LOVE YOUR JOB BUT ....

An interesting speech delivered by a CEO of a premier IT company in India
during an employee session with another IT company in India. He is
incidentally one of the top 50 influential people in Asia according to the
latest Asia Week publication. He is also the new IT adviser to the Thai
Prime Minister.

Extract of Mr Narayana Murthy's Speech during Mentor Session:

LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY BCOZ U NEVER KNOW WHEN COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU - Narayana Murthy

I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more. Some
people do so because of a work emergency where the long hours are only
temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I don't
know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are in the
office this long.

Others put in long office hours because they are addicted to the workplace.

Whatever the reason for putting in overtime, working long hours over the
long term is harmful to the person and to the organization.

There are things manager can do to change this for everyone's benefit

Being in the office long hours, over long period of times, makes way
for potential errors. My colleagues who are in the office long hours
frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes
requires their time as well as the time and energy of others. I have
seen people work Tuesday through Friday to correct mistakes made
after 5PM on Monday.

Another problem is that people who are in the office long hours are
not pleasant company. They often complain about other people (who
aren't working as hard); they are irritable, or cranky or even angry.
Other people avoid them. Such behavior poses problems, where work
goes much better when people work together instead of avoiding one
another. As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave
the office.

First and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I
work with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His
words quickly lose their meaning when he sends these chiding group
emails with a time-stamp of 2am. Sunday.

Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives. For
instance, here is a guideline I find helpful:-

1) Wake up, eat a good breakfast and go to work.
2) Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3) Go home
4) Read the books/comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the dirt,
play with your kids, etc
5) Eat well and sleep well

This called recreating, Doing Steps 1,3, 4 and 5 enable 2.

Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They
are hard for some of us because that requires 'personal change'.
They are possible since we all have the power to choose to do them.
In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my oldest son.
When he was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he
would not fall asleep no matter how long the visit, and no matter
what time of day it was. He would fight off sleep until the visitors
left, It was as if he was afraid that he would miss something. Once
our visitor's left, he would go to sleep, By this time, however, he
was over tired and would scream half the night with nightmares. He,
my wife and I, all paid the price for his fear of missing out.

Perhaps, some people put in such long hours because they don't want
to miss anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this is
that events will never stop happening. That is life. Things happen 24
hours a day.

Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap.
Things will happen while you're asleep, but you will have the energy
to catch up with you wake.

Hence, "LOVE YOUR JOB BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY".