Men & Women are alike in that they both strive to strike a Work-life balance. However, the equations at work place for each of them vary. This becomes more evident especially in case of women who have responsibilities at home (they could be married or unmarried). For women it is a constant struggle to create the perfect expected image at work and at home.
At work, women employees are often compared to their male counterparts. Now, if the comparison is for work performance & quality, it’s perfectly fair. However, when Women are indirectly or directly pressurized to work long hours to prove their commitment towards their job, it’s rather unfair, because a women working late at office is compromising on many fronts- she is probably compromising her relationship with her in-laws or her husband, may be she is neglecting her children or her personal time, health & development.
A corporate entity is a part of the larger world and as a corporate citizen companies should be held responsible towards the safety, security, health & well-being of their employees. A good management runs business on fairly fair terms. In India, we emulate western world & western culture on all fronts. However when it comes to work culture, our deep rooted Indian ethos overpower all the sophistication. We go to the extent of indianising the work culture of multi-nationals as well, who otherwise are more mindful of employee’s work-life balance.
Generally the pattern in Corporate India is to not just maximize resource (human) utilization but to overutilise it. Such policies are treading the path of exploitation and since employees don’t have a safe platform to voice their concerns (after all HR is also owned by the management), they either suffer in silence or simply switch jobs. No wonder Employee Attrition rates (terms which were never heard of before) are so high across all corporates.
It’s about time when not only Women employees, but also Men at work put their foot down to leave their work places in time. Employees should not accept unreasonable timelines which are driven by personal ambitions & politics of people at top. Also Corporate Managers need to learn to drive process driven businesses where work is planned taking into account normal working hours of human resources.It is often seen that, where Women employees refuse to work beyond regular office hours or extend their time at work only to a safe limit, their male colleagues end-up becoming their back-ups to meet the work-timelines. Finally, this ends up becoming subject of gossip, back-biting and complaining amongst employees (men & women).
Is this required? In our already stressed out life, whose responsibility is it to make life easier and more conducive for productive work in these corporations. Can someone explain the corporate head-honchos- that if, lack of work-life balance is affecting the health of your current crop of employees, it is also affecting the genealogy of children yet to be born or affecting the future of neglected kids of worked-out parents. And finally the wed-lock is a matter of fate; it may happen between children of an employee and that of top-level management. Now this may seem like going overboard, as the effects of this trend will start reflecting in the life of current working population only gradually. We are already witnessing lack of fertility among couples, young population suffering from lifelong diseases of all kinds, psychological issues and many more. So what goes around, will surely come around. We have many NGOs working for good causes, high time we had some regulatory body to curb employee exploitation and create healthier human race practicing healthy work-life system.
I am posting my opinion on parent tree, to share the concerns of all working parents
Tough times mean that both Men & Women have to work, but in the process as parents, it is our responsibility to not encourage negative attitudes and impractical work culture at our respective work places. I invite suggestions from parents who would like to join hands to bring about a change in corporate work culture in India and create a work-life balance in our lives and that of future generations to come.
