A typical scene at an MNC’s new Asian branch – you start out as a part of a team of fifteen members meant to migrate a certain operation from some foreign country, sometimes US, sometimes UK and occasionally other countries to your own. A delegation of foreigners comes down to you and the training begins. At the end of the training, they set down some reasonable set of targets for you to achieve.
Gradually, the work starts. The delegation supervising your work is pleased with your work and they are even more pleased about the fact that you are working for one third or maybe the one fourth of the salary that they have to offer to their own countrymen back in that branch. They are exalted by your performance and smile down benevolently at you. But soon that smile is about to turn into a snicker!
The team is young, full of talent but badly prone towards monotone and hungry for money. One fine day, one employee does double the work he is supposed to do. The overall team’s productivity is far more than expected. The smiling foreigners convert their smile into a snicker and send down words of praise. The team leader is happy. He decides to thank the one person who is responsible for this. He announces a decent award for the person and felicitates him.
If one had the power to hear the thoughts in someone’s mind and you decide to focus on one youngster’s thoughts, this is what you might hear. “The bugger does not even know how to use a keyboard. And here he is getting an award for a lucky stroke. Let me show him what truly work is!” And off he starts on a mission to beat the productivity record hence set. The scene then shifts to X o’ clock. Everybody is prepared to leave as usual except one. The same man whose mind we read earlier is still hammering at his keyboard. He has forgotten his thirst, he has forgotten his hunger, has forgotten to take his breaks, has forgotten the limitations of his wrist and heck he has forgotten that he has a home.
The manager finishes his meeting and starts to leave. As he walks, his eyes suddenly fall on that one cubicle which is not empty. And there he notices a man working his way through to the glory he wants to attain. He smiles to himself. A part of him feels like telling, “What are you doing at this hour? Go home!” But suddenly he remembers is a part of the money world and says to himself, “There is the key to my success”
The scene now shifts to the felicitation function of the team. Who will be awarded the best performer of the month? Two winners! The last one awarded for repeating his performance and the new one. The manager gives the speech – “…Mr. X and Mr. Y have set exemplary working standards that all of you must aim to achieve…” The scene now shifts to the one-one performance analysis meeting best known as an appraisal. And the conversation goes as follows:
Manager: You are doing well but surely you can do better. Employee: I will try but I am not sure if I can do it. Manager: But, look at X and look at Y. They are doing amazing work. You should learn from them and match the standard of work they are setting.
Employee: [blank face]
Manager: They are getting good ratings from the company. You should aim for this as well. Performance is of utmost importance. I shall give a moderate rating now and I hope to give you an excellent rating next time, ok? Employee: Fine. I shall try.
The employee gets back to work. Youngster he is with responsibilities on his shoulder, he works harder than ever to elevate the standard. The manager gets a solid feedback from his foreign supervisors. The statistics of performance are staggering! And the scene now shifts to the once smiling foreigners who are now in snickering mode. A financial analyst reports the massive savings the company amassed. And then the CEO says, “Why stop there? Let us aim to save more! How about migrating that process completely to that team? They are doing one heck of a job!” “Sure!” is the unanimous response.
And as time passes, the work load on the superb fifteen increases. A great portion of the team has been infected with the pressure of performing. The manager is full of words of praise for the “upper cream” and announces more and more work. The pressure is on, especially on those who did not change their standard to match that set by X and Y. That standard has been pronounced as something common instead of special. Everyone is expected to abide by it.
The team of the superb fifteen is now being pushed to the very limits. There is no personal life. Murmurs of unrest can now be heard. The cost cutting drive has also been enforced full time. The managers have started to give mementos as opposed to cash prizes to reward exemplary performance. The standard of the team outings has been lowered, heck sometimes there is not time for a team outing. The managers realize the need of expanding the team to meet the higher work load but the budget has been cut. The managers are trying to outdo each other in terms of saving money.
And finally a new process is all set to be migrated to a new team, another set of youngsters blinded by thirst and hunger for money. But only this time, the foreigners have come up with a better way of migrating a process. Ask somebody from the target country to come, learn and then go back and train. One man is chosen. And he is definitely not the one who is giving exemplary performance. Why would they send him? If he leaves, then who will do the mammoth and crazy amount of work he is doing?
The selected man is all excited. He gets to go to a foreign nation and stay there. He is all bags packed and rearing to go. After having reached his destination, it is now his first day at the office. He has his eyes wide open studying the work culture of his new foreign colleagues. And the firs thing he notices is that they are meeting all their targets. Which targets? Oh, not the crazy targets we have set for ourselves back home but the original targets set initially. It is sharp X o’ clock and all pack up and leave. It feels a bit strange for this man to see an empty office at X o’clock. He is too used to stretching for long hours, it seems.
The comfort of the foreign colleagues and the balance they strike between their personal life and the work life is creating thoughts of torment in the mind of this man. He realizes how ignorant he and his colleagues back home had been. Earning huge scores of money but not even having the time off to spend it. Money with which they could afford a world tour but not even having the time to visit a local park! Money with which they could buy the most expensive Home Theater but no time to watch! Money to booze all weekend but no weekend to booze!
He returns home and tells his colleague about his revelation. The revelation spreads by word of mouth. And the people who have been through hell open their eyes and see the truth. They now know how much truly they should work and begin to learn the secret of balance. The managers realize but not too much worried as there is a whole new generation of ignorant fools all set to enter their world waiting to be exploited. And this always leaves half people blind enough to fall for these tricks, half people showing their hand in despair since nothing seems to be changing and the exploitation lives.
It is best we try to spread awareness of this exploitation. It is good that we guide the younger ones around us about the dangers of the exploitation invited!