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  • Category: Miscellaneous

    How much work is too much?

    Recently a young employee of Ernst & Young collapsed and died. It was sad to read about it. Her mother alleged that it was due to too much work pressure. We are all aware of how the corporate work culture works, with overtime being the norm. It is expected that employees stay well beyond the normal working hours, with the 9 to 5 or 10 to 6 jobs no longer the fixed times for public or private sector offices.

    Have you ever felt the pressure of work and stayed late hours in the office at a desk job or on a factory floor? How did you cope mentally and emotionally?
  • #782194
    Last week I was in Rajasthan. I went there in connection with commissioning of a new manufacturing facility for which I am a technical consultant. There is a General Manager, Production Manager and Quality Manager. We all went to the factory at 8 AM and back at 10 PM for all these 7 days. We did trial runs, manufactured the product offered for inspection, and got approval from the department.
    Because of the work pressure, we never even see the time also. A plan is made and followed the same. Finally, when we got the positive result we were happy and we forgot the hard work we put in. When we work for a cause and the ultimate result is satisfactory we may feel happy. But work in such condition for many days may not be possible I feel. There should be a balance between work and family time.

    drrao
    always confident

  • #782196
    India a country with huge population and there is a stiff competition for even a menial job. You can imagine what kind of competition will be there in a MNC like EY or Deloitte. The kind of salaries these firms pay is above average and everything comes at a cost. Employees should be clever while working at these firms because they can suck life out of you if you are straightforward. If your body is not allowing and mind is tired there is no need to continue working at the same company. Just leave that firm and look for something suitable that suits your style of work. Everything is not money for some people and working at a small company is not at all a bad choice if it suits you. Personally, if I were in such situation I would have had a fight with superior because I don't like such things.
    Humble yourself or life will do it for you!

  • #782198
    I don't think the work pressure is related to the hours of work. It is the workload vis a vis the time allotted that appears to be creating pressure on the employees. People are allotted more work, and they are given deadlines to complete the same. Many, especially newer employees, try to complete the work within the given period without being concerned about their mental or physical health mostly because they need the job and are aware of the competition in the sector. The bosses who are also aware of the ground facts try to extract maximum work from their subordinates to be in the good books of their higher ups and those working under him/ her are not in a position to gather the guts to raise the issue during staff meetings or before the concerned authorities. It is this stress that arises as a result of workload, time constraint, inability to react etc. that builds up the pressure and the employee sometimes resorts to the extreme step of giving up life or suffers from chronic mental or physical health issues. So, to conclude, I think one can consider a work to be too much when it is humanly impossible in the normal course to complete within the given time in the expected quality.
    'Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all'.
    -Aristotle

  • #782202
    I take what Saji said ad a definition Work to be too much when it is humanly impossible in the normal course to complete within the given time in the expected quality.

    For that I even emphasise what Ajay said that employee should be clever enough to work in those companies that is the cleverness not only in completing the work but to forward to others and in that situation those who are straight forward will get caught in the net and getting work pressure and they would finish the job at any cost but their physical and mental strengths will be tired and hence this kind of fatal occurs.

    shasthranaam Ganitham moordhanisthitham

  • #782206
    Work pressure is caused due to ill attitude of seniors. The present generation cannot be forced to do tasks. The seniors should always be sensitive to the needs of subordinates. They should always tell them to relax. Stress free workshops should be organized in cooperates.

  • #782207
    No work is too much if there is eagerness in the workforce to complete the job within the deadline line set by the management. There should not be too much interference in between. The best way is to provide clear-cut instructions in the initial stage devoid of ambiguity. Each employee must understand the objective of the company and then they should be allowed to put in their efforts.
    After a certain interval, say after the elapse of four hours of work - progress can be monitored by the higher management to assess the progress of the given assignment. If everything is going smoothly, there should not be multiple instructions provided there is any amendment.
    This process will motivate the workforce towards their assignments and in that way, management can achieve the target set with ease winning the confidence of the working team.

  • #782208
    These kind of subjects are always relative and the perspective always depends on expectations and dreams vs ground reality.
    Hence we may not be able to exactly quantify or specify and mark the borderline. But how we now infer is from the comparison of the system and the minimum and maximum working hours, the scheduling of shifts, the assignment of tasks etc. in comparison with other established sectors .
    When IT sector became the Sunshine Sector in the start of nineties, there was a heavy, immediate and steady demand for workers in that sector. So the employers absolutely in the private sector and under multinational corporates started paying remuneration which was unimaginable or unheard of in those days in other traditional sectors. Even the freshest of fresh candidates started getting sums heir parents were not even anywhere near after putting up decades of service. This started an avalanche towards the IT sector and its ancillary or auxiliary sectors.
    As a consequence and as a way to attract new generation some other sectors where there are multinational players and large corporates also started imitating the IT sector in payment and work ethics.

    As it is normal slowly the IT sector started showing its vulnerabilities with obsolescence, fatigue and demand supply mismatch and became an employer's control field. Instead of reducing payments a one stretch, they started giving more work and more tasks. The employees had to confirm as they still have job and the good payment. So they did not mind the long hours of work. In fact most of them enjoyed the more than two years of work at home and were real loyalists of their sector.
    Then started the issues. Most of these employees who were unmarried and in early twenties in the nineties and two thousand early years, started having family, children etc. and were moving towards their forties. Slowly the fact stuck o them. They are no longer wanted and started feeling the pinch of stagnant pay, stagnant career growth and sort of sandwiching and squeeze pushing.

    Unfortunately all these happened due to absence of trade unions in those sectors. The employers deliberately kept the employees in isolated virtual space without allowing them to know what their colleagues got. A sort of selfishness and jealousy was generated among them just to ward of forming union and camaraderie.

    Now the employees suffer the result of their own Karma. The do not listen to their parents and elders . Govt is not able to take any measures as they are also under external and internal pressure from corporates and multinational business monopolies.
    (There is a recent YouTube video by Retired Justice Kemal Pasha on this related matter. You may visit YouTube channel The Prime Witness and search for Justice Kemal Pasha latest. It is in Malayalam)

    Just as there comes correction in stock market, there will come automatic correction in IT and other similar neo sectors sooner or later. Till then we may have to hear stories of likes of Anna.

  • #782255
    Well, it's something like how much weight a person can carry. If you regularly practise lifting ten kilograms of weight, after a certain interval, you will be able to lift more weight if you maintain proper nutrition and follow the correct procedures to lift the materials. If the nutrition is not proper or if the procedures are not followed correctly then you won't be able to carry more weight and feel uncomfortable. Of course, there will be a threshold and beyond that, you will not be able to carry but I feel, you will be able to realize that and can stop at that time.

    Likewise, one has to draw the line if one feels she/he is pressured at any task. There should be proper rest though at times, one can continue for long hours if they are engrossed in the task as mentioned by Dr Rao for a specific instance. But if it is a continuous process of very long working hours at a stretch without a break then it can affect the physical and mental well-being of the person.

    Sankalan

    "Life is easier when you enjoy what you do"


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