Younger staff threat to senior peers
Young and single workaholics put pressure on senior colleagues with families to match their lifestyles.
By Ambika Naithani, TNN |
MUMBAI: Nikhil Patil, 24, who works for an animation and special effects’ studio has slept for only eight hours in the last three days put together. Clad in a check shirt and loose blue jeans, Patil lights a cigarette, and explains, “We have a project going on at a client’s site for which we need to work round the clock.” On an average the company undertakes 10-12 projects a month.
Mohsin, Patil’s colleague, looks equally sluggish, if not more. He says that at times they end up spending 19 hours at work, when on client site, compared to 12-13 hours they put in at their office. These two with another colleague are the only unmarried ones in a team of eight. “Sometimes it is passion and other times it’s the deadline,” says Mohsin. “Even if we have to sleep for 3-4 hours, we wait to sleep in the common room. If we are lucky, we get space else, we sleep on the carpet outside.”
Mohsin and Nikhil are symbolic of India’s ever-expanding breed of young, go-getting workforce.
Their lifestyle of putting in long hours (way beyond the call of duty) at the office is taking a toll on their health, but more importantly, on that of their older colleagues. The latter too are under pressure to keep pace with their younger colleagues, even though some of them have a wife, a child and a dog to go back to at home.
There was a time when the older guard ensured that the new hires did not look at the clock and worked well into the evening. What is being seen now, is a kind of role reversal. The younger staff is now dictating the time that older workers should put in office.
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Most of these kids are young, unmarried, stay alone away from family and friends. Harish Shetty, trainer and consultant psychiatrist at LH Hiranandani Hospital says that gone are the days when people would stay back after the peons have left, in order to get sympathetic looks. These days there are reasons why youngsters like to stay on at work. The ambience at work could be better than one at home and office community stronger than the neighbourhood one.
Not surprisingly, these youngsters create unimaginable pressure for their peers too. And there is a reason why this happens. Some of these people stay alone and are not as “savvy at networking or interaction” and thus, prefer to spend their leisure time in office too. Says Sanjay Salooja, CEO, Empower, a stress management consultancy, “Generally people from smaller towns have the competitive edge and they tend to put pressure on their colleagues.”
Some youngsters are aware of the pressure they are creating, but they really can’t do much about it. “We are aware that our married colleagues have family commitments and can’t put in the kind of hours we do,” says Patil. “Moreover, two of our team members are girls and they can’t stay back all night. While we try to help them so that deadlines are met, we can’t do much as far as individual performance goes.”
This pressure that the youngsters take on, can have damaging effect on the team as well. In cases where the team leaders are not evolved, they start drawing comparisons within the team resulting in friction. “Just when the boss sees the others leave early, he gives them more work which invariably makes them stay back till midnight,” adds Patil.
And people with families also find it difficult to explain why they continue to pull in the same hours as they used to when they were new to the profession. Says Rohit Dubey, an investment banker, “My colleague who is 35, draws a bit more than I do, but works the same hours that I do. His wife always asks why his work hours haven’t really changed after all these years.” But the lure of the lucre drives them on. Money is such a driving factor for these folks that rest takes a backseat.
Dubey doesn’t crib. He is clear that he doesn’t want such work hours 10 years hence. “I know that I have to earn twice the amount I earn now in two years time,” he says. Brave words.
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