A little less elbow, a bit more heart into your jobs
Work does not satisfy anyone nowadays. Citing the lack of adequate compensation, timely promotion, and meaningful growth opportunities, countless employees express their dissatisfaction by quitting, moonlighting, malingering, or trundling on while wearing a face resembling impatience on a monument gritting her teeth.
Captains of industry are equally disgruntled.
Having earlier broadcast the generous concessions they have granted employees — periodically allowing them to WFH, or absolving them of their participation in the gig economy — some, like N Narayana Murthy, have now taken to sharing unsolicited advice. This includes prescribing a 70-hour work week and working three shifts a day, practices unheard of even at the height of the Industrial Revolution.
What is especially facile about this counsel is that work has been reduced to many hours and days in the mistaken belief that the unitary method, and indefatigable labour will drive endless efficiency, growth, and profits.
Nearly a century ago, Henry Ford took the fateful step of reducing the work week to 40 hours (without shrinking wages) when he realised that longer hours drove no incremental efficiencies. Today, even a pedantic mathematician is likely to scoff at the reasoning of the Indian employer.
Every corporation advertises platitudes about the quality of their workplace: it respects workers' rights, promotes fair treatment, is an equal opportunity employer, promotes growth and rewards schemes, and ensures a healthy work-life balance.
