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!
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment