Today is a Friday. In this part of the world, it is a 'Sunday'. However in the virtual world that we all have migrated to, the 'day' and time does not matter. The sun never sets on the cyber empire. My queries of yesterday, my yesterday, are fetching me answers even as I write this, from people who have just started the day. Time seems to have ceased to be the fourth dimension. The working day seems to have become a continuum.
I work on my present through the emails and the forums that I am active in. Every 'ping' and 'pop-up window' pulls me into the present and 'here'. It injects an urgency into me and makes me react immediately. It tosses all my 'time management' lessons out of the window. Makes me drop everything and react. The emails are so here and so now that it is not strange to get a follow-up phone call with every mail. At the office the colleague in the cubicle across sends a mail and then walks over to remind you to check the mail. My daughter, then a school going kid, once spent half-day at my office with me. While we drove back home her question was - is mailing the only activity that you do at the office? Very observant!
Are we seeing an overdose of communication in the corporate world? Yes, email threads (they should be called ropes) twist and turn adding new tributaries flowing through the organization. Every fibre added to this thread has its creator's signature and shouts out a loud 'Yes I am also here'. Some contributors pick up the wrong end of the thread and respond resulting in the thread going in two different directions at times. This often happens when simultaneous responses are given. While 'Great minds think alike' the simultaneous responses need not be similar. The responses can then see a branching of the thread. The email thread now becomes a many-headed Hydra. Like the mythological Hydra for every broken thread, multiple threads come up. The only Hercules who can perform this labor successfully is either the head of the organization or a major system crash.
As all 'e' gets replaced with 'm', we are now over-reliant on mobile communication. Not voice but text and all other media. Corporate communication too has percolated to WhatsApp, boon or a bane time alone can tell. I have managed a day at the office using my cell phone to do almost all the work when I forgot the laptop at home. It wasn't too difficult. I know a colleague who hardly uses his laptop, constantly on the phone and in a coffee shop. Of course, he must now be wearing a neck collar.
This flexibility of work hours and office space becoming all-pervasive has impacted the working hours greatly. Telecommuting, working from home are all fancy words for not having to shave, bath, dress up and commute. One can slouch around in PJs in one's favourite resting place at home and work. The downside is that there are no fixed hours to this working lifestyle. The communication expectations have now scaled new levels. Personal or official, one is expected to respond instantly. Time or day of the week is immaterial.
So in today's world with the workspace and work hours creeping into one's personal space and time, it was indeed a whiff of fresh air when the French government ruled in favour of employees to disconnect from work after work hours. The seamless work hours has created an explosion of undeclared labour. It has also resulted in expectations that border on the impossible. When half your team sits in a different time zone, your workday stretches beyond the hours stipulated by labour laws of your country. It becomes impossible to disconnect from work and when a government recognises this, it is a welcome sign.
I am told that the new gen or the millennials, with their addiction to instant gratification, find it difficult to differentiate between the real life and cyber life. They do not know where to draw the line when it comes to instant gratification. A post in the cyberspace gets them instant likes similarly they expect the workplace to be full of low-hanging fruits. The reality of the workspace frustrates them and resulting in short tenures at each job.
Work life continues to be constantly evolving and those in a bricks-and-mortar 9 to 5 job find it extremely difficult to fathom the lives of those who have flexi hours and flexi location options.
As all 'e' gets replaced with 'm', we are now over-reliant on mobile communication. Not voice but text and all other media. Corporate communication too has percolated to WhatsApp, boon or a bane time alone can tell. I have managed a day at the office using my cell phone to do almost all the work when I forgot the laptop at home. It wasn't too difficult. I know a colleague who hardly uses his laptop, constantly on the phone and in a coffee shop. Of course, he must now be wearing a neck collar.
This flexibility of work hours and office space becoming all-pervasive has impacted the working hours greatly. Telecommuting, working from home are all fancy words for not having to shave, bath, dress up and commute. One can slouch around in PJs in one's favourite resting place at home and work. The downside is that there are no fixed hours to this working lifestyle. The communication expectations have now scaled new levels. Personal or official, one is expected to respond instantly. Time or day of the week is immaterial.
So in today's world with the workspace and work hours creeping into one's personal space and time, it was indeed a whiff of fresh air when the French government ruled in favour of employees to disconnect from work after work hours. The seamless work hours has created an explosion of undeclared labour. It has also resulted in expectations that border on the impossible. When half your team sits in a different time zone, your workday stretches beyond the hours stipulated by labour laws of your country. It becomes impossible to disconnect from work and when a government recognises this, it is a welcome sign.
I am told that the new gen or the millennials, with their addiction to instant gratification, find it difficult to differentiate between the real life and cyber life. They do not know where to draw the line when it comes to instant gratification. A post in the cyberspace gets them instant likes similarly they expect the workplace to be full of low-hanging fruits. The reality of the workspace frustrates them and resulting in short tenures at each job.
Work life continues to be constantly evolving and those in a bricks-and-mortar 9 to 5 job find it extremely difficult to fathom the lives of those who have flexi hours and flexi location options.
