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he 8-9% GDP growth is for real. There is so much activity that began to occur in Bharat a few months after ’91 and at a stellar pace in the last decade. And there are so many “untapped areas”, as aggressive investors and businesses like to call it. Growth in one state is inspiring the other hitherto in oblivion. A state like Bihar, often inundated with catastrophic floods, is on the verge of a deluge of foreign investment. The time couldn’t have been more lucrative for business risks. Everyone in the world wants a piece of Bharat’s pie. Obama and Cameron haven’t visited Bharat to experience its exotic beauty. The former created 50,000 jobs for his countrymen and the Queen’s chief minister was absolutely frank about why he’s brought a battalion of businessmen and lawyers along with him. Yes, India is shining. I say this despite sceptics and Rahul Gandhi who, respectively, don’t understand and don’t want people to know that a major portion of Bharat’s growth is fueled by capital and wealth creation the ripple effect of which is bound to benefit the deprived. But I shall write on the inclusive effects of the GDP growth on another day. But, her labor is whining. By labor, I just don’t mean blue-collared workers the unsung heroes who are the real growth propellers of Bharat. It also covers the middle class, including the upper middle class youth, that have lucrative job offers in various sectors across the spectrum including the attractive financial services or management consultancy sector. I use the word labor not just for poetic expediency, but as a deliberate use of figure of speech. These employees have to put in tremendous number of hours. In many cases, there is only one employee benefit included in the salary package the benefit of beating rush hour traffic. They’re allowed to go home at a time when they see the calmness of the bandstand or the gorgeously silent India Gate. It is undeniable that the ‘work culture’ one constantly talks about in Bharat is more excruciating than, say, in America or the United Kingdom. Bharat has suddenly seen this spurt in growth and the private sector has admirably remained at pace with it. But there hasn’t been that shock in between the rapid growth story that zor ka jhatka that makes bosses realize that the value of employee satisfaction has a direct correlation with improved productivity, apart from the humanitarian outlook. Employees are still not ‘colleagues’ in the true sense of it. Businesses were stifled to such a suffocating extent pre-1991 that nothing today comes in between their race towards growth; in many cases, not even family as statistics reveal divorce rates among the urban class have gone up after liberalization. Trade/employee unionism simply won’t work there is enough supply of intelligent smart men in the market. And anyone making the glaring racist error of thinking Indians have typical behavioral deficiencies must only witness how international firms and businesses treat employees or how phoren bosses turn a blind eye to such treatment in their India offices. The natural process of evolution of the country’s democracy will have its ripple effect on the private sector. Employees will be treated with dignity eventually. Bharat is one of the leaders in the growth race. And unlike China, our story is not top to bottom; in other words, a government inspired race. In fact, businesses and enterprises are propelling it and our government is slowly coming to terms with that. There is, therefore, a much greater likelihood of improvement in working conditions in Bharat than in China. A beginning salary of 1-5-10 lakhs is pretty normative now. But the onerousness that accompanies it is severe in many cases. Until the time the overall mindset of employers change, there is much to grab in this enormous growth story. Possibly, the change in mindset is required in the victims as well. Employees must resist post-2000 distractions that have enriched the Zuckerbergs and Biz Stones during work hours. Those employees that are given certain goals to complete often tend to procrastinate and make optimum utilization of their desktop’s processor speed. With facebook window on one side and Gmail on the other, preparation of a project report is the “commercial break”. The effects of this are far-reaching. Such distracted work schedule not only forces employees to stay longer hours and scramble around at the end of the month to attain goals allotted to them, but ensures that even if they progress vertically in their career, their experience and exposure in that particular field is not commensurate with that vertical progress. Does it matter? Probably not today. A well educated young smart employee still has a relative advantage. But while Bharat is churning out huge number of smart young men and women that can be absorbed by vast growth, the day isn’t far when we will compete with employees from foreign countries waiting in line to obtain equivalent H1B visas. The private sector will hire them, even if at higher salaries, for they bring in better input due to better education and an inbuilt tendency to continually educate themselves in the field they’re working in. The British entered our country and deployed saam, daam, dund and bhed, as applicable to assert their rule over us. It was not their military might alone; they were not “invaders”. They defeated the Mughals, most of them the Hind considered enemies. They won our trust, they promised riches to influential kings and princes. And deployed this combination of various means to legitimately colonize India. Youngsters in foreign countries, indeed, do not intend to rule our country. But they will succeed in Bharat. If I may use the word common in a fiercely competitive private sector which may explain the my reference to the British rule, the foreign crop will “trump” over others. Sheerly due to their technical and technological expertise and an inclination to grow both horizontally and vertically. Just like we trumped over others in the IT sector in the United States. Nationalism, a disguise for protectionism, comes to our rescue today, just as it comes to their rescue under Obama’s Administration. A Raj Thackeray comes to the rescue of the Marathi manoos today. But, economic realities and the sheer influential force of the private sector may soon make labor borders even more porous. This time we have in Bharat is ours for the taking. May be, our boss is erratic. Perhaps, there is only one restroom between 50 employees. Perhaps the cubicle devoid of sunlight irritates us. We are asked to stay longer hours. But amidst those genuine grievances, if we do not keep educating ourselves nor take academic interest in learning contours of the project other than the ones we are working on, we will not be able to compete effectively when the labor world is truly flat. There is so much to learn, so much activity happening around us and the world wide web that gives us most things with a click. Employers don’t always assign employees on every project. But nothing stops employees from educating themselves of those “hot projects” either through the web or getting non-confidential information from colleagues working on them. Successful managers or CEOs don’t progress simply by seniority in promotion as is seen in the government sector. Two decades ago, they didn’t even get the attractive salary package that we get today. There is a vital reason why they got handpicked and are in hot demand today. We must grab academic non-monetary opportunities to learn with as much fervour as attractive salary packages. Otherwise, excuses will be aplenty; poor work culture today, encroaching foreigners tomorrow. | |
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*Kartikeya Tanna is an attorney by profession and is a partner at Tanna Associates, a law firm in the State of Gujarat. Kartikeya is actively involved in current affairs around the world and has a special interest in politics. He regularly writes articles on laws, finance, politics and economics for various publications. He also maintains his blog at www.kartikeyatanna.com which contains a collection of his writings. | |
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