Never Work Late, Not even a Minute.

"काल करे सो आज कर, आज करे सो अब 

पल में प्रलय होएगी , बहुरि करोगे कब"

"Tomorrow's work do today, today's work do now
If the moment is lost, when will the work be done" - Kabir Das

This is a Hindi doha (couplet) that we have learnt in school, everyone who studied Hindi would know it as Kabir Dohas. This doha somehow programmed our outlook towards work. It motivates us to complete whatever we have to has to done now. If we will keep postponing it, then the work will never be done. 

What I feel is, this will only apply for those who are running their own business, where working more hours might get you a big payout. But that's not the point of this post. This is from an employee's perspective. As an employee, the more you work, the more you are at loss or in otherwords, the Corporation benefits in the long run. 

I am sure that we all work for meeting deadlines. In order to meet those deadline we work extra hours. In the end we end up with more work to do. We all have heard the golden rule- Reward of good work is more work. Still we work for extended hours, Why? Is it the Promotion or is it the extra extended hours claim in salary. If it was promotion, everybody would have been climbing the ladder to the top. Atleast in my organisation the overstay compensation does not do justice to the work done. All our work place has a punching system that records the punch time which is also linked to the attendance system. It records the number of hours but the overstay compensation has to be filled manually. What is the logic behind this? I don't know! 

Never Work Overtime!, For N number of reasons.

Inadequate Compensation is one of the reasons. Taking that into account, recalculate your hourly pay. Did you notice a drop in your salary? That’s because you’re giving your employer some work for free. You should stop doing that. Now!

Every minute you work during the extended hours, it goes in favor of the corporation. It is simple maths! Lets assume a work center having an employee count of 800. Lets again assume that all 800 overstayed for 5 mins daily. Lets do the math now.

Extra Man minutes clocked per Day: 800*5= 4000 man-mins=66.66 man-hours

Extra Man-hours clocked in a year= 66.66*365 days= 24,333.33 man-hours 

24,333.33/8= 3041.66 days

3041.66/365= 8.33 Man/ year

For every 5 mins you give everyday, the corporation is getting an extra service of 8 men for free. Which is an considerable figure for a harmless 5 mins. Consider a case of 30 mins, this will be 50 men. For 1 hour, it is 100; for 4 hours it is 400. See how the figure escalates. Its all Free for your employer. 

We all were expected to work 8 hours a day, 5/6 days a week (50 hrs a week) for some agreed salary, not 70 hours a week. Please! Please! Please! Stop! You can argue against! You can say that you are dearer to the corporation because I give good work for 48 hours and you give better work for 70 hours. You will be rated more productive and I will be rated less productive. You will be ahead of in the race or for the raise. But you will be expected to continue to work the same way. But this is kinda a modern version of slavery according to me. 

Every project has a deadline. The so called deadlines are not actually deadlines, they all have a cushion. They are just made into a tighter schedule. Its poor project management. No corporation will fall down like a castle of cards if you won't meet the deadlines. There is more to life than spending it at office. Working is not the sole purpose of life. Your family and friends need you. More importantly you need time for yourself. Travel! Go play a guitar! Paint! Do whatever you like doing! 

Besides, there are many other evils to working extended hours. They make you tired. Being tired makes you prone to errors. Errors generates more works. Productive work will give you more work, eventually you will be burned out. You indirectly force your friends also to work late.

Come early to office, Prioritise! Plan! Delegate! Trust your subordinates! Work! Work! Work! Dont chit chat with friends in excess! When the alarm go off, "Go Home!"