By Biraj Dixit :
WORK is worship, says an old proverb. It does not, however, specify how long should one worship work. If it was for the God, some moments of earnest prayers and honest collection of good karmas could be enough, I have heard. But this is not about Almighty Boss, it is about ‘the boss’ boss – your boss. Pleasing the boss is not as easy as pleasing the God. Apart from good work it also requires specific hours of work. In absence of divine specifications, these hours of work have been a bone of contention since time immemorial. Even today, the mention of such a number flares tempers and creates strife!
The recent contention, as you might have already guessed, is about the statements made by corporate honchos who feel the need for people to put in more working hours so that…well… the nation progresses.
Their statements, it has been clarified, are for nation-building.
I, kind of agree with them. I mean nation’s progress is paramount. I also kind of agree when they say people, working under them, should work for 90 hours a week. From where my disagreement arises is the point when, considering the principle of universality, the said norm would perforce apply on me. I am human and I have my rights. As my theory of ‘All-But-Me’ has a universal application it might be conclusively concluded that when someone says work more, the statement excludes the person saying it. I may be nowhere near being a corporate honcho but that cannot stop me from feeling the same way. I would only agree with the 90-hour-a week work culture, if I get an exemption.
We must all, however, agree that nation-building is paramount. And nation-building will require hard work.
Since I do not believe in mincing words, I must say, it’s extremely greedy on part of employees and workers to corner all the responsibility of toiling for nation-building while the poor powerful, rich bosses are left to make do with just some more millions! Absolutely unfair.
There has also been an argument that if the corporate houses share their profits with their workers, they might get workers to do 90-hour-a-week but since that is never going to happen, let us not give it any further attention.
However, we must pay attention to the fact that the nation truly is at a turning point and the years ahead can as well be its golden period of rise. The cusp is also a time to where one has to give real directions to one’s efforts. One has to decide if it is to be more or less or more and more; if it is to be more and more of the same, or more of less different, if it is to be the same grinding stuff or something interesting. The nation, at the cusp, must decide what is more productive – more hours or smart hours.
I know the math of productivity is quantifiable only in hours but bosses, across board, will tell you that they can also be measured in terms of shocks, headaches, increase palpitation and the energy required to control one’s nerves when trying to explain oneself to one’s employees or worse still listening to an explanation. It requires huge degree of good luck collected through lives and lives of earning of good karmas, that a boss can have employees, he/she can call reliable. They are few and far in number. So as and when wise bosses find them, they rely more on work done rather than hours put in.
The nation, at the cusp, must also decide on scales to measure work and good work. Hours only quantify work. Since, the scale for identifying good work is yet to be discovered, most bosses rely on their wisdom gained through experience.
Let’s now focus on this paramount issue of nation-building. It is indeed paramount, but seeing our recent strides in building, a question which repeatedly crops up in my mind is how much ‘building’ will the nation need. Because, the actually ‘building’ seems endless. The condition in my city is such that I am compelled to rephrase Coleridge’s lines, ‘Roads, Roads everywhere and not a place to park.’ Or in the words of
Gulzar…
“In umr se lambi sadako ko,
manzil pe pahuchte dekha nahi
Bus daudati phirati rehati hai,
Humne to theherte dekha nahi”
The bridges, flyovers and highways are wonderful but endless construction is not!
I think a nation, at the cusp, must also think of the model of development. It can’t be a copy of nations, very developed, but who, thanks to the massive disregard of Nature, are finding themselves powerless to contain furious fires – without and within. Nation building just like building of an individual should be holistic. And anything holistic requires an even spread. Balance is the key word for all existence. Nations are not all about development, they are about refinement too. Individuals are not all about work, they are about happiness too. Here, I recall Tagore’s ‘Wrong man in workers’ paradise.’ Through his wrong man, who lazes around in workers’ heaven, puncturing routine to add strokes of colours to life, the great Tagore spoke to the nation, urging them never to disregard the correlation between lazy hours, human imagination and creation. Sirs, 90-hr week or 70-hr week seems a race against time to reach...where?
But since we are on the topic of ’90 hrs a week’ and nation-building, let me bring to light the most forgotten ’90-hr-a-week’ workers. Nobody told them, “I wish I could make your work for 90 hrs a week.” They are doing it on their own accord…and most lovingly. Those unpaid, unnoticed, unrecognised pillars of a strong nation – the home makers. They work on all levels – workshop workers to executives, to HRs to managers to advisors to CEOs – all simultaneously, in a day! Their minimum work hours – 90 hours a week! They don’t work in shifts, ask for no remuneration. But they are no ordinary workers. They are of divine make. Good that a debate on working hours is on. A time for the nation to also recognise (and if possible ease the burden of) its unpaid, unnoticed, unrecognised more than 90-hr-a-week workers.
I remember my ‘happy’ work hours – Those lazy hours lying in mother’s lap, as she (working even in the lazy hours), gently massaged my hair, gently recalling the day’s events, gently pin-pointing ‘slight flaws’, gently telling of better ways to do things, gently pouring in life lessons.
I know humanity is abundant with such memories.
Unquantifiable work.
A lot of nation-building there.
Gratitude.
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