Pixiq Technologies Hyderabad

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Love your job but don't love your company

LOVE YOUR JOB BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY

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 influencial people in Asia
according the latest Asiaweek publication. He is also the new IT
advisor 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 awake.

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

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