The Hindu Business Line : Don't carry home to office, but why not the reverse?

STORY so far: To know more about why Chandru wants to quit the job, I visit his family. Casually, I float the idea of a family picnic, and am surprised to find the suggestion seized immediately. On invitation, I join the outing and have fun with the children. I wonder if job stress can be offset by holidaying with the family.

Episode 67

Over the week, I have been checking my inbox for the responses to the query whether business executives and managers can perform better at work and at the same time suffer less mental stress by spending time with their family, picnicking at least once in a few months.

"Work-life balance," writes Ram Viswanathan, sharing his thoughts: "All of us have heard umpteen number of times that, what counts is the quality and not just the quantity, but act just the opposite. If our mind is clogged up, regardless of the hours we put at work, we would just be `churning' and not necessarily `productive'.

"When asked what is important, most of us would readily say `family first'. But it is highly doubtful if we do `justice' to this statement. Unfortunately, most of the executives spend woefully little time with the family and put unbelievable hours at work. This almost always leads to burnout and stress. "So, it definitely helps to spend time together with the family on joint activities, be it picnics or household chores. This not only helps in bonding with the family but also helps in taking the mind off of the `office related stress'. In fact, these family/social activities would energise the individual to be `more' productive and useful for the organisation."

Thangavelu views Chandru as a typical middle-class man who loves his work and at the same time his family too. "When he finds he could not spare time to be with his family because of over work, he goes to the extreme of resigning his position itself. Most employers do not treat the employees and executives as assets. They forget that they too have family."

On that, I have a different view about my boss, but Thangavelu's another suggestion is that workers should also be taken to picnics twice a year, because "otherwise you are poisoning slowly the goose which is laying the golden egg."

Mahadevan, a CA, feels that qualitative time spending with family will only increase the quality of performance in work: "They will be more energetic and happy."

On picnics and morale of employees, Vishal Sharma, an MBA student from Indira Institute of Mangement, Pune, has this to say: "Employees are both short-term as well long-term assets. Happy people work the most and best. A person who is having a happy and cheerful family life is sure to work harder. So if a company allows its employees to spend more time with their families, surely the employees would be happy. They would try to reciprocate this feeling towards their company and lead it to the way of efficiency and profitability.

"Picnics and outings help in building better bonds among families. This has also been proved in our culture where it said that parents took their children out for yatras. Even in the US, Sunday bonfires are where families come together to spend a day together."

I'm sure Vishu would make a good manager, but let me see what Ankan Ghosh of Kolkata feels about the issue: "One should have a love in one's life to which she/he can turn to whenever she/he feels alone and that love in turn will sustain her/his existence."

How romantic, but he defines love as something which one loves to do. "It should be an act which at least reminds oneself of her/his existence and better still makes one meaningful in one's own eyes." Quite philosophical. How about making one's job one's love. "Very bad. It is a loss-loss situation. Because a job requires an approach where the role of one's heart is diminished piecemeal. This results in not only dissatisfaction to one's job but can also lead to the irreparable loss of one's love." So, what are you saying Ghosh? "Basically, what I am saying is that give your heart a chance every now and then."

Santosh Kumar is of the view that work pressures do take a toll on our family life. "All of us feel that we are not able to give equal emphasis to family and kids and they deserve much more attention than what we give. I feel that this talk of balanced individuals and balanced approach to work is not a reality. Workplace pressures are increasing day by day and slowly at one stage or other it encroaches into our social and family life.

Though we feel guilty about it there is no way we can close the door to that. Idea of a short break in between from the world of schedules, appointments, deadlines, computers, calls and meetings is becoming more relevant and it will do good for companies if they encourage this trend. There are things the kids would like you to listen from them, they would love to tell you. It is time to tell your partner that all this running is for a purpose and you have all the time for them. Just try out a small break and you will return a better person/employee for the organisation and spread the halo of cheerfulness all around which is very important in today's competitive and tough work environment."

Happy thought from Santosh, and I have a mail from E. R. Vinodnarayan, who likes "the story form analysis of managerial situation". He feels that business tours and trips give help in venting stress to the harried executives, in certain cases, but a structured time out with family every once in a way would not only help the person to unwind but also bring about better bonding among the family members.

"The bonhomie and feel good created amongst the family can make create support and empathy for the executive and help in combating fallout of stress producing situations."

That, perhaps, is the moral of the whole story: It is not enough we have feel-good in the economy; we need a good dose of it ourselves!

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When I met the boss the day after the picnic, I asked him what he thought about telecommuting. He looked at me and asked, "You have any difficulty in transport, Swati?" I shook my head and then sat down to discuss with him if the company could allow some of its highly stressed employees to lead a healthier life.

"Do you suggest we run a yoga course for them?" I replied, "Plus, we can think of giving them liberty to work from home at least a few days a month." Already, I was visualising myself happily operating from my laptop, from the comfort of my bed, with my favourite teddy bear around, connected to the office through the modem.

"Swati, you seem to be dreaming once again," called my boss, and I shook myself up. He continued, "Get the views of the department heads on this. Also, look at what can be the pitfalls of such a freedom." I said, "Will do that, sir!" and left the room with a spring in my step.

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Would it be advisable to allow top executives work from home for a few days of the week? E-mail your thoughts before Friday.

(To be continued)

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

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