In my office, we had a couple of young folks join the Onsite
team. These guys were ‘Enthu-cutlets’, as we call them in Pune. Plus, they were
joining the ‘Onsite’ team, and if you are at all acquainted with the Indian IT
industry, you will know what a big thing that is! They came over with a will to
achieve and transform the project between the 2 of them! They were intelligent,
but inexperienced – and started working unsustainable schedules. Being an
Operations team, we always have something that needs to be done yesterday – so
that worked well for me to meet the Team’s SLAs! However, we could see the dangers
that lurked – burnout.. apathy.. I would often have 1:1 sessions with each of
them and make them aware of things like ‘work-life balance; but to no avail. They
were all set to do or die!
So, the long hours and working weekends continued. I could
see the strain showing, but when asked to slow down, my trusty steeds would obstinately
refuse. Until – something changed. One of the guys arranged for his wife to fly
over and join him here. She arrived and things were never the same again! He
was still sincere, still hard-working, but now, he realized the importance of
‘time-boxing’ his work. He knew he had someone waiting for him at home, and he
needed to finish on time. He started organizing his meetings and his tasks much
better. He ensured he was out of office by 5 latest. He started prioritizing
which meetings were necessary and which questions could be answered on email.
To my mind – he became a much more valuable and mature team member. To my mind –
this was an actual ‘Productivity Boost’. But this was not something I achieved
as a manager. This was something that was enabled by a completely intangible
human factor – technically outside of my team. For this person - it was his family, as it is for most. I know of companies which leverage outside-hometown postings
to drive longer work hours for employees. If you don’t have a family waiting at
home, you would definitely continue to work.. at office or at home. After all,
how many movies can you watch? Or Netflix? When you think of it, it is simple –
but rather Machiavellian, I fear!
And then it made me wonder – what are the other intangibles
that affect how a team / individual team members work? Tell me what comes to
your mind!
