Butterflies and Hurricanes

I have been working for five years now. Mostly in the media industry as a “communications professional” in different capacities: as a journalist, content writer, copywriter, social media manager, community manager, digital marketing manager, communications specialist. Wait a minute, are you a young, doe-eyed, career-oriented 22-year-old? Pfft, don’t worry. These words just sound fancy. Write to me five years later. We’ll have some fun conversations then. 

Anyhow, so whatever I’ve done in the last five years has mostly been connected with selling brands online. I can’t say I’ve loved all of it. Some aspects I’ve enjoyed, and some — well, let’s just say I’m glad therapy has been a widely accepted phenomenon in recent times. I can safely say I’ve grown immensely in the last few years. There’s a whole lot that your workplace teaches you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cornucopia of endless cabins in an MNC, or a breathless beehive of bean bags in a budding start-up. You’re constantly pitted against your teammates, you deal with tetchy bosses and self-aggrandising seniors and woefully incompetent subordinates. You have days you feel lost and suffocated, and days when you walk into work feeling inspired and unstoppable. All in all, having a job isn’t too bad. And if you don’t have what it takes to become a star YouTuber or a brilliant actor, you just have to make peace with the fact that a job is just something you need to keep going. 

Are you wondering where I’m going with this? Yeah, me too. I’ll get to the point now. There’s something I’ve been hearing in this industry that I have never been onboard with. Time and again I have heard co-workers talk about how they have had to work over time, for fifteen to eighteen hours a day, on weekends, on holidays, late at night (and all of this without any compensation) to get where they are in their career. To me it always seemed like they said this:

1. To prove that they have been in the game for some time and that they have earned their position
2. To intimidate the newbies and to exercise power over them to a certain extent
3. To feel self-important and to validate their humdrum office life and lack of a social life

This idea that hard work equates to sleepless nights, obscene amounts of coffee, sleeping at work, developing dark circles, surviving on a couple of hours of sleep, skipping meals, long hours spent poring over reports, spreadsheets and PPTs has always been appalling to me. In the beginning I used to feel it’s something everyone has to go through to “make it” in their career – like a rite of passage. But soon enough, I started realising how it was some garbage we were feeding ourselves. 

I remember how I pointed this out to one of my bosses and he said, “Astha, you’re so young. This is the time to give it your all. Work hard, stay in office for as long as you’d like. You have no responsibilities right now. This is when you should be climbing up the corporate ladder.”

Now here’s my problem: I completely agree with working hard, climbing up the ladder and growing in my career. What I can’t seem to wrap my head around, however, is why bosses expect employees to stay late, sacrifice their weekends, cancel their personal plans, not take those few days off for a vacation and basically be available at all times just because they have email on our phones? 

I don’t know if this happens in non-Asian countries, but I know this attitude is deeply ingrained in the very fibre of the quintessential Indian employee. I’ve known colleagues who deliberately send emails late at night or send “gentle reminders” on Sunday evenings or have dinner with their bosses just so they can be more visible. Why spend eighty percent of your day in office when you can wrap up the same amount of work in eight hours and be home? When my first boss told me I have no “responsibilities”, I didn’t take it too well. Do my responsibilities only mean having a husband or a family to take care of? Don’t I have a responsibility to my own mental health? My peace of mind? Doesn’t it mean giving myself enough time to unwind, to spend time pursuing other passions? 

Now, I’m not saying it’s this extreme in all organisations. I’ve had offices where our managers used to urge us to come on time so we could leave on time. But I’ve also been in offices where leaving at 9 PM meant a “half day.” We were constantly rebuked for not staying in office till way past midnight because the rest of the team was cobbling up ideas together for a pitch presentation the next day. I have taken taxis to go home at 2 AM, and woken up early to prepare for a client meeting at 10 AM. I have had days where “burning the midnight oil” was not only accepted, but welcomed, appreciated and celebrated. I have had managers constantly romanticising the idea of delivering good quality work despite working all day and all night. Believe me, I used to feel like a zombie-fied version of my former self. I lost all will to get up in the morning. I was exhausted to the point of a breakdown. And all around me, weary, half-dead employees were winning awards and recognition, much to the chagrin of other workers. This only fuelled the others to follow suit. Fetishising overworked, sleep-deprived lifestyles in the name of growth and titles and creativity is profoundly problematic. 

This is what start-ups usually don’t understand. Your firm is your baby. We get it. You’re willing to put your heart and soul into it. Because you chose that life. It gives you meaning and purpose and fulfillment. The average worker working for you does not feel the same way. They deserve to go home on time, family or no family. Commitment or no commitments. They deserve to abstain from opening their emails over the weekends. They deserve that week off. They deserve those sick days because they are too stressed and they just want to sleep in. They deserve flexibility, and work-from-home policies, and the raise they were promised, and a boss who understands that every employee is human with a beating heart and an astounding amount of overwhelming emotions. 

Every employee is different. There are ambitious, over-achievers and hustlers and there are peaceful, quiet workers who love their 9 to 5 routine. Let them choose the way they want to work. Let them bring their strengths to the table and work in their own unique ways. The goal should be to get together and think of awesome ideas as a team. Let’s think of things that haven’t been done before. Let’s revolutionise the digital world. Let’s create wonder and awe and magic. Let’s inspire people and change lives. Let’s, as they say, make a dent in the universe. 

You know how that’s possible? When people are well-rested, well-fed and in good spirits. I feel fortunate enough to be in an office that respects employees enough to let them come and go as they please. This rarely ever results into misuse of company time. In fact, employees appreciate this all the more and make sure they give in those eight to ten hours of work on a daily basis. I have seldom seen anyone feeling compelled to stay late at work. They get enough leaves, comp-offs, breaks and appraisals. The result? People here stick around. People here don’t dread Mondays. People here have been around since the company began in a teeny tiny room. Now we are 200 people strong.  

Let’s learn from this. Let’s give enough freedom to employees. Let their work be work, and not their sole purpose in life. Let them have low-efficiency days. Let them take a longer lunch break once in a while. Let them go out for a drive in the middle of the day because they have anxiety. Let them seethe. Let them breathe. 

Let’s build workplaces that are healthy, positive and that focus on the employees, and not just profits. Eight hours every day, five days a week is enough. More than enough. I promise you. Don’t believe me? Yeah well, I didn’t believe my therapist when she told me it gets better. I believed my boss who told me I’d never make it in this business if I didn’t learn how to work late nights. Well, now I have a job that lets me get home by 7. That’s all I need. For now.