Real Hours of Work — Is it 70?
I have been part of the workforce since the early 2000s and have navigated through different kinds of setups. Close to military regime setup managed by one of oldest Indian conglomerates, when they forrayed into software and set up an office in Bangalore I was one of the first ones to be part of that group. Although then being a software engineer meant to be cool and liberated, on the contrary was the experience. We have had managers standing at the stamping machine to welcome you with a stern look when it was just 9:05 and the register books moved to the senior manager's desk when it was past the half-an-hour mark of the official starting of work. All of this could be when you left the previous day from work at almost midnight. No, it wasn't coffee breaks or free dinners that kept us glued to the seats, but it was figuring out the work, which was in loads. It was normal for us to have stand-up meetings every morning to understand the status of work which happened late at night. Work did become a burden was a no-brainer. In those times just as Narayana Murthy in the present days endorses 70 hours a week, that was a norm. You are a new recruitee of this esteemed new Silicon Valley of India, you need to toil off to grow in the ladder.
The most harrowing is when you are sent onsite, you almost feel obliged to work double once you are there. You are presented with this opportunity, so how can you just waste it and not impress the clients? Fighting sub-zero cold climates, December months are spent on an office chair in front of a computer screen, which didn't even have access to Google. What we did have was a Korean client counterpart, just sitting and observing our every move. I am not sure when he was briefed about his work with us, was he told to keep an eye on them from 8 am to almost half past 10 in the night. I think so, he took it so seriously, he just sat in between me and my teammate and kept an eye on us. No creativity or out of box thinking dawned upon us during those harrowing times, I remember I didn't even breathe well.
Working with an Indian product company, which had a more flexible work policy was a big breather after all of these. This meant managing your work in a more relaxed manner and was quite nice to explore some of the related topics as well and explore them. Did have a chance to met a lot of free-thinking team members and leaders in that tenure and learned from them.
Because of a family move, landed in Gurgaon work culture. The day when I missed my earphones at home, would be the day when I would be educated with all the Hindi expletives peppered with some English ones. The sheer aggressiveness of the work culture did make me rethink my software career. Thanks to that culture, I veered my way to a new avenue where my skills could be used better, which is what I thought rather than developing codes.
Now slowly and steadily newly minted knowledge in a Digital marketing field that was more relatable to self, a team was gathered around to make it work. From all of the above experiences, it was imperative not to give those experiences to the team. It was a huge learning curve not to repeat those and not to fall into the trap of falling into pressure on how others operate as well. A remote working model, way before COVID days were made functional for which have heard comments like “What do you people actually do?” or “ Do you even work from home?”. All these comments were very discouraging and a well-deserved seat at the table was mostly denied. Thanks to COVID-19, remote work and its effectiveness were clearer to more of my peer leaders and they said “ Oh this can be done as well!”. Thanks to some of the mentors who were there through the tough times. Remote working could offer a lot of talent who had to get away from work because of parental duties especially young mothers opportunities. Oh yes, it does put the team in an all-time scanner and breaking or shattering of glass ceiling, still with very little recognition. But it's more fulfilling than aggression and just ROI chasing which is normal to the work culture. Now even if work is put in for 70 hours it is with loads of intent and joy.
