Working beyond office hours - IT Culture in India

Working beyond office hours is not at all a good culture !! Absolutely true... but i am not fully agree with you... there is a famous saying "When everybody end the day, then the managers starts working !!"... Irrespective of managers stay the whole day with their subordinates, still they need to work... prepare for the next day... etc... etc... Similarly, for the juniors after working hors the work basically stops and the learnings begin... that the time the individual spend time to sharpen himself/herself... but one thing is that you should not carry your office work to your home... once you are out of office then its your personal time that you need to take care of !! Its not every time your personal will get the highest priority... sometimes give priority to your work also... at least till the time you are not married !

Well... its is one of the worst work place practices that I've seen....I definitely do not support it... not as a routine.... Everyday taxing yourself for 10 hrs or more is too much. And its adverse effects?? Recent studies are actually pointing out the burn out factor that Indian programmers suffer.... when working in India..... The occasional deadline or critical issue may require you to work beyond hours... but a regularity at this is alarming... and can point to many a disturbing fact, the real reason being obscured by the lack of clarity in this situation. Probable reasons are as have already been pointed out.... it can be anything.... how can we ascertain which one is true?? My colleagues in UK actually call back to say that there if work hour ends at 6, it means 6..... they might actually drag you out of office for a drink, if you choose to stay back.... its like a rarity, an emergency act!! And that's how the concept should be treated in India... unfortunately I don't see that happen..... Just about every other weekend, I hear on of my friend staying back at office for some stupid reason or teh other... and thats irrespective of their location of employer.... its true all across the industry... thanfully, i have been able to put my foot down on this, and thus have done so very rarely!!

I feel, that people in IT these days are youngesters that have nothing to do outside their work life. So they tend to prolong their stay in the office where they get free coffee, cool rooms, and access to the internet. I dont know if these companies pay overtime cuase mine does not as the work given to us can definetely be finished in the allotted time. So only if they ask us to stay behind we get overtime. As a result, we always go home on time, as we finish our work. People without families in their work city, tend to forget that others have families and then the managers think that the person working overtime is really working hard which might actually translate into they having a ball during working hours and slogging it after hours. The ones who leave on time might get affected as they could be labeled as not hardworking as they leave office "EARLY" (which is infact the correct time.

I think it depends on the person and the company here in the US. Some people aren't allowed to stay late and others do if they are allowed overtime. People tend to worry more about getting home than helping someone out. Not everyone, I have ran into some great customer service workers here in the US but not many. I was an IT professional in Japan and there were basically two rules: 1. No one leaves until the boss leaves - this is an unwritten rule because it could make others look bad in his eyes. Mostly they are paranoid. 2. Stay until all of your work is complete or your customer is happy. I worked for KDDI in Japan for 3 years and while I was authorized for overtime, I would also stay late on my own dime just to implement new database features or something similar because I really cared about my work. After that I worked in the US as an IT helpdesk g33k and while our boss's attitude was like, "They don't pay y'all enough to stay late!" I would stay to finish helping someone. It has to do with my personal work ethics and not receiving overtime, while it sucked, wasn't that important when I had unfinished business.

i thk becoz everyone wants more money and one get a handful of money in these IT jobs so noone bother about the working hours and when anybody has the interest in coding then he himself didn't realize how much time he is spending on his computer.

My views on this are simply that Job Descriptions and responsibilities are written for the the job to be undertaken in the hours listed under that description. There may be occasions when it is not possible for the work to be done in the time available in which case an employee may decide to stay and help to cover that work. They should be under no obligation to do so, and more importantly if they do stay then they should be compensated in some way for it, be it time in lieu, or payment. Work is a means to an end, we work to create an income and to live a fulfilling and varied life. We should care about the organisations that we work for, for it is their success that maintains our employment. However, the reason you are paid for work is because the employer is buying your time from you in order to help the company profit and succeed. Good management leads to a flexible approach to work, and one that understands that human beings are not robots, a motivated, happy workforce coupled with a flexible friendly working environment will be the key for a company to suceed. Senior managers may be expected as part of their pre-defined job description, to do additional hours in order to ensure jobs are completed, but it should be recognised that they have lives too and additional hours should not become a daily occurance.

This is the problem with us.We Indians want to satisfy our MNC at any cost and do as they say.Why don't we say we can't work beyond 8 hrs,look one simple logic why do they come here and operate,coz they know we work beyond our limits and as you have mentioned any human can work only certain period of time beyond that it is use less no matter what you think i will never do.We are supposed to work on our holidays too.What a shame.

Well indeed in countries mostly in asia, longer working hours are given to employees and that is due to mis-management of work and not being able to fully utilize your resources or to get additional ones. But however most multinational companies are good and fair and they do give good salary and overtime if you have to do more work. Well the change will eventually come but it will take some time.

I guess it is becoming a trend nowadays not only in India but all over the world. The demand for IT people are growing stronger and there's not enough people to hire around so they are being forced to work extended hours. I guess there will come a time for the person to really break from this kind of routine or it may show up negtively on his/her health later on. It is understandable that the IT industry is thriving anywhere.

I think this largely depends on the individual. If you take me for example, once I am into a project, I never think of anything else, maybe around 15-18 hours a day, I can work, that too comfortably, without strain, also every person has a time when he is very active, I am mostly nocturnal, very active at night, that might not the actual office hours. So it's up to him. But there should be a provision in the corporate to allow employees to have the liberty of when to work and relax, subject to they don't misuse it.

I guess that is the nature of work in most fields now. People are compelled to work extra hours due to the extremly high workload and due to the very competitive nature of work now. You are always expected to prove yourself and prove how much committed you are through working late everyday. I have experienced this with the United Nations which drove me crazy and I began to illicit some physical illnesses that resulted from overworking and that's why I simply quit my job. Now, i work somewhere elese where they respect office hourse more than the UN, even though they do not entirely stick to it.

I have been working with this industry for about 7 mounths now. What I can say is working late hours become a habit with time. Usually at peak times in project u are always in pressure to deliver on time, so we overwork. Even when the pressure is not too much and everything is going fine then also due to habit only we stay late.... If a person staying late till 9pm everyday, leaves at 6 someday then he might feel like doing the biggest mistake of his life...

I too agree with. Human brain can work at maximum efficiency level for not more than 4 hours at a stretch and that is the reason why we have our lunch break when we can release our stress. Probably half an hour of nap will further increase the efficiency of the employee. But working more than 10 hours is a waste of both company's time and employee's time.

I do agree with you. I am 6 years old in software indurstry and its sad that I am still working beyond office hours. It so happens that you have to work to finish your job. Its not that people are inefficient but the problem comes when the work of 3 months is expected in 1 month. In our field its called bad estimation. I advice my team not to work beyond office hours but sad that they have to coz of the work pressure. Because of this there is not family life. This is not the case in other countries, they just leave office on dot and they dont even care. I dont know when will we adopt that working culture. Hmmm just waiting..........

They must be working hard for if they have overtime pay. I think singles tend to be more workaholic and no families to go home too. Yeah i think the brain can do mistakes beyond our peeks hours of the individual. I think I agree with this if I couldn't eat overtime.

the culture is such.....there is no concept of work life balance.....only weekends are meant for family....everywhere its 9am to 9 pm..

I have never had a job that did not require me to work between 50 and 70 hours each week. I have always been a manager and I always get pissed off when it seems that this is expected. I never expect my people to work more than normal. There is a double standard.

working late hours is not a good culture... but the reason u said for late working is that the company prduces a short deadline to satisfy the customer and the entire problem is put upon the employee's head... they are paid for their work very good in a good company but in small compamy their hard work is not recognised...

most IT Field people are workoholic. And they can't find time to live. Just thinking about money and Money and Money.

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa