The free writing idea of my dear fellow blogger from Write Tribe, Sanch, has encouraged me to push my imaginary boundaries and just go with the flow of my creative brain. Keeping my fingers moving as my brain conveys its thoughts to me is going to be a problem because I am always thinking about minimum three things at any given minute. Let’s see how synchronized my head and hands are. Before I forget, you do not need to invest a penny in knowing my thoughts. I’ll share my golden thoughts with my incredible readers for free.
These days, I cannot help but wonder how much time an average person spends away from their family and inside their office. I don’t know much about other fields, but I know about the BPO and IT shifts. They have all kind of shifts: 9 am-6 pm, 11 am-8 pm, 12 pm-9 pm, 6am-3pm, 2am-11pm, 10 pm-7am, and what not! These companies have no policy of excluding married people from the odd shifts. Why only think about married people? In fact, I find that the current lifestyle is harsh even on the singles’ crowd. Just because they are not married, it does not mean that they do not deserve to live a healthy and happy life. Nobody should be stuck in such horrible and inhuman shifts. We wonder why nobody stops to help anybody anymore! I would blame this lifestyle. We are always running late for one thing or the other. Why is everyone in a rush today? The simple reason is that we are not getting enough time to spend with our loved ones. Although we are spending more than nine hours in the office on weekdays, we are expected to stretch our shifts to fulfill the farfetched commitment — that BTW we did not make — but we are taking a salary so we must keep the client happy. Oh, things don’t stop there. One must devote the weekends, too, if the need arises.
Employee: Sir, I have a family obligation to take care of. I can’t come this weekend.
Manager: We all have families and obligations, but if the client does not get his deliverable this weekend, you would be the one answering higher management and HR. I hope you understand.
Of course, the employee understands. That’s why they are getting a salary. Now, place this employee in a heavy traffic. After spending almost 10 hours already (9 hours shift+1 hour commute — if he was not forced to extend his shift), this guy would think only about reaching home and spending whatever time is left with his family. He knows the importance of helping others and fatal results of speeding, but his common-sense has already dozed off under the immense work pressure, depression due to a lack of family time, and a huge amount of stress. Will this guy be able to contribute to anything other than his office? I don’t know who came up with the idea of creating a 9-hour work shift and these ridiculous shift timings, but I am not too fond of that person.
One day, there was a case of theft in my own building. The time of the theft was said to be around 9:30 PM. I shivered at that thought because that is the time when I return home from the office. My mind wandered off to the land of what ifs. What if I had gotten into some problem? Arun would have known when he would have returned from his office. It would have been too late by then. Suddenly, I was furious that we are expected to work till late at night. Shouldn’t there be a law against keeping people away from their families at nights?
Then, our government continues to increase the tax on all sorts of things. They increase the tax and then present it to us as if they are doing us a favor by saying that this increased tax would enable them to help the farmers, girl-child education awareness program, and other much-needed requirements. This raises a question in my head, the money that has been snatched away from our pockets so far could not prove enough, then what’s the guarantee that this time anything would be different? Who cares? Not the people who are busy sucking the blood out of the veins of their own country-people! I am all for contributing to the welfare of poor and downtrodden, but instead of doing anything for them, people with power continue to rob the middle class of their hard-earned money. This money did not come by just sitting in a chair, this came in exchange for our precious time that we could have spent with our loved ones in creating memories. I applaud the six-hour work day step taken by Sweden. It would be a lie if I said that I am not jealous of them. I have turned green, trust me! Nevertheless, I am happy that at least somebody would get to spend time living a healthier life, pursuing their hobbies or just cherishing an evening cup of tea with their family. Oh, the lovely evenings!
Anyway, when I whine about my shift, I cannot help but feel a little bothered by many of those who are unemployed. At least, I have a job to whine about. But, then another thought troubles me; do we have only one of these two choices –
- Either remain unemployed and suffer a hard life
- Watch your life going away from inside an office because you are the lucky one who has a job.
Troubling, isn’t it? Money has turned the whole world upside-down . You need it for survival, but must we pay the price of valuable time to fill our bank account with a few colored papers? If this is really a problem, shouldn’t we raise our voices to follow the footsteps of Sweden and invest a bigger amount of time with our family? I am waiting for the day when the corporate people understand the price we are being asked for a few bucks and they decide that it was a time for a change. We must be treated like humans and not a herd of sheep. Is anybody hearing me?
P.S. This post is in response to the Friday Reflections prompt – What are you thinking of right now? Express yourself by free writing?
Yes we should start giving a piece of our lives to our Families too. Sometimes, I felt like day has ended when I stepped out of Office. I wish everyone could be able to spend their evenings with loved ones rather than those files and screens.
I can totally relate to what you’re saying. We must start a movement against our long work hours.
I think life is about balance – it doesn’t have to be work all day or be unemployed, it can be about working less and moderating your spending to match your reduced income. It seems like today everyone wants as much as they can possibly have, maybe we need to change our priorities and put family first – own less but have more of what is truly valuable.
Crazy attitude and most people have no qualms with it either. No wonder they think of a make money and retire, and enjoy life.. but will their be a life if this is the schedule.. they miss out on the little little pleasures.. wake up people!
powerful post! My husband had a fabulous work and life balance with his former company who allowed him to work from home, and pick the kids up from school etc. But now he has anew job and we are hardly seeing him, it is a huge change for all of us. We are trying to make the most of whatever family time we can find #Fridayreflections
I guess one reason why people are pressurised to work longer shifts is because of the level of competition. There’s always someone better out there to replace you, so the management has the upper hand. But something must be done, as you said.
It’s a hard balance. Some employers are flexible and provide the support but some with those strict timelines put a lot of restrictions. Sometimes, it is also dependent on the individual. Would you like to let your life slip away or do something about it?
9 hours?! I thought my 8 hours was bad. Of course I also travel for about 3 hours. I’ve been thinking about work life balance a lot lately and would love to work 6 hour days or only 4 days a week. But with a mortgage to pay off on my own, I feel like my choices are limited. I don’t think just married people should have choices…it should include us all. Thanks for linking up!