The Hindu Business Line : On a search for `shine' in the villages

STORY so far: It is only when I go about asking my colleagues if they would rather like to work from home that I realise that there are two sides to the question. Many are happy to perform at workplace. Much to my dismay, I find that HR practices may be a big drag in an otherwise growing company.

Episode 69

Are our HR practices in tune with the requirements of the new economy? That was the question I had wrapped up with last week and responses have been many. Let me begin with Anubrata Gangoly, a CA from Delhi. "The question of HR practices is one of the most important questions an organisation should address," he writes. "Unfortunately, it often takes the backseat, except for the annual Chairman's all-employee-Webcast or the boss wanting an unusual output out of a disgruntled employee."

Anu goes on to recount how during his articleship in a Big Four firm, it was necessary to sign an attendance register. "Failing to sign it by 9:30 a.m. would mean `absent'. However, if you are directly visiting a client, you can have your name and dates written in a `direct book' and get it signed by your Group Manager. There was a time sheet as well to be filled in. One of my seniors once commented that if ever there were a reconciliation attempted between time sheet, attendance register and direct book, a mini-scam might surface."

His mail is quite spicy: "You would be surprised to hear that big corporate houses have rules like `2 cups of tea a day, 3rd one will be billed to you (implementation is at the discretion of a two penny pantry boy); two lates a month means one CL; AC in chambers is functional, the ones outside should not be switched on to save electricity." Shocking but true.

Incidents such as these must be shackling down millions and making them lead subhuman lives.

I think, Anu, there is something in the genes of human beings getting them to slip into a master-slave attitude so easily! Another mail from him is about wasteful recruitment practices that I think merit a full-scale discussion sometime later.

Mahadevan, also a CA, feels that allowing top executives to work from home for a few days in a month may yield good results in the short run. "However, in the long term it will lead to decline in quality of office work and will also adversely affect the home front." That's a good insight.

Senthil Kumar, who is doing his MBA in IGNOU, is of the view that top executives should be capable of turning any situation to their comfort. "Asking a top executive to work from home for a few days of the week is similar to asking a student to study when his favourite TV programme is on. Not only distraction but work culture itself changes completely; he can enjoy but will the company benefit therefrom?" Well, there can be two views about studying with music on.

Next is Thangavelu's opinion: "Now the practice of HR is to recruit personnel, not to select. Tendency to cut cost at any rate results in dull-heads entering our system though the new economy requires smart, efficient, intelligent personnel with human touch. So, give them a friendly environment, and make them contribute happily with pride and full involvement. Hence HRs must come down from the imaginary ivory tower."

He is also of the view that women employees would benefit from a flexible work environment. In contrast, he says men would feel at sea if they worked at home "in the absence of peons and clerks whom they tend to boss over". Also: "Women at home will not allow them to work at home peacefully and freely. They will have the tendency to become lethargic and try to sleep and get more rest in the afternoons. His friends will drop at home often. So, it is advisable only to freelancers." Interesting observations, though I wonder how men would take that.

With so many voices against HR, you need at least one in favour, so here is R. S. Pandian, Personnel Manager of NLC, who suspects that my question itself was "a leading question" asked in such a way as to get negative opinions/experiences. What is wrong in marking `absent', he asks. "For simply forgetting to sign on that day, no HR man will cut wages," he writes. "Is enforcing discipline detrimental to the requirements of the new economy? In fact, it is other way round. If there is discipline, production and productivity will improve which are the prerequisites for reducing cost of production. HR man in IT industry is doing wonderful jobs. Is it not an example of fine-tuning HR to changing times? At least someone should be there to monitor, you call him as HR man or facilitator."

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It is when I am depressed and angry — as it happened when Siva treated me like a kindergarten kid — that I decide to pull my mind away to something else. So, the next morning I woke up early, and called Gupta to say I wanted to drive out of the city for a change and so could skip office. Before the sun was up, I was already 50 km out on the Bangalore highway. Then, as if by instinct, I cut off into one of the mud tracks that branched off into a village.

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About half an hour later, I was at a mini market where I spotted a vendor of tender coconuts. "Give me one," I told the lady who was only too eager to serve an unusual customer like me.

"Five rupees," she said, smiling. I calculated if that was far less than what multinationals earned for their bottles of aerated water. I could see that for every customer who came to her, there were at least three to five who went to a nearby shop for a cola. Her saree was old, even torn in a few places, and I wondered if India was indeed shining for people in villages.

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My driving back to the city was more like an automaton, because my mind was still in the village. I kept asking myself if — apart from cheaper electronic goods, that too due to dumping by China and Korea — there was any `shine' to boast of in our villages. E-mail your thoughts before Friday.

(To be continued)

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

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