The opinion that companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home is an interesting one. Many people believe that this will lead to better results and company will benefit from this approach but these people overlook many other important aspect of this opinion. Further more this approach in the end is harmful for the company instead of creating value for it. I shall present arguments favoring the opinion that companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home and refuting opposite opinion.
There are many good reasons for opinion that Companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home. When employees take work at home or they stay late in office then it will result in more stress and lack of focus. I have seen similar thing when I worked for Indian IT companies. There people used to stay late in office. They will work 12- 16 hours per day and some times 48 hours non stop. I have realized that these people are good in doing a monotonous job but they are not effective. They will take more time in doing same job which can be done in much more effective way. On the otherhand when I looked at IT companies in Europe people do work for exact 8 hours every day and with full efficiency. They also produce a very good quality result. Infect I have worked in both situation and I have personally felt this.
When people start working extra hours then body will not be able to sustain this kind of stress and one day this may lead to a beak down. In Japan this was very common situation. People used to work days and nights and in order to suppress stress and fatigue they used to take a particular medicine which lead to serious break down rate of people on floor (railway stations, office any where). As results of these incidents govt had banned that drug.
However when I think about opposite opinion that will work in short term which means if any company ask any employee to work extra hour for 1-2 days in order to meet deadline this will have a positive impact but that trend should not be continued.
I have argued that companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home. This view is becoming more and more dominant in the coming century given intense competition among companies at global level. Many of these issues can never be resolved to everybody's satisfaction, but in the long run, promoting that every employee is human being and he /she should also have his/her personal life as well. We are working to live life not in other way.
There are many good reasons for opinion that Companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home. When employees take work at home or they stay late in office then it will result in more stress and lack of focus. I have seen similar thing when I worked for Indian IT companies. There people used to stay late in office. They will work 12- 16 hours per day and some times 48 hours non stop. I have realized that these people are good in doing a monotonous job but they are not effective. They will take more time in doing same job which can be done in much more effective way. On the otherhand when I looked at IT companies in Europe people do work for exact 8 hours every day and with full efficiency. They also produce a very good quality result. Infect I have worked in both situation and I have personally felt this.
When people start working extra hours then body will not be able to sustain this kind of stress and one day this may lead to a beak down. In Japan this was very common situation. People used to work days and nights and in order to suppress stress and fatigue they used to take a particular medicine which lead to serious break down rate of people on floor (railway stations, office any where). As results of these incidents govt had banned that drug.
However when I think about opposite opinion that will work in short term which means if any company ask any employee to work extra hour for 1-2 days in order to meet deadline this will have a positive impact but that trend should not be continued.
I have argued that companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home. This view is becoming more and more dominant in the coming century given intense competition among companies at global level. Many of these issues can never be resolved to everybody's satisfaction, but in the long run, promoting that every employee is human being and he /she should also have his/her personal life as well. We are working to live life not in other way.
