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So when's Friday?
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Fridays are fun days in corporate corridors when cool casuals take the heat out of a stressful four-day work schedule
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Photo: K. Ramesh Babu
TIMES HAVE changed. So has office fashion. Particularly in the carpeted corporate corridors where one is expected to follow a certain code and dress up smartly to suit the needs of the business. A concession comes by only on Fridays when a `dress down' day throws in a good measure of colour effecting a 360-degree turn in attitude.
Friday's the time to dhamaal, `hang loose', cut a few jokes and do a Govinda inside the temples of IT that have a five-day week.
So what if the Operations-VP is a poker-faced sombre-looking gentleman from Monday to Thursday, on the last working day of the week, he too likes to clean up his act and slip inside denims. Carefully messing up his hair to look careless and taking pleasure in laughter therapy is something he doesn't mind too much on a Friday.
The other day at Satyam City Centre, `Govinda Friday' was observed where it was expected of employees to dress up as outlandish as the actor. "It infuses life in the campus to have these activities going on, particularly on Fridays when we can afford to take it easy," says `Satyamite' Sambit Das.
When 70 per cent employees in this industry are fresh out of college and the average age is 24-26 years, it pays to be informal and marry work with fun at least one day in a week. And what better time than a Friday which comes as a lean day.
According to HR manager, Dwij Saxena, "Fridays are fun days that are a pleasant deviation from the monotony of four days of formality."
It is a reversal of corporate conventions when formals give way to casuals and a weekend mood surrounds all. Explaining the dynamics behind `Friday dressing' Dwij says, "You are what you wear. During weekdays, when everyone is in formals the atmosphere is officious, and when the whole office togs up in casuals on Fridays - `officialdom' takes a beating, and there is informality in the air."
"The collective energy in our office peaks on Fridays when associates and managers are dressed in casuals, thanks to the air of informality that prevails," says Satyam's corporate communications manager, Ramnath Peddinti. Ditto echo employees at HSBC, GE, Dell and elsewhere who look forward to Friday that comes as a `welcome relief'.
Process Executive Ravichandra R. Tonpe of HSBC concurs, "It eases free flow of communication and exchange of ideas when there is sameness, and with everyone togged up in casuals the situation gets even more conducive."
Inside those sprawling acres of technology in a call centre or a software campus, everyone is cool, dandy and easy-going on a Friday - a day that brings in cheer when work is relatively less that seemingly couples up with the joy of a weekend holiday after a hectic, stressful four-day office schedule.
If you are a techie, and not infected with the Friday fever, it's about time you started playing casual.
SOUVIK CHOWDHURY
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