Recently, I have come across statements in the media by very prominent business personalities of the country, notably of the Chairman of L & T Group and Mr. Narayana Murthy of Infosys advocating the enlargement of the total working hours of Executives, presumably in order to give an increased push to Production which will go on to increase employment opportunities, GDP and also revenue to the Government.
The suggestion which has been seconded by Elon Musk, even in his usual style of catchy and loud expression, is prima facie a patriotic and a pious thought. Attention has also been drawn to other world economies like China who already have much more lengthy working hours.
I wish to submit that enlargement of working hours is not altogether a totally fresh idea. In fact, in the not very ancient past, it was being implemented with no time-barred milestone. I, myself, had the opportunity to go through such a long-hours work exercise in the year 1953 when I was selected as an Executive in the country’s leading and profitable Bank, the Imperial Bank of India, spread over India, Burma and the then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
The first day of my posting for training was in a very large Branch of the Bank, which had a workforce of nearly 200 employees (a big number those days). I continued to look at the Clock hanging in the Banking Hall from 6 pm to 9 pm, but no staff member seemed ready to go home! The second-in-command of the Branch, who was keeping an eagle’s eye on my uncomfortable body language sent for me and told me, that as per Rules, the Staff can only go home after the Bank’s Books have been “balanced”, say by 9.30 pm or even later.
Next morning, he again coached me that everyone has to attend office by 9.30 am daily, i.e. half an hour before the Bank opens for business. He then told me that it may be embarrassing sometimes, but a Rule is a Rule and must be observed at all costs. He proved this dictate with the occurrence of an astonishing incident. He related that sometime ago, a young staff member in another Branch was lucky one day to leave the Branch at 8 pm as the Books had been balanced by then. He knocked on the gate of his house and a shrill voice responded “WAIT”.
The little girl inside went to her mother and told her that the man who used to come when we are asleep and leaves before we wake up, has come early today. She asked her mother whether she should open the door or not? The mother told her “Beta! He is your DAD – rush and open the door”. The girl ran back to the gate and pronounced, Oh! DAD, I am SORRY I did not know you are my father, HUG ME!
I did not know at that time what was the gentleman’s real intent to tell me about the terrible episode but I confess that the message he wanted to convey (that we are promoted due to hard work and for working diligently for long hours, especially for Direct Recruits like me who were cases few and far between) acclimatized me immediately to dedicate myself to hard work for long hours, which I have done faithfully till now at ‘100 minus Six’.
The conclusion from the plus and minus offshoots of the proposal for long working hours is not totally undesirable. But it can be converted into a desirable exercise for implementation across the entire spectrum only by taking adequate steps like consultations with all stakeholders, both men and women, married and unmarried, young and old staff.
Just rushing to go in for implementing it, as a ‘copy cat’ decision of other countries, will be counter productive. Factors like increased cost to the employers and requirements of regulators will also need attention.
All in all, it will be wise to implement the idea only when it works for the mutual benefit of both, the employers and the employees, industry and the nation and both feel comfortable, by and large.
The author is a former managing director, State Bank of India.