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Working for play and fun

Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Right mix All work and some play make youngsters enthusiastic workers

With an increasing number of 20-something guys gaining entry into workforce, the distinction between work and play is getting obliterated. Sun Microsystems’ Open Work program allows most of its employees to work from anywhere they like. Anytime they want. At Google, people can work on their individual projects for 20 per cent of their work time in a week. Some of our companies have internal funding mechanism for mini startups to take off.

These innovations aim at retaining the young talent, and in the process, give them a feel of extended college life.

“In our company we have real cool and fun programs,” says Tarun who feels his company structures the work keeping in view what youngsters find enjoyable.

“We combine work and play,” he continues “and our senior manager is an understanding person.”

For Gen Y-ers, a company is a playground of their talent. “For us, it’s just not coding always, we are asked to contribute to many other activities,” shares Sudhakar, a techie with an impressive commitment to social causes. They all enjoy it because it gives so much meaning to what they do. “The freedom, the perks, the recognition---all this and more keeps us going,” he says.

For old timers, these amenities were not available. Companies looked down upon office friendships. They sweated it out “We worked harder to reach positions,” says Arvind Rao, a senior manager at a construction company, “we nurtured our families, saved what we earned, lost some, that’s all about it,” he continues: “But this generation is self-absorbed, they want constant patting on the back, immediate recognition and perks.” The greatest compliment, he looked forward to in his younger days, was the paycheck.

The atmosphere was serious, too. No conviviality as such.

“There was that clear demarcation between office work and family life.”

For In-betweens like 45-year-old Upendra, a manager, life involves plotting his career moves and balancing his interests and family. And, if possible, job-hopping. “To be frank, these youngsters are both passionate about their work and a pain in the neck. An enterprising youngster can reach very quickly to where you are,” he says, “I mean, it took a lot of time to establish ourselves, now that’s not the case.” Whatever relaxation, he says, you found in the family and in the circle of your friends. “But, these youngsters form friendships, go partying, sometimes they themselves plan outings and generally enjoy themselves,” he continues, “ but at that age we only tried to establish ourselves.”

Yet another 39-year-old project manager, Chakravarthy observes: “Looking over my shoulder has become a part and parcel of life.” Smarty-pants 20-something guy can replace him, as brutal pace of technology change works against them. “In our industry, things keep changing so fast, we don’t have time to keep pace. It always looks like running harder and harder to remain at the same place.” With competent workforce always in demand, no matter what the state of economy, talented young people always find work. So companies have no choice but to be flexible and they manage to devise ways to retain talent.”

“We have the advantage of being free,” says 25-year-old Abhishek, adding: “We learn new applications and new technologies pretty fast.” And that makes them sought-after candidates. “We opt for places where we can work and have fun, too.”

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