Stop Treating Employees as Bonded Labor

There are many laws and regulations for benefiting employees in India but most of the companies hardly pay any heed to them. Laws are meant to be broken. The face of the companies we see is quite different from reality. Most of the companies, that are considered to be the top-notch companies, and where many people dream of getting a job, have entirely different work mechanism that what is depicted through various media.
stop bonded labor

Erratic Work Schedules

Middle and higher-level employees are forced to work way beyond their working hours as they are given unrealistic targets or meetings are scheduled at odd hours so these people don’t have any option than to work, work, and work more. But an employer can never be happy. I think a happy boss is a myth or it’s just that I am overreacting. This article is not about me but all the Employees in general as experienced from the Eyes of a Human Resource Personnel.

late work

Trainee Torcher

A trainee or a Management Fresher is treated as badly as if he is an office boy and not a pass out of some good management institute where he has spent a hundred thousand bucks to get admission and other hundred thousand in name of tuition fees. You must have noticed that companies are willing to take Management Trainees but not Management Fresher.

The reason being, a management trainee will join your organization even without taking a monthly stipend (in some cases companies even charge from Trainees) and will do all the odd jobs without any complaint just to get a training certificate.  But when it comes to absorbing these trainees in their organization as an Employee, these companies step back. Although the cream of Management graduates mostly gets a good placement even they have to struggle a lot to make their way to the corporate ladder.

multi tasking employee

Work is Warship

If you are joining a private mid-size organization, forget about the peaceful life. Companies lookout for employees who can work day and night for them, with multiple workloads, without any complaint. For this, the term “Multi-Tasking” is used. So don’t fall prey to it. Ask your employer well in advance, to make you understand your key responsibilities and expectations from you. Most of the freshers, who are on the lookout for a job, say yes to all the conditions laid by the employers, to get a job, but find themselves stuck in their own commitments.

employees are not slaves

A Multi-Tasking Employee

Most of these mid-size organizations want an employee who can make excel sheets and proposals, get new business, can handle clients, manage multiple projects, follow up for payments, has knowledge of billing, and recruit a temporary workforce for a project if needed. The salary offered will certainly be less than the industry standard but the company wants him to do tasks of all departments on his own. Freshers mostly join these organizations because they don’t want their careers to spoil. They feel that after working for one year they will get a worthy hike in their salary or at least they can switch over to a new job.

Professional Possession

Mind it; professionals are in no better condition. A Manager is given a team of 10 people, all underpaid, so you cannot expect all of them to be fully dedicated towards the company. Then you are given unrealistic targets to achieve that makes you work day and night for it. I have seen many times that an employer likes to discuss the project only when the employee is about to leave for home. Is this always a co-incidence?

Punctuality

An employee who is punctual about coming to the office is regarded well. But forget about all the respect if you plan to leave the office at 5:30 PM. You will be treated like an irresponsible employee who does not have “enough” work to do. Thus next day you will be given an additional project to handle along with the existing project in hand, or you will be called to “discuss” a few important things at 5:20 PM. 

More Time is not equal to Increased Productivity

Does an employer really think, these all tricks will increase the productivity of the employees? No, it will just add to the frustration level and they will grab the next job offer they get. Sitting late in the office does not make an employee productive. I am certainly not saying that there should not be any time-bound limit for the employees.  As an HR I understand the importance of punctuality and time limits. But there is something called flexible working hours, work-life balance that Employers should not only read but implement as well. A happy employee is a treasure for a company.

Conclusion

Once an employer is able to build a trust relationship with his employee, then he does not have to care about the performance because the employee is himself aware of the fact and will do work diligently to maintain and sustain this relationship forever. So employers should consider laying some policies which are beneficial for both sides and that leads to a strong employer-employee relationship.