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(Ideal Work Culture from March 2011)
Work Here. Play Outside.
Based on general human perception and observing the present trends in terms of employee satisfaction and improved morale to work better in offices, I have decided to change the working hours and work days of our firm from 1 March, 2011. I explained the factors, which motivated me to consider these ideas necessary to be implemented in our firm, below. It is for your information and consideration, as the employees of this firm, the real assets of this firm.
Personal Life
All humans need a certain amount of time to fulfill the desires and needs of their lives at personal level. They may be as follows:
Time to spend with parents, life partners, children and relatives
Time to attend important duties of personal life, which cannot be generalized
Time to enjoy a little more time in their lives, doing such things, which they like personally
Professional Life
Professional life requires an employee to schedule the acts of his or her personal life in tune to the working hours and days of his or her employing firm. If one is subjected to long office working hours and six days’ work culture, one may fail to meet the demands of his or her personal life, which are explained above.
Ideal Work Culture
It is believed by many that if one has to work in an office for eight or nine hours, he or she misses much part of his or her personal life. Daily to and fro journeys for office consume much of one’s time in this process.
Hence, I propose the idea of implementation of seven hours’ work a day and five days’ work a week from this March onwards, based on the following assumptions.
Assumptions
Even if an employee spends in a firm for eight or nine hours, he or she does not work during all these hours. Actually, he or she may work for six hours at the most. By this I mean such work which directly benefits the firm on a daily basis. When one gets more time to spend in a firm, due to long working hours, one tends to do things slowly, considering more hours available to him or her in the firm concerned.
If every employee in a firm starts working honestly and devotedly, and thus tries to complete his or her scheduled course of work every day in time, they can spend their saved time, this way, to enhance the happiness in their personal lives, coming to office in a relaxed manner and leaving it earlier than the general working hours of the present times. It implies office means “quality work during office hours continuously”. This time, saved in office, can be used to attend one’s personal life.
Proposed Change
Working Hours: 10 AM TO 5:00 PM IST
Working Days: Monday to Friday
Benefits of this Work Culture
I think we can benefit the following way from this work culture:
1. Find more time to enjoy personal life, beyond office hours.
2. Get charged and relieved on Saturday and Sunday to wok better on the remaining five days in a week.
3. No need to crave for leaves even for minor obligations in personal life.
4. No stress and strain on one’s brain due to liberal and ideal working hours and days.
5. A better image for our firm for new challengers to join us as employees.
6. Projecting a “competitive firm” image of our firm to our clients, who generally believe that “five-day-work-week” means a modern and dynamic firm.
7. Employees begin to think that office does not mean a place to spend just like that for some time but a place where work has to be completed fast due to liberal working hours and days provided by the management.
8. A satisfied and happy employee at personal level means one who can work better in office to that extent.
The Employer’s Perspective
Across the world, the objective of an entrepreneur is to utilize his or her human and other resources better and get profits throughout. Capital is a vital factor to start and run a firm. Companies cannot survive and excel in their course of business objectives and goals, unless they get enough revenue and profits continuously. This reality often makes many employers assume that “employees sitting in office for long hours means more productivity from them”. In fact, it does not happen in reality because those stressed and strained in their personal lives, due to long hours of office work, fail to deliver more quality work in their offices, to benefit their employers ultimately. Considering these ideas as a young and modern entrepreneur, I have decided to think out of box and come up with this plan of ideal work culture, minding your comfort and happiness in your personal lives also.
Challengers Needed
If an employee has to be provided with more time to enjoy his or her personal life also, beyond his or her office hours, he or she needs to do the best while in office. In other words, what it means is “fast but quality work throughout office hours”. One should not think that an office is a place to spend some time just like that and use remaining time to work devotedly. I think, this kind of employee attitude can be avoided if they think that their employer is thinking and working for their personal lives also but not just their formal presence and mechanical productivity in the office. Challengers utilize their office time in the best way possible and earn the trust and respect of their employer, to express their sense of gratitude for what they are getting from the firm in an ideal manner. So, if all employees work honestly and deliver substantially, utilizing the ideal working hours and days of work, provided by their employer, a firm flourishes in course of time. The employer would also be satisfied and happy to that extent. I want my employees to think and work this way when I am providing this kind of liberal and ideal work culture for them. Ultimately, challengers mean “who deliver much in a short period of time”. If all of you can think and work this way, I don’t need to regret this decision at a latter stage. I mean you must deserve this ideal work culture, always.
To support my decision in this regard and feel assured based on what you think about it, I want you to provide your viewpoints/answers to the following questions:
Employee Feedback
1. Does these changed working hours and days affect your productivity as an employee in the short or long run? If yes, how do you tackle them at your individual or team level, and ensure that the firm is not losing anything?
2. How do you utilize this saved time to enrich the spirit of your personal life? How does it improve your productivity while working in this office?
3. Any constructive suggestions and comments against this changed work culture?
Employee Name:
Employee Number:
Designation:
Department:
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I wrote this proposal on 17 February 2011, in two hours' time, from the perspective of an ideal employer desiring to change his or her office timings minding the interests of his or her employees at large.
