Tuesday, July 4

Never too late

Does it really want to have someone like Narayana Murthy come up with an initiative to chase away the late night slogger software engineers back home? Probably yes. Read the following mail from Murthy. At a minimum "I have nothing else to do" is a very dangerous situation to start with.

It's half past 8 in the office
but the lights are still on...
PCs still running,
coffee machines still buzzing...
and who's at work?
Most of them??? Take a closer look...
All or most specimens are 20-something male species of the human race...
Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors...
and why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!
Any guesses???
Let's ask one of them...
Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home... here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee.. thats is why I am working late...
importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and other off-shore offices.
Bachelors "time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...
Now what r the consequences... read on...
"Working"(for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.
With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback,(oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!).They aren't helping things too...
To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!!
Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.
So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is... and that's when the problem starts... becoz u start having commitments at home too.
For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regulartime... after doing the same amount of work.
People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers...
Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labeled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they r spoiling the work
culture at their own place and never realize that they wuld have to regret at one point of time.

*So what's the moral of the story?? *
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time " *unless really needed *"
* Don't stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which
will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues. There are
hundred other things to do in the evening..
Learn music...
Learn a foreign language...
try a sport... TT, cricket.........
importantly Get a girl friend or gal friend, take him/her around town...
* And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.
Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"*


Please pass on this message to all those colleagues
And please do it before leaving time, don't stay back till midnight to
forward this!!!

4 comments:

Payyans said...

Riyaz San, I think it is mostly the youngsters who spend late hours in office. It is good for them, in a way :)
- It helps them to learn and come up to speed.
- Help them build comradry.
- Most of them are having fun, working, learning, hanging out with friends...
- These are the guys in the trenches, unless they slug it out and bust their asses Maruyama san ain't gonna be happy. There is only so much big manages can do.

Anoop G said...

i dont know..

i am still following 12hrs 7 days a week in office, schedule nowadays..

new product.., new domain,, no choice ?

Muhammad Riyaz said...

Byju

Agreed that the buildling comradry is a very positive aspect. But only if we ignore the negatives.

I know what happened with one project in our common place. The late night guys are the integration comrades. The early leavers give the drop and go. The late nighters modify them and integrate. Thanks to CMMs, there was no config management and no check in back. The early leavers / early comers will continue working and drop again end of the day. A few days later they understand their brach of code is going no where.

Aneeshji / അനീഷ്ജി said...

couldnt agree more to this article... :-)