I keep getting this mail quite often, and seems to be one of the celebrated “forwards” amongst my friends circle (which isn’t saying much about their judgement). The entire mail is attached below, and if you’ve not already read it, I encourage you to read it before you read my response.
With all due respect, Mr. Murthy is very old and experienced, and I’m a nobody, however, I respectfully disagree with him on this issue.
Now coming from a “management” guy who believes in “blazers” and “personality training” (some polished english, and lessons on “How to sell a refrigerator to an eskimo” – not much to say about ethics here), this was a bit surprising. If people sit at office late, so be it. That’s the reason all those coffee machines were put up, wasn’t it? It’s not as if they’re working more. They just sit there and hang out, which is already made clear in his own mail below.
I spent a lot of time listening to people like Mr. Murthy about how “management” is an art and a whole load of holistic crap, whereas “science” was for losers. This mail however, proves just the opposite. If all these blazer-wearing “managers” can’t evaluate the performance of employees, which Mr. Murthy admits in this mail, it has just proven the power of science beyond all reasonable doubt. What’s the use of being the chairman of the IIM board and giving all those holistic gibberish lectures and talks, if you can’t even differentiate between a “high-performance employee” and an employee who spends a lot of time at office?
Now let me assure you, no scientist would ever send out such a mail. Even though not having undergone a bunch of fancy-sounding-words-trainings, a scientist just won’t care how long or how little time their employees spend at office. Science believes in four criteria: measurable, quantifiable, repeatable and reproducible. So if a married employee, even if working just six hours a day, adds more value to the company than a bachelor who practically lives at office, I assure you, no scientist would even have the slightest confusion in differentiating one from the other. And he/she certainly wouldn’t be sending such mails.
And I for one, am happy knowing my manager isn’t a “manager” by degree, but a manager by profession. I practically live at office. Sometimes, I don’t show up at office for weeks. Having some little mathematical ability (often called, “academic-orientedness”, amongst the management-crowd), such stuff doesn’t matter to him.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Murthy, but given his own admittance in not being able to train management students to appropriately evaluate performance, wouldn’t you say that it’s time science made a comeback? Wouldn’t you say some good old materialistic and down-to-earth mathematical models would help make our management students far more equipped to deal with such situations as opposed to God-sent philosophical preachings?
The mail as I received it from four different sources in 2 days:
It’s half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on…
PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing…
And who’s at work? Most of them ??? Take a closer look…
All or most of them are bachelors…
And why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!
Any guesses???
Let’s ask one of them…
Here’s what he says… “What’s there 2 do after going home…Here we
get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee that is why I am working
late…Importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!”
This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and
other off-shore offices.
Bachelors “Time-passing” during late hours in the office just bcoz
they say they’ve nothing else to do…
Now what r the consequences…
“Working” (for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the
institute or company culture.
With bosses more than eager to provide support to those “working”
late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good
feedback, (oh, he’s a hard worker… goes home only to change..!!).
They aren’t helping things too…
To hell with bosses who don’t understand the difference between
“sitting” late and “working” late!!!
Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra
working hours.
So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married
and start having a family… office is no longer a priority, family
is… and that’s when the problem starts… b’coz u start having
commitments at home too.
For your boss, the earlier “hardworking” guy suddenly seems to become
a “early leaver” even if u leave an hour after regular time… after
doing the same amount of work.
People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled
as work-shirkers…
Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays… though) leave
on time are labeled as “not up to it”. All the while, the bachelors
pat their own backs and carry on “working” not realizing that they r
spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that
they wuld have to regret at one point of time.
*So what’s the moral of the story?? *
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time ” unless really needed “
* Don’t stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture
which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.
