Now, executives go on 'office holiday'

NEW DELHI: Golf, swimming, swank gym, yoga, aromatherapy... Does that sound like your idea of a perfect vacation? But what if your office has all this and more? Chances are you wouldn’t bother asking for a break. With most major IT companies and MNCs boasting swank offices, with everything from salons to swimming pools, armchair travel is getting a whole new meaning.

Take Saurabh Kamat, 32, senior SAP administrator at Wipro, Bangalore. He hasn’t taken time off for two years now. ‘‘I just don’t feel the need for it.’’ Doesn’t he miss vacations? ‘‘What’s there to miss? I travel abroad at least four times every year on official trips. All my recreation, like playing squash, teeing around or taking a dip in the pool, can be done without taking a step from office.’’ And family? Well, what’s a weekend for?

Saurabh is part of a growing tribe of executives who are turning the ‘all work, no play makes Jack a dull fella’ notion on its head. Office is not only the place to burn the midnight oil to clinch that all-important deal, but also where they breathe in aromatherapy oils to de-stress.

Even the young ‘uns are bitten by the office bug. Akanksha Bhasin, 24, team leader at an HCL call centre in Noida, hasn’t taken a break in over two years, except for the occasional trip to meet her parents in Ranchi. ‘‘It’s probably why I have gone from fresher to team leader in just two years,’’ she says.

What’s more, every month, her company organises a weekend trip. Parties, too, are regular affairs, good food and booze a given. ‘‘Life is so chilled out already, why should there be a chhutti? In fact, I feel bored when I don’t go to office,’’ she says. And with an incentive of Rs 1,000 per day for working on weekends, it’s easy to figure out why she’s keen to work 365/7.