All Work and No Play

Sometime back, a leading national IT publication named Infosys Technologies as the number one employer to work under. This announcement was made after a detailed survey that involved top IT companies.

It is however a sad fact that to a large number of working people in India (I am for the time being considering only IT employees) the facilities and amenities provided by organisations like Infosys, Hughes and Wipro seem like the stuff dreams are made of. In-house gyms, recreation rooms, reasonably-priced well-equipped canteens, golf courts, theatres, and swimming pools seem unthinkable for most working people who are not privileged enough to work for such organisations.

The premier organisations are aware and concerned about the likely health hazards that their employees may face while working long hours in front of a computer. There is also a danger of monotony setting in when working for long hours on a single task. Hence, these organisations take suitable measures to prevent not only the likely health hazards but also monotony and thus ensure employee satisfaction. A number of stress relieving programmes are conducted in addition to encouraging the employees to unwind at recreation or sports complexes housing the pools, badminton courts, table tennis tables, et al.

However, not all organisations are as caring or concerned. Despite making crores of rupees in turnover year after year, a number of companies take their employees for granted. Employee satisfaction is a term they have never heard of. The recent economic recession has added to the miseries and the term "slave driver" now acquires a new meaning with companies trying to retain their shaky footholds in an uncertain market. They want more productivity out of their employees, yet never give them time off or means to unwind. Cost cutting has assumed such drastic proportions that employees are willing to forgo a part of their salaries in their desperation to hang on to their jobs.

As for smaller companies, forget luxurious facilities, they do not even have access to basic amenities. There was a report recently in a daily about a call centre that had only one toilet, which had to be shared by both its male and female employees. This happened because the other toilet was under repair and the proprietor couldn't afford to have it reconstructed. The employees were of course disgusted by the situation and protested strongly but there has been no solution to their predicament.

This was just one instance. There are plenty of such problems faced by people at their workplace and they have no other option, unless they choose to quit and look for another job. Which, in these lean times, they know is not a feasible choice. So they continue on with their drudgery and gaze in awe at the glossy pages depicting golf courts and swimming pools of leading organisations.

The need of the hour is employers and organisations who look upon their employees as much more than hired labourers, who treat their employees with respect and grant them facilities and amenities that they so rightly deserve. Empathy is the need of the hour.