I came across a news item yesterday that Capgemini cancels leaves for all employees in India in the current quarter. So the employees can't take any paid time off till the end of June. If they want to go on leave for whatever reason, they have to get a pay cut. And given the nature of the current times, it is obviously not because the company has loads of work flowing in or that there's severe shortage of people. In simple words, this can only be explained as - the company can't take the fact that people are at home and many perhaps are not as busy with real work because of the slowdown - and because of these two reasons, some employees may end up having a good time outside work while also getting paid by the company. I would say a logical thing to do in this situation is to let employees take more leave, provided workload allows them, so that the company and the employees needn't waste resources. And in the long run, the employee feels more motivated when there's work and the company might also save on leave encashment money when those employees quit. But on the contrary, it wants to tie down those employees and make them do meaningless work - like attending e-learnings they have no interest in, create documents nobody would ever look at, attend calls where all they'd discuss is how bad is corona in their cities, how well they are mopping the floor, what's their grocery and vegetables situation, and so on.
Another company was in news recently for wanting all its employees to be logged in all day with their cameras turned on. While that's sad and hurts employee motivation tremendously, and may be their leaders realize that but they still get into the top-down trap of pretending to be productive and valuable to the company. And then some companies would even expect you to report by end of every day what you did that day. The simple truth is - if you ask for shit, you will get lots and lots of it, decorated with corporate color and formatted to perfection. And if leaders take pride in being able to derive this out of their employees, they are clearly fooling themselves.
It's sad that while many leaders are touting work-from-home as the way-to-go for the future, a great many also look at it as some sort of semi-vacation for employees, and often these are not mutually exclusive sets of people. The latter perception is also being promulgated by the media, which projects working from home as an opportunity for family time, reading books, binge watching Netflix, and so on. While in reality, on the one hand companies are pushing employees to show that they are busy and productive, on the other hand employees are also trying their best to prove their worth. In the process, a lot more of corporate waste is getting generated than before. And employees end up working longer hours.
Another company was in news recently for wanting all its employees to be logged in all day with their cameras turned on. While that's sad and hurts employee motivation tremendously, and may be their leaders realize that but they still get into the top-down trap of pretending to be productive and valuable to the company. And then some companies would even expect you to report by end of every day what you did that day. The simple truth is - if you ask for shit, you will get lots and lots of it, decorated with corporate color and formatted to perfection. And if leaders take pride in being able to derive this out of their employees, they are clearly fooling themselves.
It's sad that while many leaders are touting work-from-home as the way-to-go for the future, a great many also look at it as some sort of semi-vacation for employees, and often these are not mutually exclusive sets of people. The latter perception is also being promulgated by the media, which projects working from home as an opportunity for family time, reading books, binge watching Netflix, and so on. While in reality, on the one hand companies are pushing employees to show that they are busy and productive, on the other hand employees are also trying their best to prove their worth. In the process, a lot more of corporate waste is getting generated than before. And employees end up working longer hours.
Besides being about working from home, especially in the current scenario of a lockdown, this decision by Capgemini in India is another of numerous examples I have come across over the years where MNC's, even those headquartered in the "happy" western countries with employee friendly corporate cultures, have different policies for employees in India (and may be other under-developed countries).
I personally experienced a similar disparity in one of my previous organizations. I had been wanting to go for a sabbatical to pursue some of my personal interests. And after we had a baby, I badly needed one for a certain period to help manage while my wife was getting back to work after her maternity leave. I was glad to find that a lot of leaders within the company, none based in India, shared their experiences of going on sabbatical for reasons like spending time with family, exploring some passion, starting a business, and so on. I thought this was a great way to help employees feel valued, respected and also for them to respect the company. And for the company, it was a good way to keep some of its older employees stay motivated and excited about what they were doing. Why let go those who had already been groomed into the company's culture. But when I checked, I found that there was no sabbatical policy for employees in India.
Capgemini's current decision also smells of the same lack of respect for Indian employees. And the worst part is that these decisions are taken by Indians themselves. It's as if we ourselves feel we don't deserve to be treated with equal respect and trust. Or perhaps that we don't deserve the same level of flexibility or being valued as the American or European employees.
I've seen similar policies in manufacturing MNC's with operations in India. For example, a lot of them work 6 days a week in India but only 5 days in Europe or US. There is huge disparity in the kind of perks that are offered too. And also, the work-life balance is significantly different.
I don't know if writing about it will change anything, but I believe acknowledging is the first step to bringing change. And further, we should all bring the change in ourselves as leaders, so that we create more productive organizations that value people and don't just push them to prove that they deserve their salaries.
Do share your thoughts in the comments section.
I don't know if writing about it will change anything, but I believe acknowledging is the first step to bringing change. And further, we should all bring the change in ourselves as leaders, so that we create more productive organizations that value people and don't just push them to prove that they deserve their salaries.
Do share your thoughts in the comments section.
