Work life balance in India?

10Nov08

According to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, achieving work life balance is the biggest worry for Indians. Archana Rai’s article in Live Mint, dated October10, 2008 indicates that stress, anxiety and depression studies by NIMHANS have reached worrying levels in cities like Bangalore where symptoms like edginess and bad temper were indicative of severe distress. This coupled with factors like 2 to 3 hour commutes and a culture that encourages extremely lengthy work hours (because that is what everyone else is doing) result in complete neglect of ones personal life. Family time and time for oneself become distant memories but more worrying the health toll of such work conditions can be dire.

In another Livemint article last year, S. Mitra Kalita recalls the old adage that if you have to stay late or bring work home then you are just not working efficiently, a term I myself heard constantly, growing up. Meanwhile an economic boom and completely new work conditions coupled with online distractions like IM and facebook and a social work environment – mean people are not only working inefficiently but are incredibly distracted at work as well. This further leads to lengthy work hours to get the job done and meet impending deadlines.

So we have lengthy work days; a work environment that encourages extreme social interaction; employees putting in extra face time to avoid being skipped over for promotions; an entirely new work culture that is a result of western directives and based on western practices and a work force ill equipped to keep up and juggle the demands of their work life and their personal life.

Examining ones work conditions and environments are part of a natural progression for a work force that is coming of age, especially within the MNC context. At first we were happy to just get the jobs, now that we have them and the jobs appear as though though they are here to stay (at least some of them), the Indian work force is evolving to question their work conditions. With economic boom came privilege and responsibility, our workforce evolved from being back-office-minions to the star-performers on the team. With that comes the ability to negotiate better pay packages and better work conditions.

With the global melt down the disparity between expatriate / repatriated NRI expertise and local middle management has narrowed further. This writer accepts that while job hopping has also reduced as a result of the global slow down and people are happy to just have jobs, this does not mean that awareness has decreased about what people actually want from their jobs.

Great strides have already been made in creating work conditions that result in higher productivity. A challenge for any HR department ,small or large, anywhere in the world and no different in India. According to Archana Rai almost 10% of IBM India’s workforce works from home. Some opting for a day or two a week on the office. Cisco (where all employees can opt to work from home) and many others have also provided such options to their staff. With the type of technology available today, where you work from is irrelevant as long as you get the job done.

Simply eliminating ones commute can mean the difference between spending time with your child during the week or not. It can relieve stress not to have to be stuck in rush hour traffic morning and evening. A work – life balance can lead naturally to a less stressful existence. With more and more options on how to balance ones work life and personal life and the availability for such benefits available to small, medium and corporate entities alike it is a matter of time before flexible work options are the norm rather than an option for a select few!

Your cynicism at my optimistic belief that the future holds positive change (and not just  downsizing) may be warranted, but it is my firm belief that we can have our cake here in India and eat it too! May I be so flippant to suggest that downsizing (at least of office space) may be the way forward? We can find a balance between creating a service work force to cater to the needs of the rest of the world and do it in a creative manner. Telecommuting tele callers, online PR personalities, remote graphic designers and web developers and HR advisors all help growing companies reduce overheads, as they do not require office space and work on contracts that are terminated on completion of the job.  They help get the job done and all from the comfort of their arm chairs just after the early morning school drop off!  Now that sounds like good old fashioned work life balance to me.

The large corporate companies have already shown that productivity is not effected in these creative work set ups, in fact some would argue that productivity goes up if remote access work is effectively carried out. The next step is actually NOT to hop on the bandwagon, close shop and set up remote work from home, only to find it does not work for you. Instead, try a project or two, learn about what works best for you and your organization and gradually transition to a more autonomous working scenario for your employees, experiment a little and come up with solutions that work for both the organization and the employees. Recognition of the fact that your employees are what make your organization  effective is key in giving them enough control to manage their own time in their own way, this autonomy is key in creating balance between ones work life and personal life. With any luck, it appears that we are entering an interesting and innovative phase with new options for juggling ones career and personal life in the Indian workforce. 

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