WORK TO DEATH
The death of a MNC CEO Mr Ranjan Das of SAP, India, at a young age of 42 of a massive heart attack must make us all sit up and ask some questions.
I shall begin by sharing something that I notice here in the US [ and sometimes in India too] that may be provocative but is meant to lead to a ‘ healthy’ discussion.
What I notice in the US is this—Indians here work very hard. They work even on Saturdays and Sundays, work late into the night, and spare little time for family. While in India I was under the impression that in the advanced countries like the US people work diligently from 9 to 5 and thereafter they do not pick up the phone even it is a call from the big boss. This is perhaps true EXCEPT THAT INDIANS ARE EXEMPT FROM THIS RULE !
It seems that Indians are under tremendous insecurity here in the US and are forever on the treadmill of work , working their hearts out just to stay in the same place. The bosses take advantage of this insecurity and exploit them. When promotion time comes often Indians are sidelined so cleverly that they may not even realize that they have been had. These are generalizations and I seek more data.
While I prefer to await a detailed research report on this subject I must say that such tendencies are noticed even in MNC’s in India.
I recall a Pre Placement Presentation made by an MNC CEO at the B School where I graduated from . At the end a young aspirant who was impressed at the scale of use of Information Technology in that company asked a question that had the CEO fumbling for an answer .He asked ‘If your IT is as advanced as you say it is , then why do your executives work late into the night every day, come to office on Sundays and holidays ? After all IT is meant to , among other things, save time and labour?”
The red faced CEO, a wordsmith, was at a loss to respond .
The CEO who died in Mumbai at a young age was a fitness freak too. Of course I can see that the very exercises that he did—including working out on a treadmill– may have, ironically led to his death. But a larger questions is –are our youngsters especially in MNC’s working away to their death ?
My 43 year senior executive nephew who works for a top MNC in Pune tells me that several of his executives who are in their 20’s and 30’s have suffered heart attacks. He attributes this to work related stress. He himself works to a punishing schedule and finds little time for his young kids.
Maybe this –risking one’s health and even life-is the price one pays to make a good living. Or is it a case of the old colonial exploitation all over again in a different garb ?Are we now white collared but brown skinned slaves ?May be many of us have little choice.
My Australia based nephew got married a few months ago to a Chennai based girl. Last week I rang them up at their home in Sydney and spoke to his wife. I jocularly told her that that she might have found out by now that she was the 3 rd wife and not the first and only one.
I referred to the fact that for my nephew work came first then came the computer where he spent most of his waking hours at home doing office work. Then came his wife. Or so I thought. ,
She replied that she was NOT the 3rd but the 4 th wife.
His blackberry is his 3rd wife’ she said.
Technology is meant to make life simpler my infantile mind told me,. The inventors of the computer and the Blackberry must be having the last laugh.
Not so says my cousin in a top company in California.
‘It is our bosses who are having the last laugh’ he says.
K.R.RAVI
U.S.A.,