by

V Subramanian

Preface

Nobody likes to sit late at the office except occasionally.  It’s more a forced choice rather than a voluntary action on the part of the persons concerned.   Late sitting occurs because of the bad organizational climate and culture.  Whoever wants to sit late in the office does so, only with a view to please his boss and earn his goodwill, but loses interest and faith in late sitting, in course of time. 

Another important fact is, such people do not make any significant contribution as is expected in the following areas:

(a)   Increasing the output

(b)   Clearing the backlog of work

(c)   Solving the organizational problems

(d)   Taking up certain specialized jobs or assignments that cannot be otherwise done during the regular office hours, because such jobs demand total concentration, uninterrupted functioning and special type of skills

(e)   Attending to certain confidential matters

Evil effects of late sitting

The anticipated benefits in the above-mentioned area are a mere management ploy to extract more time and energy – without matching qualitative output – from the persons concerned.  By sitting late, neither the persons concerned nor their institution gain anything.  In fact, both tend to lose heavily.  From the employees’ side, they undergo tremendous strain and stress and whatever work they do or pretend to do after regular office hours leads to losing one’s morale and motivation.  From the organizational point of view, on the face of it, it may appear that extra output has been achieved.  But in reality, people’s efficiency gradually comes down during the day and at one point, it tapers off. 

People commit a lot of mistakes after doing hectic work for 8 continuous hours which has been the universally accepted time limit for a man day.  If people are compelled to work beyond 8 hours a day and 42 hours a week, the consequences will be disastrous.

1.    First, those who work for extra hours (beyond the prescribed work schedule) do not receive any worthwhile compensation and are blatantly cheated by their management.

2.    Second, the people will pretend to work in the late hours, but really they will be wasting their time and precious resources of the institution.

3.    The enhanced physical strain and psychological stress will reflect upon badly on the health and ability of the personnel.

4.    Sensitive people will lose their self-confidence and it will hurt their ego and pride.

5.    There is also a danger of their being branded as ‘slow, lazy, inefficient and obsolete’ by the management.  It will affect their reputation and career progression.

6.    Late sitting deprives a person of sleep for minimum duration, every day.

7.    Late sitting results in accidents inside the office or outside, while on travel.

8.    Only during the late hours, conspiracies are hatched, rumour mills are very active, vilification campaign is at its best, misinformation and canards are spread and frauds and malpractices are planned and perpetrated.

9.    Working overtime deprives employment opportunities for the present generation youth.

10.   Working for long, continuous hours make people very rigid and their behavior pattern also undergoes a change – from good to bad and bad to worse.

11.  Those who work for extra hours, as proved by many empirical studies, devise their own compensation package and they try to recover the difference between the perceived ideal level and the actual level, through immoral and illegal ways.  They indulge in all kinds of activities to the detriment of their parent organization.

12.  At the macro level also, there is no value addition to the national economy, by asking people to work for long, continuous hours.

What shall be done to prevent/end this abhorring practice of late sitting?

The managements, the trade unions, the industrial bodies/associations, the statutory regulator and the government shall together sit and find a suitable exit route for this evil practice to end over a period of time, say 2 or 3 years from now.  It is really surprising to note that when people talk of globalization and economic liberalization, no one talks about the best labour practices being adopted and put in place in the developed countries.  Any organization found to encourage late sitting as an integral part of organizational culture must be severely penalized.  Such organizations may be told to set aside a part of their gross income/profit for social causes like laying roads, construction of schools and hospitals and meeting the cost of new projects for the supply of drinking water and power and also ordered to pay higher taxes to the government.

The media also shall play its role more responsibly in this matter.  They shall not encourage those organizations which exploit their manpower by forcing them to sit late almost on a regular basis.  The loss of jobs due to this ugly phenomenon must be suitably highlighted and a nation-wide awareness campaign must be conducted by the media on a sustaining basis. 

Conclusion

The ‘late sitting’ culture harms individuals, their families, the society and the nation and it must be curbed and eradicated, so that the country’s pride will go up.  As already stated, sitting late inside one’s office/factory does not help anyone.  The employees must shed their false belief that sitting late will fetch them greater benefits like good placement, quick promotion etc.  It is only an illusion. The time spent on working for extra hours can be utilized for more fruitful purposes like being with the family, sleeping well for minimum hours, daily commutation/travel and pursuing one’s hobbies and interests.  If one lives one’s life, by devoting adequate time for each important aspect of one’s life in an optimum way, the nation’s health and wealth will be safe, secure and growing.  It will bring down the crime rate in the society and lead India to gaining a better score on the ‘Human Development Index’.  Are we prepared for a better India tomorrow?