The 9-to-9 work culture

It is normal for people to be at work late into the evening, beyond the "official" working hours. Once home, it's time to go "online" to process any email that may have come in from the time they left work to the time they stepped into their home. I know managers who check email at 11.45 pm (last thing before bed) and others who wake up at 4 am to peep into their inboxes (just in case something can't wait till 6 am?)

The hours that a person works is now his personal badge of honor. People routinely "joke" (brag is the correct word) about the hours that they work. Sometimes it seems like a contest, the winner being the moron who works the most hours.

So, what happens "at "work" between 9-to-9 (or 10 or 11, depending on the individual in question)? My observations:

• People who work late also tend to walk in late in the morning, thus losing the most productive part of a workday. The excuse is the long hours spent at work the previous evening.
• They begin their day by checking email, yahoo, gmail, facebook, news, etc., followed by a cup of coffee and some chit-chat.
• Then they begin to do serious work -- it is about 11 am or later by now. 
• Breakfast was hours ago, so pretty soon it's time for a noon time snack.
• Back to work, not very productive, since they've just eaten and anyway who can concentrate at noon?
• Lunch by about 2.30 pm.
• Some more work
• Tea
• Work
• Snacks
• Rush and scramble to meet the overdue deadline

There was a time (when I was growing up) and my father went to work -- he left office when work hours ended and got home in time to see and talk to us kids.

So, was my father less productive than the people today? I don't think so!

Waste not, Want not

I was recently chatting with a friend of mine who heads Human Resources for a very niche firm. She mentioned that the organization who runs facilities for her firm charges an-arm-and-a-leg to run air conditioning beyond 6.30 pm and on holidays. Employees are therefore discouraged from staying late or coming in on weekends and holidays. If they absolutely have to, they are asked to work in a small area such as a conference room instead of their regular desks in order to minimize the power requirements.

This is a *big* switch from the days when people were  routinely expected to work late (offices looked almost the same at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm). People who regularly did all-nighters were looked upon as heroes.

Well, post-recession, with companies looking to cut costs wherever they can, the practice of working late/night-outs is suddenly looking very expensive. The price of electricity is inadvertently making corporations cognizant about their carbon footprint!

But ... what about productivity? By "restricting" the hours that employees can comfortably spend at work, aren't corporates losing out on it?

Both my friend and I agreed that they weren't. The problem with long-hour corporate cultures is that they actually encourage waste! For employees who walk in to work late in the morning and see a 12-14 hour stretch of day before them, the motivation to work efficiently is sadly missing. The day begins with leisurely chats over coffee/breakfast, followed by an extensive check of email/twitter/facebook and other sundry websites. Then there is g-chat, yahoo messenger, msn messenger and other such devices to spend time over. Lunch. Oh, and meetings that go on for hours because nobody needs to leave at any specific time.

Little wonder then that hours fly by and folks need to work late to meet deadlines!