Out of work can be the next in thing

Indore will be hosting the next India-Australia Test match from March 1. But it isn't as much the outdoors as Indore's indoors that have made a small splash - inside an office in the Madhya Pradesh city, to be precise. SoftGrid computers, a software company, wants its employees out - no, not like those sackful of dismissals like in Google et al, but out of the office by a particular time every working day. In a sector where 'getting paid overtime' probably means getting paid in instalments, SoftGrid's counterintuitive strategy comprises flashing the message on the screen of every computer of its 40 employees at 6.50 pm every day: 'Your shift time is over. The office system will shut down in 10 mins. PLEASE GO HOME!' Talk about progressive workplaces.

Lingering in offices, like showing that one is working (as opposed to actually working), is a trait of many worker ants. Having a daily 'end' time forces the issue - that is work that's there on the table, making 'start' and 'stop' much more tangible than letting matters literally slide. Sure, not every job can have SoftGrid's daily deadline with comps switching off automatically at 7 pm. But it's the change of tactic itself - from celebrating work per se to seeing it as a task in hand to be completed - that makes this Indore firm show the way into smart working through the out door.