8-8-8 Philosophy : Reasons for not working late

Well Have been Pondering for the last couple of weeks, as to what could possible be the Flip-Sides of Working Long hours ! These are the reasons i feel why working for long hours is detrimental

Health Reasons

— Growing fat - Apparently your long enough in the office to have lunch, evening snack and dinner. Office food tend to be oily and not so healthy for the body.(Nothing like nice home cooked healthy food).Apparently this doesnot work me, i get THINNER ! Hmmm thats a health Hazard as well.

— Stomach problems - Reason same as above.

— No time to Exercise - Since your spending at least 12 - 14 hours in the office your can’t exercise, which means bad health again.

— Excess intake of Junk food - You tend to eat more when your stressed and this stress contributes to the revenues of Lay Chips, Haldiram’s samosa’s etc.e.g A good friend of ours eats constantly and is not only measured in Centric circles

— Coffee/ Tea - Since your working that long, coffee/ tea helps you to focus on work. Excess of those/Caffine is also injurious to health.

— Stress - Since you work for 12 - 14 hours a day, you are so stressed. You have headaches, migraines, dizzy feeling, back aches, shoulder aches etc….and this list could go on and on and on.

Productive reasons

—- Efficiency reduced - Have you realised why people are more efficient in the mornings. That is because their mind is well rested. If its your 10th working hour, of course, you are missing something, making errors etc. (non value added process)

—- Error Correction (CAPA)- There are cases where people spend days correcting the error they have committed because of the above reason.Quality gets affected, especially in a company which advocates ‘Being right the first time’.

—- Just cant think - Have you felt this that when your stressed, you ‘just cant think’. Whatever you do you cant find a way out a solution. But the next morning you would probably have an answer so simply that you feel ashamed of yourself.

—- Unhealthy process - All processes are calculated at an FTE of 8 working hours per day, but if your people are expected to stay for longer it just proves that you have an unhealthy process. In cases of a BPO where you have an FTE billing, it actually affects our revenue.

—- People frustrated, iteration - If people are expected to daily stay up late in office, the frustration level goes up. This in turn causes iteration.

—- Cribbing - If you notice people who work long hours feel that they have contributed more than someone who worked for 8 hours a day, which is technically incorrect. The basis of productivity is not hours spent on office. Physiologically speaking, this person feels he is the better performer of the lot, even thou he isn’t. This does cause some amount of frustration, eventually iteration if not handled appropriately.

Corporate Culture

—- Work, Leisure life balancing ( 8,8,8 Philosophy) - Every corporate culture advocated ‘Work life balancing’, by this they mean that you balance work and your personal life. 8,8,8 Philosophy - emphasis on 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours with family, perfect balance in life. When was the last time you did this ???

—- Setting a bad example - By being late yourself you are setting a bad example for your subordinates and peers. How can you advocate your ‘Work, leisure life balancing without having your own backyard clean ?

— Setting a bad expectation - Even if there are people in your team who believe in the 8 8 8 Philosophy, they cant advocate it because their managers are not for it.

Personal Reasons

—- Balanced working life - There is absolutely no time. Suddenly paying ones electricity bill sounds like an Herculean task.

—- Family bonding - How can you possibly bond with your family when your not around ? Like the Other day, it was my Mom’s B day. When i woke up at 10 am she wasn’t around, by the time i reach at 11.00 pm she is asleep. I cant even wish her because of my Super-Stringed work life

—- Priority feels changed - You should understand the concept that at every given point in time one does what’s most important to him/her. In the time slot allotted for family, you end up exhausting it in office. Of course your family feels less prioritised. Is work actually thats more important than them ?

—- Most of us work for the money, when we earn we buy a car, a nice house etc. And most of the times its because your family. But what you fail to realize is your family feels you being there for them is more important than the luxuries in life. A family with loads of money and without you is no family at all.

—- Personal time - One should always spend some time alone. Time to introspect, time to just read a book and feel enlightened. Time with a mug of coffee. If your busy working…..then where is the time ?

My Personal favourite reason

We spend all our younger days to earn a lot of money in the mean time to lose our health, which inevitably we end up paying for better health treatments in our older stages in life. Hasn’t it ever occurred that we could possibly just stay healthy throughout.

Not to forget the broken dreams, aspirations, the family bonding, you miss out on. Even something as little as just taking an hour out to just sketch. Its been years since I did something that small,insignificant but quite nice at the end of the day. Just time for the simple pleasures in life.

To conclude, there are reasons here that maybe over stated. Argumentatively speaking, we could debate on these for hours. But the objective is drive home the point of avoiding late working hours. Its not that one should only work 8 hours a day, but on the other hand I feel one shouldn’t work 12 - 14 hours daily.

its just the balancing act in the end. I guess we all are old enough to judge where to draw the line.

ITS TIME THAT WE JUST DID.