India Inc shouldn’t let its love of busy bees kill the buzz of work
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In India, we are taught to be busy, or at least convincingly play the part of looking busy. The art of being occupied round the clock starts right in childhood and is worn as a badge of honour throughout higher education and then one’s cut-throat work life.
Being accessible within two shakes of a duck tail signals that you are not occupied, which often equates to being not-so-important in the office hierarchy. Unfortunately, though, India Inc’s love for busy bees is a buzz killer. How often have you opened work tabs, pretence-typed gibberish on a Word document just as the boss happens to pass by? Micro-seconds ago, you may have been lost in rumination, but it would not have gone down well with the person you report to.
Why? Because catching you ruminate may have made the boss wonder various things. Is there insufficient work on your Key Result Area (KRA) template? Or have you lost interest in your work? Turned quiet quitter and disengaged? Are you planning to quit the job? And how does an apparently idle person at work reflect on the boss? Ironically, you may in reality be a high performer who decided to spend some time staring into space—and yes, during office hours. But, for a fraction of a second, your stock may have sank on the choppy bourse we are familiar with as the ‘Boss’s Radar.’ For most of us busy or not-so-busy at work, getting a job was a natural step after our education, and for many of us , a higher education followed the regular school curriculum.
The competitive pressures and bills to pay meant never getting a chance to take a ‘gap year’ off, or even some time off the work schedule to travel, or even a short breather. Sabbatical policies are still rare and new. They
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