WHY WE
SHOULD GO HOME ON TIME...
Mr. Narayana Murthy is undoubtedly one of the most famous
persons from
Karnataka. He is known not just for building the biggest IT
Empire in India but
also for his simplicity. Almost every important dignitary
visits InfoSys
campus. He delivered an interesting speech during an
employee session with
another IT company in India. He is incidentally, one of the
top 50 influential
people of Asia according to an Asiaweek publication and also
the new IT Advisor
to the Thailand Prime Minister.
Extract of Mr. Narayana Murthy's Speech during Mentor
Session:
I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or
more. Some people do
so because of a work emergency where the long hours are only
temporary. Other
people I know have put in these hours for years. I do not
know if they are
working all these hours, but I do know they are in the
office this long. Others
put in long office hours because they are addicted to the
workplace.
Whatever the reason for putting in overtime, working long
hours over the long
term is harmful to the person and to the organization. There
are things
managers can do to change this for everyone's benefit. Being
in the office long
hours, over long periods of time, makes way for potential
errors.
My colleagues who are in the office long hours frequently
make mistakes caused
by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes requires their time as
well as the time
and energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday
through Friday to correct
mistakes made after 5 PM on Monday.
Another problem is that people wh o are in the office long
hours are not
pleasant company. They often complain about other people
(who are not working
as hard); they are irritable, or cranky, or even angry.
Other people avoid
them. Such behaviour poses problems, where work goes much
better when people
work together instead of avoiding one another.
As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave
the office. First
and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I
work with a manager
who chides people for working long hours. His words quickly
lose their meaning
when he sends these chiding group e-mails with a time-stamp
of 2 AM, Sunday.
Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their
lives. For instance,
here is a guideline I find helpful:
1) Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2) Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3) Go home.
4) Read the books/comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the
dirt, play with your
kids, etc.
5) Eat well and sleep well.
This is called recreating. Doing steps 1, 3, 4, and 5 enable
step 2. Working
regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They
are hard for some
of us because that requires 'personal change'. They are
possible since we all
have the power to choose to do them.
In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my
oldest son. When he
was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he
would not fall asleep
no matter how long the visit was, and no matter what time of
day it was. He
would fight off sleep until the visitors left. It was as if
he was afraid that
he would miss some thing. Once our visitors' left, he would
go to sleep. By
this time, however, he was over tired and would scream
through half the night
& ; with nightmares. He, my wife, and I, all paid the
price for his fear of missing
out.
Perhaps some people put in such long hours because they do
not want to miss
anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this
is that events will
never stop happening. That is life! Things happen 24 hours a
day. Allowing for
little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap.
Things will happen
while you are asleep, but you will have the energy to catch
up when you wake.
Hence,
"LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY
BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THE COMPANY STOPS LOVING
YOU"
-
Narayana Murthy -