Find your sweet spot

I have grown up seeing my dad always being busy. He was not the kind of busy where he was struggling for time but he had set things in such a way that being busy was pretty normal. He was possibly one among many people of his generation who had nothing as his inheritance, he had to earn his living by working hard.?

?The typical week of my dad was that he used to leave house at around 8:30 am, reach his office before 9 ( this was when Bengaluru did not have traffic problems), getting set for his cases that day - yes, he was a lawyer in High Court of Karnataka. Once he completed the work in court, he mostly used to come back to his office in the evening to meet up with clients or prepare for the next day. After he was done with office work, he would return home at around 9 - 9:30 pm. This was the routine for 6 days a week and on Sundays he would go to office a little late - at around 9 :15 am and be back home at around 1:30 in the afternoon. We never counted the number of hours per week that he worked and I was pretty certain that he did not count it too even though he was a labor lawyer and he was almost always thinking and working on laws related to labor class ( employee).?

?The best part of all the hard work is that he never complained about his work and I have not seen him tell that he is tired. Please note that he continued with this routine till he was in his 80s or till Covid forced changes in the way everyone worked. Even we ( his family members) never felt that he is overworked since he went about working with a purpose, willingly and cheerfully. After the initial years, the work routine was not even about money, it was the way of life. He did not work for a salary since he was an independent private lawyer. It was all self driven.?

?With Narayan Murthy’s 70 hours and Subramanyam’s 90 hours a week related debate/ controversy, I just ended up reflecting upon my dad’s routine which fell in between 70 and 90 hours a week. I cannot possibly understand the drivers behind others but as far as my dad is concerned, I can clearly say that he did his work for the joy of it and never considered working as pain.?

?If I reflect on my own working, I don’t know if I can compare it the same way as my dad’s working was. Being in software and in management, it is difficult to tell when I am not working. Either I am thinking about work or working… well, thinking is also part of work. There has been many times when I have had bingo moment about work when I am on holiday. Working continuously may lead to the possibility that one can get stuck to a particular pattern of thinking which may not help for innovation but it will be certainly helpful if one has to go to the depths of a particular topic to understand. It certainly depends on the kind of work one does. On what kind of work I do, I will pick and choose the pattern. Either way, putting a number in terms of hours seems out of place to me although it is clearly over 40 hours per week.?

Whether it is lawyer or a software professional or a typical management professional where thinking and working does not have well set boundaries, the concept of number of hours per week seems off. However, If we end up comparing the 70/90 hours theory to factory kind of set up, it will possibly turn out to be inhuman. Among all others, my father would be possibly the first person to point out to me the ills of getting people to work beyond stipulated hours both in terms of legality as well as humanity.???We don’t have to go back many years to see many examples of upheavals emanating over the working hours and working conditions and rightfuly so.?

?I heard Anand Mahindra talk about quality of work against quantity of work when asked about the debate/controversy of 70/90 hours a week. I find myself in a strange position that I am actually in agreement with all of them in terms of quality and quantity. I find it strange position because I also disagree with these distinguished gentlemen since I feel the basis of the problem seems to be a thought process which says “work” is pain. Anything beyond what is legally stipulated should be individual’s call. Borrowing from my father, I can say that my work is in fact pleasure and not pain. I don’t see why one needs to count hours if you are in pleasure. You possibly need to count hours to get it over with only if you are in pain. I do understand that it is naive to think that everyone are working in things that they love to do. Looking at the amount of trolls that Narayan Murthy and Subramanyam received gives me a feeling that there are a lot of people out there who are not doing their work as a pleasure. With a few exceptions here and there all are working to earn a living ( me included and there is nothing wrong in it??and totally understandable)- it would be best that we earn our living by working on things that we love to work in or have a larger purpose to work which will possibly take up beyond counting hours. I may be thinking about a utopian idea about everyone living happily ever after but I feel there is no harm in thinking in those lines since it gives a purpose.

Each person is unique, drivers are different so it is best we find our purpose. If one is not there yet, best to strive to get there no matter how many hours a week it takes.