
This was how a recently held, work-life integration workshop, aimed at HR managers in the technology space, started in Bangalore, “We all know that a 9 to 5 job is not a 9 to 5 job...”
I mean what ‘integration’ are we talking about here if you start such a workshop under the pretext that your employees shouldn’t have any time to themselves to lead a personal life. FYI : work-life balance has been replaced by the in-vogue concept, work-life integration.
Time and over at the 4-hour long session, Indian managers reminded me of those rigid headmistresses who run convents schools nagging for discipline, posing questions like, “If an employee is working from home how do we know he or she is really working…”
The idea of work flexibility was explored time and again but no HR manager wanted their employees to compress work hours say from 8 hours a day to 4-6 hours or choose to work four days of the week instead of the usual five. According to the tech world in India, flexibility is an option to be used parsimoniously and on a temporal basis. Defies the whole concept of flexibility doesn’t it for a guy trying to help take care of his new born or for a woman trying to volunteer with a non-profit.
Sadly we Indians are emulating the American corporate culture with longer and longer working hours aiming only at the bottom line. Even the Americans actually mean four day weeks and six hour days when they talk flexibility. The European way, (which I vouch for) would allow for such an idyllic life where employees can walk their dogs and water their plants or step out early on a Friday evening to grab a swig at the corner-side pub. Oh how I crave for it. I’ve seen my partner slave it out putting more than 12 hours of his waking hours at office and sometimes even 14, with all him drained out as he crashes into bed. Indians on the IT bandwagon not only work Indian hours but American hours and sometimes even Asia-pacific hours to conference call with teams and clients spread across continents, leaving only the precious weekend to unwind, get drunk, meet friends and do all things that one’s heart is in. But then again this is the price we pay being in a galloping developing economy. Do write in to tell me what you think.