[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by neeraj0272

Murthy proves my point. Now Murthy should be ready for his just deserts.

NRN is angling for a Governor's seat.

[neeraj0272]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

NRN is angling for a Governor's seat.

Nah. It will too much work without much appreciation as he will have to do all the dirty deeds on center's behalf.
Besides I think he may have set his sights higher befitting his own status! President or VP maybe...

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by neeraj0272

Nah. It will too much work without much appreciation as he will have to do all the dirty deeds on center's behalf.
Besides I think he may have set his sights higher befitting his own status! President or VP maybe...

He attempted the President's seat 20 to 22 odd years ago with the full thrust of his PR machinery but it he didn't make the cut!

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

NRN is angling for a Governor's seat.

What he should be angling is a peaceful retired life with his corpus and leave things to the one's designated for that. One thing which puts me off solidly is the micromanaging things which top leaders do and yet say they have delegated their responsibilities.

NRN is going to be a manager all through his life and not a leader in true sense.

[Joe367]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

To those who question whether hard work is rewarded enough in India, whether one can become a billionaire by sheer hard work, here is your answer - SN Subramanyan.

What about the people who worked really hard but didn't make it? I don't expect every person to have the same physical and mental health. People at the top of such large organisations should be aware of it before giving such statements.

I would recommend watching this video to get an idea - why something that worked for me might not work for another person.

https://youtu.be/3LopI4YeC4I?si=FNnV2dqBWrkC7XMX

[xcentrk]

Originally Posted by Joe367

What about the people who worked really hard but didn't make it? I don't expect every person to have the same physical and mental health. People at the top of such large organisations should be aware of it before giving such statements.

I would recommend watching this video to get an idea - why something that worked for me might not work for another person.

+1

Why it is such a hard concept for everyone to understand?

A blue collar employee puts way more effort and hard work than us yet he is not going to become a CEO. Because it doesn't work like that.

Similar way, not all hard work will translate into achievement. For instance, in one of my workplace, a team always overworked and delivered never got appreciation but their Manager take all the credits and got awards and hikes. I have seen it way more than to know that not all hard work is directly proportional to success. Unless the person who is doing hard work doesn't know how to convert it as success, that hard work is a waste!

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Joe367

What about the people who worked really hard but didn't make it?

Originally Posted by xcentrk

+1

I have seen it way more than to know that not all hard work is directly proportional to success.

I agree. As I keep putting it in mathematical terms, "Hard Work" is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition for success. You need other things to be successful, one of the most critical being risk-taking. Get into teams doing the new things, the most critical/visible projects within your company. Do short bursts of 70-hour weeks. The rest will take care of itself. Companies (and life) rewards risk more than just pure hard-work.

[comfortablynumb]

After having gone through all the posts from the last few days, I think this excerpt from a commencement speech made by Bill Watterson would not be out of place here.



Full speech here (do read when time permits): https://web.mit.edu/jmorzins/www/C-H-speech.html

Disclaimer: Please don't brand me as Gen this or that for posting this; I am almost over the hill and rapidly on the way to being under it!!

[Fuldagap]

The thread has indeed gone interesting in the past few days. The debate has generally been about the number of work hours, the comments made by top tier and so on. Some have indeed put worthy comments.

People need to almost always discuss productivity, what an employee does in those 40, 50 or 90 hours.

Comments like these (the ones being trendy these days) tend to digress people from thinking about productivity and instead discuss about meaningless topics. Free publicity?

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Fuldagap

People need to almost always discuss productivity, what an employee does in those 40, 50 or 90 hours.

I've seen that I've made some very avoidable mistakes at the end of all-nighters in the past. Ironically, the most crucial time when the team needs to be alert and creative is often when they cannot be because they are being 'pushed'. I've often gone back and looked at my work delivered under pressure and seen that it could have been done more creatively, which would have added a lot more value to the client. Instead of pulling long hours, if I had walked away for a bit, rested, let my mind wander and returned, the work would have benefited.

Long hours and 'pressure-situations' are often coupled with increased layers of oversight. 3 extra middle-managers added to the process, all asking the same question (when will it be done?!), just so they can be the one to pass that news to the 'big man' or the client. Again, forget the well-being of the employee, that's just not conducive to quality output.

It takes a strong manager to step in the middle and insulate their team. It takes an effective manager to understand how to get the best out of each employee, rather than impose blanket carrot and stick policies. Anyone can do that. We've heard a lot of bitching and moaning about 'bad employees'. And sure we can always improve to become a better workforce. We also need much better leaders.

[Oxy]

Dedicated to Wodehouse fans

*Jeeves Weighs In...*

Bertie: Jeeves, I say, have you seen this latest malarkey from some of the corporate chappies? They’re suggesting we ought to work on Sundays! Sundays, Jeeves! I mean, what rot!

Jeeves: Indeed, sir. A rather robust suggestion, if I may say so.

Bertie: Robust? It’s dashed outrageous! One chap says staring at one’s wife on a Sunday is dull. Well, I wouldn’t know, being a bachelor and all, but surely the point of the day is not to stare at one’s desk!

Jeeves: A most compelling argument, sir. Although, one might argue that Mr. Subrahmanyan’s enthusiasm for Sundays in the office stems from a deep and abiding affection for his work.

Bertie: Affection? Poppycock! The man’s gone barmy! And another fellow, a certain Murthy, says we ought to put in seventy hours a week to catch up with the world. I ask you, Jeeves, do we really want to spend seventy hours a week chasing after economies that are sprinting about like headless chickens?

Jeeves: A rather frenetic pursuit, sir, and one not without its perils. Research suggests that beyond a certain point, increased toil results in diminished returns.

Bertie: Stanford, was it? I must say, those chaps sound like sensible fellows. So, what’s the upper limit before a man turns into a gibbering wreck?

Jeeves: Forty-nine hours a week, sir, according to their findings. Beyond which, the worker’s output may falter.

Bertie: Capital, Jeeves! Then the line is drawn at forty-nine, and Sunday is for loafing.

Jeeves: Or for pursuits such as punting, sir.

Bertie: Quite right! Tell you what, Jeeves, let’s schedule a punting expedition next Sunday. And as for these corporate titans, they can keep their seventy-hour weeks and office Sundays. We Woosters shall not yield.

Jeeves: Admirably resolved, sir. Shall I bring the thermos of tea for the punting, or perhaps a restorative jug of Pimms?

Bertie: Both, Jeeves. Always both.

Source: WhatsApp

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

After having gone through all the posts from the last few days, I think this excerpt from a commencement speech made by Bill Watterson would not be out of place here.

Loved it. Thanks for sharing.

"You will find your own ethical dilemmas in all parts of your lives, both personal and professional. We all have different desires and needs, but if we don't discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success.

Many of you will be going on to law school, business school, medical school, or other graduate work, and you can expect the kind of starting salary that, with luck, will allow you to pay off your own tuition debts within your own lifetime.

But having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another."

I believe @Jeroen touched this aspect in his post.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

So never let your career or work place distract you long term from the things that ultimately matter most. Sure, in many jobs you might need to work around the clock for a while. In nearly all my jobs I have faced situation where for several weeks, sometimes even months there was never anything else but work in my life. It takes a special partner along your side to make that happen. All the time you spend on your career usually means your partner can’t spend on his/her career. And he/she is looking after a billion other things. The kids, the house, dealing with getting the kids to sports and so on.

Again, not an issue if it’s your collective and conscious choice. The problems tend to arise when work and career becomes a default that overrides everything else.

I reckon for some people, their job is supposedly the purpose of their life and that's fine for them. However, they have no right to force others to be like them. Also, do they ALL do this out of love for their job? I have my doubts. Allow me to expand.

I don't know what else to do!
Remove the following from 40-60 year old men and give them 6 months to do whatever they want.

• Job
• Mobile phone
• Computer
• TV
• School going children to boss around.

I bet a good portion of them won't know what to do. I'm sorry to say this, but many would be happy to just drink alcohol. Besides that, they'll be bored in one month! There's a real problem in the society. People don't have hobbies/interests!!! I'm not kidding. I've actually asked people the above question and sadly many don't know what to do. This is especially the case for people in India.

Be blessed if you are automobile enthusiast. You have an interest to pursue.

I don't want to do household work!
There's another portion of men who use "office work" as an excuse/free-pass to get away from household work or family responsibilities.

I want you to toil for the nation!
Then there's the nation builders who prioritise quantity over quality, because they don't want to address the actual issue, Low Labour Productivity in India! It's not the number of hours that should improve, but rather the productivity that should improve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moXQjU6hq1c

Good luck finding India's ranking in the below.


















P.S: I hope I didn't offend anyone. There's a reason why my initial post was in the Emigration thread, because I knew the expectations around work culture and work life balance are very different in India.

[searacer932]

Comments from TCS CEO on the work hours. This is what a lot of us have been saying in this thread as well.

Source : https://www.businesstoday.in/wef-202...674-2025-01-22

"We have to see the spirit of what they said. We're just getting into meme war and memefest. That's not doing justice to the veterans and what they have achieved over the years. I think you take the spirit - they are saying that we need to work sincerely like put in all the best effort."

When asked about Subrahmanyan's suggestion that employees should also work on Sundays, Krithivasan said: "Don't take whatever he said out of context. Because I was not there you were not there when he said that. Taking something out of context is unfair to them. But if you take our work, the way we all grew up, there are times we worked on Sundays. When there is something going live on a Monday, you will work on a Sunday. But there are times when you don't work on Thursday, Friday, Saturday also because there is not much of work or you work the previous week."

[Noctis]

Originally Posted by searacer932

Comments from TCS CEO on the work hours.
Source : https://www.businesstoday.in/wef-202...674-2025-01-22

Kind of ironic he talks about the statement being taken out of context and then completely fabricates one of his own. The discussion was clearly not about working on a Sunday during an emergency or as compensation for taking another day off.

The actual context which included the "90 hours" or the now infamous "How long can you stare at your wife?" comments made it pretty clear which direction it was leaning to, and were justly critiqued. Being a veteran doesn't exclude one from consequences of what they speak.

[am1m]

Heard about some employees getting fired for submitting fake house rent receipts. Apparently the IT department is sending out notices to the companies directly. What is wrong with these employees?! Some of them are not junior, pretty senior. How much would they really gain by doing this? Why risk a considerably bigger amount of money in terms of salary and job loss for something like this?!

I remember as junior employees we'd scramble like mad to 'save tax', and end up making idiotic investments like ULIPS, and other stupid things that in the end, inevitably ended up costing us more than just paying the tax amount. But why someone with more than a decade of experience would commit fraud like this is beyond me!