What We Need To Hear About Work
Recently, I saw my flatmate sobbing uncontrollably. When I asked her the reason, she told me that she was expected to reach office early the following day despite the fact that she was very sick. She leaves for work at 9.30 am and rarely returns before 12 am. Every time for six days a week. But, this is not just her story.
More than a month ago, I saw Amazon trending globally but for all the wrong reasons. After a quick search, I came across a long and appalling article, calling Amazon a bruising workplace, in the NYT, followed by Amazonians’ response. No, this is not another post to choose sides in the ongoing debate — it’s a post about my shocking discovery.
Let’s be honest; we have all heard about different versions of stories about their employers from our friends. I’ve spoken to my friends who are working, and a lot of them appear dissatisfied with their jobs. Gruelling working hours, bizarre deadlines, and a high pressure environment seem to have become everyday elements in our work life.
Working longer hours has serious adverse effects on health and productivity. It exposes you to several health related issues. It also affects your decision-making and results in burnout. That’s a price neither companies nor employees can afford to pay. According to a study by Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India): Nearly 42.5% of the employees in private sector suffer from depression or anxiety disorders due to demanding schedules, high stress levels, and performance related perquisites.
It’s a competitive world, companies want to move at a rapid speed and hence, only want to retain high performers. An organisation’s performance is dependent on its team’s performance. Team performance, in turn, relies a lot on productivity. There’s a common belief that if we put in more hours of work, we will get more things accomplished. That’s where we get it all wrong. An increased number of working hours is not equal to increased productivity. A synthesis paper by the International Labour Organisation concluded: Longer hours do not make you more productive, and can in fact have the opposite effect: You’ll get less done, and what you do get done is never your best work.*
At Crowdfire, we have always promoted flexible working hours. However, we used to see our team members (specially the developers) staying late very often. Yes, we do stay late and pull all-nighters when we are about to ship something big. We noticed a decline in our productivity and that’s when the thought of experimenting with our working hours occurred. Most of us are in the office by 10 am and we push ourselves to finish our daily tasks by 6.30 pm. The whole idea was based on the Parkinson’s Law which states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. We keep the later evenings free for Yoga classes, reading sessions (yes, we do have a Readers’ Club), and sports nights. Sometimes, we also treat ourselves to a night of clubbing after a crazy day of work! The aim is to work smart, that is, to get work done without ignoring everything else in life. However, like our developers say, this is still in “beta stage” and we’ll keep experimenting until we feel like we’ve found the perfect fit.
Now, a lot of you might be wondering, “I love my job and I don’t mind working long hours.”. It’s not about working because you love your job or just for your paycheck. It’s about not going overboard be it work or play. It’s about not ignoring a healthy work-life balance in the pursuit of careers or profit.
You don’t have to make yourself miserable to be successful. It’s natural to look back and mythologize the long nights and manic moments of genius, but success isn’t about working hard, it’s about working smart.
- Andrew Wilkinson, Founder of MetaLab
This brings me to the most difficult question: Is work-life balance really possible? The flaw with the whole concept of ‘balance’ is that both work and play compete for our time and energy — both of which are limited. Attaining a state of equilibrium is a long shot because the time and energy we allocate to either, may be insufficient and we may end up not getting the best out of both. What’s more important is to make sure that our work and personal life are in sync and are congruous.
When we harmonise work and play, they no longer compete with each other and are instead, interconnected and interdependent. This ‘harmony’ forms a unique combination and creates a fulfilling experience for every individual. A win-win, isn’t it?
* Source: lifehacker.com
