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‘No extended hours, please’
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Why work beyond stipulated hours, asks Hema Vaidyanathan, a software engineer
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Recently, I had been to the U.K. on an IT assignment in a large bank. What struck me hard there was the amazing work-life balance people maintain. I was surprised to see the whole office turn empty by 6 p.m. This is something I can never imagine hap
pening in our Indian offices.
In fact for most of the software engineers in our IT companies, the day’s work would start at 6 p.m. and go on till late in the night or stretch to the wee hours. Most of us here are made to accept that it is perfectly all right to work on weekends. When I mentioned to my English client that I planned to complete something on a Saturday, she exclaimed I must be off my mind.
Working extended hours has become so much part of our work culture that many bosses here have started evaluating performance based on the number of hours put in by an employee at the office. I do agree that there will be times when an assignment has to be completed for which extra hours of work would have to be put in, but let us not make this a habit. There are many hobbies and interests we can pursue apart from work. Spending quality time with family and friends makes life worth its while.
I would appreciate if the management of companies inculcates the culture of work-life balance in our young and talented employees. Let us plan and work so that work hours don’t rob us of our precious personal time. I dream of the day when people are expected to work only for stipulated hours.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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