I go back in time when “work” was considered to be a serious form of worship. Serious workaholics strongly believed in the idiom, “Work is Worship” and toiled day in and day out. Most of these workaholics were “seen” to be good leaders and successful people. The names of these people were often quoted, as shining examples to emulate and to motivate the younger generation to work harder. For anybody who was seen taking a break or just relaxing in-between office work, their acts were considered blasphemous. Back in the eighties, during the early stages of my banking career, I had a nagging suspicion that the Bank had assigned some senior executives solely to keep a close watch on the young employees who had been recruited in hordes in all nationalized banks post the bank nationalization phase in the late sixties and early seventies in India. Recruitment took place in Banks in thousands, in the late seventies and early eighties, very much like the mass recruitment we see in Software and Services Companies these days. I suspect, some of the senior executives in Banks were ordained by Bank management to go around their Head Office / Main office building in the Bank just to catch the youngsters in the act of chatting among themselves standing near the staircases or loitering here and there or just “whiling away” their precious “work” time in the office canteens. I remember being remonstrated a few times by senior executives to go back to respective work stations and complete the “work” instead of wasting time. Working late was considered the norm with employees putting in extra hours of “work” beyond their stipulated working hours. Sitting late would fetch the employees the required additional marks in their annual appraisals which was considered a “must” for promotions!
The youngsters in Banks who had been freshly recruited
from various colleges had carried over their baggage in forming groups of
like-minded individuals for sharing experiences and discussing their work-life
occurrences standing near the staircases.
The atmosphere in the Head Office of the Bank was buzzing with
activity. Young people were seen milling
all around the Head Office or their Main Offices with enthusiasm. There was so much energy and freshness around
the Bank environment, which is in sharp contrast to what we see in the
nationalized Banks today. Pardon me,
while I say that most of the nationalized Bank employees today appear all too
tired, dull and old, ready to pack up their bags at the drop of a hat, once and
for all, either to opt for voluntary retirement or wait for attaining
superannuation. Since there was the
mass recruitment of employees in the early eighties, now there appears to be
the mass exit of employees occurring in nationalized Banks these days.
Coming back to the topic at hand, we hear the refrain
“work life balance” being bandied about constantly these days; used synonymous with the IT and other services’ employees who work around the
clock, 24/7, catering to their “clients” from around the world. These days the term of yore, “work is
worship” seem to be almost absent. It is
now all about teamwork and making greater use of technology. Great ideas and inspiration seem to be the
buzzword. People have realized the
darker side of slogging 24/7; with the pervasive lifestyle, related health
issues cropping up; employees not having quality time for families; and many
other negative factors in the society catching up, to show up, the ill effects
of working too much at the cost of their personal life. Personal life gets disrupted with too much
focus on “work” and nothing else, in between.
“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”, seems to
be the mantra these days; in the process, companies are urging their employees
to have a perfect work-life balance. The
big multinational companies, software, services and otherwise, have all
provided for various facilities within their Headquarters each looking more and
more like college campuses rather than companies where people need to “work”
for generating profits for these companies.
It appears that Google HQ has Group cooking classes or coffee tasting arranged
for its employees; bikes are provided to employees to move around the campus;
Cafes galore within the campuses; group fitness classes with A class Gym
facilities and much more are provided to their employees. Facebook HQ, on the other hand, have many
other wonderful facilities for its employees; company store–filled with FB
apparel and items; it seems they even have foxes on campus, real ones, with specially
designated fox-habitat area, and the campus certified for wild-life; video
arcade for employees to hang out; many fast food restaurants filled with
Burgers, pizzas, burritos, sushi, sweet shops, coffee shops, vending machines
filled with snacks and beverages. All free. An interior swing for employees to
“chill” in the playground near to the mini-kitchen. Lots of electric cars in the parking lot. Apple, it appears have designed their new HQ
in a unique circular style reminiscent of their iPod, iPhone and iPad. Their new campus will include a cafe for
3,000 sitting people; be surrounded by extensive landscaping, and offer parking
both underground and a parking structure. Media reports widely describe the new
structure as "spaceship". Other facilities include a 1,000-seat
auditorium, 300,000 square feet of R&D facilities, a fitness center; an
orchard, and a dedicated generating plant as the primary source of electricity
(powered by natural gas and other more environmentally sound means); with a
gorgeous courtyard in the middle, and a lot more. What else, next? Your imagination is as good as mine! With all these wonderful facilities’
available, where do the employees find time to complete their required “work”
hours, in between all the recreation and fun?
How times are A-changing. The workers of the world, rejoice! Sitting late in Offices is now considered passé. Life seems to have come full circle for the
workers of the world, who were once viewed with suspicion and had to be reined
in to be more productive with catchy phrases such as “Work is Worship” as a
means of motivation. Retaining employees
was unheard of, in our earlier days; there were no retention policies to retain
talented youngsters by providing facilities, including employee stock
options. Workers were considered mere “automatons”
or “robots” working at the pleasure of the employers; the loyal “employees” of
yesteryear were threatened with more stringent working hours and bad reviews
if they did not “fall in line” with the management philosophy of work, work and
more work. What a “royal fall” for the employer
managements, it has been! Who has had
the last laugh, now, the “workers” or the “employer managements”, your guess is
as good as mine!
