Where is my weekend?

Currently there is an epidemic that has gripped the IT industry. The epidemic called weekend working. The disease that has left thousands stressful, depressed and unhappy. There is a huge number of smart, hardworking individuals who are exposed to this new way of slave labour. People are forced to forgo the desire to bond with their families, people are coerced to give up their priorities in life and focus on only single objective: saving their only job. There are numerous disgruntled employees who prefer countless hours of gossip at their desks instead of few productive hours of actual work. This may not be the case at every organization out there, but potentially it’s ‘THE CASE‘ at every organization. When things go wrong weekend work is the first solution that appears. Nobody thinks it is unethical to take away people’s moral right to get rest and rejuvenate themselves. Managers instill a sense of guilt into the minds of employees from the very beginning of the project, virtually scaring them off with warnings like: “nobody likes to work on a weekend, you guys better complete your tasks on time and we will never call you over the weekend”. So if at all people are required to work weekends, it’s their own fault as they did not give proper attention to the manager’s prophecy.

Yes I agree, there might be a critical situation where weekend work is the only solution. But if not defined within legal framework or as a matter of policy, then the critical situation becomes a matter of perspective. A weak project manager who is easily scared by the client will turn almost any adversity into a critical matter. I have seen people work weekends at almost all phases of software development. The criticality of the situation is almost always overblown. Weekend work is an easy excuse of the offshore managers for their incompetency. It gives them an argument that says “I am getting my team to work 10-11 hours a day, I am getting them to work over weekends. What more do you expect of me. Things are difficult here, there is very little that is in my hands.” The managers themselves are typical victims of this viciousness. There is no tyranny here, everyone suffers equally. Be it the manager or the employee. The manager’s have to save their job too. The higher management cares very little, they often think people down the hierarchy are usually lazy and do not understand the gravity of the situation. There is wrong sense of pride in upper management who firmly believe that it’s their interfacing with the client that brings million dollar projects, and it’s the job of managers and developers to complete the project in stipulated time, let whatever be the difficulty. I totally agree with the first part, but it’s the second part that bothers me. Let whatever be the difficulty! This thinking has given rise to a sort of moral degradation which eventually results in forcing people to work for 2-3 weeks without a day of rest.

I classify the IT working population into 5 categories based on their likeliness to agree over working a weekend.

1. Freshers (New joinees)
2.  People with vested interest (onsite deputation, promotions, good grades)
3. The gullible, people who cannot say no to authority.
4. The responsible (Married, debt ridden etc.)
5. Free spirits. (The I don’t give a damn types)

The responsible and the free spirits are the only ones who oppose the system of weekend work. The rest are either confused or leave it for others to fight, they are okay either ways. It’s a classic psychology game. If anyone agrees to work over a weekend, then the managers use their example to coerce others. If a junior agrees then a senior is obliged as a sense of responsibility. If a senior agrees then junior has to agree as who knows better than a senior. Managers are pretty good at this game. Few who oppose cannot do so forever as they start suffering from cognitive dissonance, Their rational minds asks them to change their opinion by giving reasons of responsibility, obligation, guilt, team work and what not. It’s really difficult to take a stand that you won’t work under unethical conditions when all about you have given up. The major blame for weekend work culture lies on the individuals, who are either too naive to think about their own well-being or are to messed up in the responsibilities of the life. Either way we don’t understand, what constitutes a good work ethic. Nobody talks about weekend work as a matter of right and wrong but instead confuse it with unwarranted situation.

The strong motive for writing this article comes from the psychological and physical impact weekend work has on the minds of the employees.

1. Weekend work sends a message into the subconscious of individuals that their life is not in their control, they are overworked, and do not have time for simple pleasures of life. Sometimes even though they have plenty of time, they cannot muster up enough energy to get rid of the inertia created by those senseless visits to the office for no reason.
2. People who work weekends rarely do any kind of physical activity during those times. As such people prefer not to workout even when their lives are okay. Weekend workers don’t feel guilty for abusing their body since they feel trapped and lost. The thought of exercise appears ridiculous compared to the ordeal one is facing. Thus they compromise their health, which might lead to serious disease in near foreseeable future.
3. People become absolutely inefficient and notoriously gossipy at work. I will bet more time is spent on gossip than actual work. That’s the only creative haven they can resort to and employees use it in all perfection to get rid of their daily stress.
4. There is a change in attitude weekend work instils a strong dislike towards the organization, superiors and in lots of cases dislike towards the work which is a major blow to person’s individual growth.
5. Family life is disturbed. People cannot take time off to take care of their loved ones. There are cases where people get called from hospitals, when their loved ones are in intensive care. There are plenty of examples where newly married couples have had the worst times of their life when their marriage just got started.
6. While you work on weekends there are no plans, no recreational leaves, you are no more master of your life. The very tenets of freedom are killed right there. And nobody makes any fuss about it.

Like many of my colleagues I am not aware of labour laws. Did a bit of googling, but couldn’t find laws that address this hairy issue.
Companies provide an alternative week off by way of their policies towards a weekend worked. But that’s not right as people volunteer (although not true 😛 ) to give up their time of comfort, in order to address the difficult times the project is facing. So they should be paid in a better fashion. The irresponsible company in one case doesn’t even manage the transportation of the employee, and the individual has to cough up his own money to work over weekends, which is more humiliating. Besides thrifty remuneration, the week off itself isn’t any good. I have seen people accumulate week offs to the count of 12-15 in a span of 4 months. Which is a half of their total weekends during that duration. In those times they do not get to enjoy their own paid leaves or public holidays even. There is a blatant abuse of law. People have worked on national holidays and Labor Day at times. What’s more concerning is that the employee accumulates all these leaves which he cannot take and they eventually lapse off, unless off course somebody is allowed to take a big long vacation, which again is a rare case.

Some people may prefer good remuneration for working over weekends or working extra hours at office, as is the case in developed countries. But if you ask me I will say it’s a slice of your precious life that you offer for nothing. Our jobs are means to an end, in case they are not what we wanted them to be. But our time away from that place of work is our opportunity to be better family members, better citizens, better intellectuals and better friends. It’s that time of leisure which makes us more interesting person, if we are missing on that then what life are we leading?