Recently, a young, fresh graduate who joined the company a month ago resigned without giving any notice. She was with the R & D Dept. Reason? She needs her life back! Why? She was working more than 60 hrs a week although the contract of employment required her to work 45 hrs per week with a simple clause saying, "to work extra hours if required". This means additional 3 hours per day!
My former university mate who works as an accountant for a giant multinational once told me not to disturb her last week of every month till the 1st week of the following month. Month-end closing, need to submit financial report to parent company in USA. What disturbing me was the fact that she would stay back till 11.oopm just to finish her report, including weekends. I am not only worry for her health but her safety as well.
My present workplace not so long ago introduced the so-called executive excess hour allowance for management staff to reduce the high turnover of manpower due to work overstress. Although money does matter when one has to work stretched hours, but as what the fresh graduate said, money can’t buy life! I would rather appreciate that the management would look into how to keep the working hour of all employees at 45 hours per week or even flexi-working hours. For eg, is the long hour attributed by shortage of manpower, or because of ridiculous deadline, or the before-5-pm assignment or just simply because of too-much-work.
That said, a phone call to my counterpart in Australia would be greeted with an answering machine for any calls made after 5.00pm local time. On the contrary, any phone call to my counterpart in Japan would always be answered even if you call after 9.00 p.m local time. While overtime might be an alien word in the European or Oceania countries, I must say that it is the Asian culture to work long hours.
Well, that leaves me wondering, are the money that we are getting for this kind of working hours worth it? The long working hours not only deprive us of our health, but also the quality time with our family. There are people whom I knew personally, who had a high-ranking position, collapsed in the office due to heart related problem and eventually passed away. The company easily found a replacement while their families could never have their papa back.
Ask ourselves, do we want to live this kind of pathetic lifestyle until our retirement? Do we want our children to grow up with papa and mama who are so near yet so far? Are our working and family life well balanced? Think about it wisely. You have a choice and decision is all yours!