When working life absorbs every waking breath into its fold, companies bring out their spin doctors. Mantras flow quick and fast. Focus is brought on the “work-life balance” – and a host of similar quick fix band-aids to make everyone feel better. A tongue-in-cheek look at today’s work-life imbalance…
Corporations worry about bottom lines. In the process of boosting financial returns, higher targets are setup, longer hours ensue and lives get more frantic.
If the gloom on the global economic front is any indication, the situation will continue to escalate.
With technology seeping into every breathing moment of the day – it has succeeded in amplifying the speed with which every task is to be completed.
The scenario is a familiar one. Competition in the marketplace is stiff, the economic environment is tricky and companies are exploring all avenues to come up with methods that can ensure success in keeping afloat.
As a global Venture Capitalist puts it, “Business is brutally competitive in every sector where thousands of dead and rotting corpses of slaughtered companies lie on a battleground preparing itself for another day in the marketplace.”
Healthy bottom lines naturally take precedence over healthy individuals in their attempts to create streamlined processes.
Companies treat employees as mechanized wheels to keep the numbers rolling. Employees in shifts work around the clock. Supervisors and heads of departments maintain the tempo, the seniority pyramid cloister themselves in boardrooms studying spreadsheets into the wee hours.
When burnout occurs they are dealt with efficient ruthlessness. Reducing employee absenteeism becomes critical and corporations come up with “ideal working environments”, employee benefits, yoga classes, in-house, gyms, “healthy” food pantries, breakout sessions of physical activity in groups or individuals.
While road warriors are spared the ‘cubical or open-office’ competitive aggression, typically nick-named the ‘pressure cooker’, they are in turn victims of endless hours of travel to cover markets assigned to them. Territory is mapped and targets are set under rigorous do-or-die instructions.