Authored Article : Backward Bending Income-Curve to Adjust Work-Life-Balance

Authored Article : Backward Bending Income-Curve to Adjust Work-Life-Balance

When Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy advised Indian youth to work for 70-hours a week to boost the country's economy, there was a huge hue-and-cry and working-class reacted sharply, countering his advice. Many who understood the essence of what Narayana Murthy said, looked at the brighter side.?His advice got mixed reactions with some saying - it's too much to ask - while others threw their weight behind him. Just to mention, former President of India, late Dr. APJ Kalam, worked almost 18 hours a day, that makes 90 hours a week, and also practiced musical instrument Veena. “You have to dream before your dreams can come true. Time management is the key to success”, he always said.

But then, one has to dream to become Narayana Murthy or Dr. APJ Kalam and it’s not everyone’s cup-of-dream or is it that dreams have their choices too.

Imagine if over 100,000 startups and about 125 unicorns had decided to work for 9 hours a day, enjoying in-between, 2 hours of lunch-time, four-cups of tea – a mandatory break of 30 minutes each; India might not be heading for an economy of USD 5 trillion.?No wonder, this disruptive thinking by startups and unicorns has accumulated collective valuation of about USD 300 billion, creating millions of jobs as well.

All said and done, the post-Covid era has changed the life, life-style and value of work-life-balance. The ‘value-addition’ in corporate sector has changed to ‘value-of-life and well-being’. Being alive and working has become important than working and being alive. This disruptive thinking has severely dented the income-curve.

The fact-of-the-matter is that more than 65% of country’s working population is looking time for themselves, for the family and for bursting stress & anxiety. And out of this, about 25% are ready to negotiate on their salaries and perks. Enjoying too many challenges in job is a good statement while applying for a job, but not when appointed.

My suggestion would be to have another column in KRAs and KPIS of - how much time spent with the family, and it should be rated equally.

At one point, when an employee was happy devoting more than 8-9 hours a day to get an exceptional escalation in appraisal and CTC, is happy today taking a job that gives him space to consider his health, family-outings, time-with-children, and social get-togethers etc. You would find many employees switching-off their mobile-phones once they leave office, or do not attend office calls.

No wonder, it was never easy for the income-curve to move backward, but eventually it decided to move backward. This gave space for the work-life-balance-curve to move upward.

One can argue that the promoters of corporates - conglomerates and organizations have spent sleepless nights to build an empire providing jobs and livelihood to millions of people, and would continue to do so, but then, employees are not promoters. The thinking is different and so is the vision.

The essence of backward moving income curve can be contested and argued, as who doesn’t need abundance of money to live a good life; but the fact is, if you think so, be ready to devote your time and energy. Nothing comes free in life.


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