The Time Sense

It’s high time to check our Time sense!


We welcome every dawn with a hope and the dusk with a relief but their inherent meaning is that it is one more day up or one more day over in our life time. With every dawn and dusk the Sun eats away the life time of all creation on this planet earth. Just ponder over this fact for a while.

The patterns of spending the time in Indian Organisations.

Brand “Punctual”

Many organizations prefer to have their employees following office / factory timings very strictly using the grace period as per the norms. Habitual late coming is considered as a negative attribute of an employee and it also connotes the value for time the employee has. Once the employee falls in the category of “Punctual”, it is very safe for this employee to continue in the employment.

With the shift in the culture from valuing punctuality alone to valuing it along with the performance, it is becoming difficult for the non-performers to take shelter in the category of being always punctual.

There is another tendency that emerges among those who are punctual. They are punctual and equally punctual in whiling away during the office hours. I find in many office complexes people come on time and come out immediately after swiping their cards for having a puff, purchase a chewing masala, etc. Again these employees spend considerable time after lunch time and leave sharp after office hours.

There are employees who find some corners in the office to while away time and have informal chats before starting their day’s work or after logging into their systems and by keeping the working window open.

Brand “Late”

Some come late regularly and never waste time once they are in the office. They are aware of being late and ensure that it is made up in their work. Some come late and still find ways to while away time.

Some pay for their being late by losing several ½ day CLs.

Brand “Bhashan Sessions”

There are bosses who get into the mode of giving lengthy lectures on their past achievements, past glory, etc to their subordinates and use select subordinates for these bhashan sessions regularly. Thus a group of employees indulge in whiling away time in this manner very officially!

Brand “Hard(ly)Working”

Working hard is known obviously only by seeing the employee sitting late after office hours. Some have the habit of postponing every possible work till evening and start working just before the close of office hours. They do it to get late sitting allowance, to get the recognition from the bosses as hard working employees and to do their personal work during the prime office hours.

Brand “Hanging around”

This is a pathetic group of people in some organizations who wait for the call of their bosses after the office hours or who have been told in a subtle way that “leave office only after the boss leaves”. The employees in this group generally consist of those reporting to the big boss directly. Some bosses expect their direct reportees to stay back till they leave or show their displeasure by saying “I had looked for you last evening and came to know that you had left for the day, had you been there we would have finished that work, I do not know when I can give you time again”. This is sufficient to say that you got to be there till the big boss leaves.

These bosses are mostly workholics and suffer from a psychological problem in understanding the value of their own and others’ time. They like sitting in the office than leaving for home for variety of reasons. They like getting the attention and respect as a boss for as much time in the day as possible, they enjoy being in the boss seat and impact the personal time of many and they hate to be at home and have a social life. The leadership of some organizations believe in extracting as much time as possible from the employees ignoring how much time is spent qualitatively and how much value is added by the employees. It is not at all acceptable to them to let people leave immediately after the office hours.


Brand “Timely”

This is a group of bosses who make their subordinates leave after office hours and understand the fact that an individual can give the best and creative output in about 3 hours of productive work in a 8 hour working day. The information era organizations have adopted the working style that demands work to be completed as per the plan and pay no attention to timings of employees coming to going from the office. Even some manufacturing organizations adopted 5 day week so that better productivity is achieved on a sustainable basis.

In Mumbai and other Metros in India employees guard their Saturday and Sundays so that they can work well for five days a week again. The traffic and time taken to reach office and return home compel the employees in metros to do this. Further the Indian employees’ exposure to the American style of working for five days compels and encourages them to opt for five day week norm in India too. Many IT and ITES companies have 5 day week norm.

Brand “Customer Orientation”

The need to design the work processes around the customer needs compelled many banks to shed the old pattern of working. Today many banks work for 12 hours a day six days a week. Same is the case with Malls, Corporate Hospitals and other businesses that consider the favourable time for customer as their business hours. Individual serving these businesses have no other option but to choose scarifying their personal time.

Brand “Government Time”

This is the last but the most significant aspect of abusing time. The government thinks that it is beyond the so called limits of time. Whenever it feels right to do any thing is the right time. Our Indian Political Leaders go live in showing their value for time in places none other than State Assemblies, Municipal council halls, Parliament and all courts of Law. All the government processes pay very less attention to time. The traffic police, the RTA, the Govt Hospital, the Education department and many other departments pay no attention to time. They least bother for the time of the people and rather exercise their right to abuse the time of the people for the sake of making them comply with the govt rules.

The crying need as the conclusion

The time wasted by a Nation now = Time grabbed from the next generation.
The family time eaten by an organization = Time it takes to set its own home right + the time the society in which it operates needs to become more civilized.
The more balanced we are in spending time with the family and the work the more mature Nation we make.
A Nation that recognizes the value of Time is the Best Nation in the world.
We can create India as the Best Nation in the world?.............. am I hearing you saying “Yes”?

--
IVNS Raju