Spotlight

New Delhi, 21 May 2011

India’s Work Culture

IT’S GOSSIP TIME, ENJOY!

By Mithun Dey

India’s work culture on any given day has become fairly boisterous compared to the West. Noticeably, one of the central problems of our working system and culture is the lack of “proper time management” which is uncontrolled by the administration. Whereby, the employees have become past masters at shamming during office time. Specially Government offices.

On the other hand, in the West particularly people in Denmark, Holland, France, England, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, US are sticklers for efficiency, punctuality and time management which is woefully missing from the list of priorities of Indians. Employees here often come late to work, at least an hour, and always have a good convincing reason for being so. Worse, office or business meetings have to be rescheduled, specially in Government offices.    

This is not all. So pathetic is people’s concept of time management that employees take over a week to complete simple and effortless tasks without any feeling of remorse or regret.

More. The dress code is another work culture problem in offices. Instead of dressing up professionally, employees come either sloppily dressed or in their fineries. So unlike the West were office dressing per se is staid, understated and routine, limited to grays and blues, be it men or women.   

Further, a ‘working’ day is not complete without indulging in gossip and aimless discussions. Workers love hanging around the tea stall or coffee machine to chat with other colleagues. They also love meddling in colleagues lives and offer unsolicited advice to them. The result? Office work continues to pile up and remains unfinished. Besides, one would find workers around the tea stall

The worst hit by this lackadaisical and sloppy work ethos are hospitals, particularly those run by the Government. Sadly, it is a common sight that when a sick person arrives in a hospital, there is not even a single doctor to attend to the patient. He has to make do with a few nurses.  At times a patient returns home without availing any treatment.

Moreover, in today’s technological age, most scandalous is the fact that Indians are busy networking on social sites like Twitter, Orkut and Facebook during office hours. Apparently, they enthusiasm and time spent on social networking badly hits output in the corporate world. Thus, an average employee’s daily working hours get reduced by a minimum of an hour. This has become a major headache for the employers.

Further, unlike the West, where employer-employee inter-action is minimal given the proficient working environment, in India an incentive bonus to retain smart and efficient workers has become part and parcel of our working ethos.

In addition, the working culture is hierarchical ---- socializing and networking is done within one’s peer-level only. Hence, it is difficult for workers to find godfathers or mentors who would take them under their wing, teach the tricks of the trade, and give honest advice that helps them grow.

Not only this. Unlike the growing IT sector, small and medium size companies still lack facilities like employees training programs, motivational meetings, teleconferencing. Constructive criticism, employee bonding et al are unheard of and are considered alien in our country.

Also, at the macro level, project enrollment doesn’t take into account an individual’s career groove. Seniors don’t work in an atmosphere where they are expected to spend time understanding the kind of work their staff wants to do. An example, a junior employee who wants to widen his range of skills is often unable to steer their careers to enable him/her to work on projects across various industries. Last but not least, there are no systems in place that allows workers to present regular feedback, upfront or anonymously on what works and what does not.

Significantly, a key difference in the work cultures of India and western countries is the facility of “work from home”. In the West working from home provides much elasticity to the employees, the obverse hold true in our country. Here it is viewed as a worker being casual and lax in his attitude to work.

All in all, call it Indian dogmatism or what you may but the fact is only we are to blame. Whereby, we treat any laxity or liberty given by an employer as our inordinate privilege. Thus, the flexibility of “work from home” is mistreated and converted into a “paid holiday.” Importantly, as the world’s economic order shrinks and work challenges increase day by day, we Indians need to pull up our bootstraps and get down to doing serious work.  ----- INFA       

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)