After a hardwork and serious studies of 4 years, my friends and I got our Economics degrees from the University of Karachi. Before jumping into the job market we were all afraid of our future because we had heard stories that in Pakistan, good jobs are only landed by using bribery, influence (sifarish) or other unfair means.
On the contrary, soon enough, most of my University buddies landed themselves good jobs in banking sector which paid them handsomely with attractive perks and all on merit. So it came as a blessing and good surprise that most of us got decent jobs without any unethical means.
At present, most of my friends qualify as part of the burgeoning middle-class, which has been progressing decently by earning good money. They live in comfortable houses, their kids go to good schools, they travel in cars leased from the loans from their banks and they eat fast food. To sum it all up they have the status and the lifestyles that remains a dream of millions of other Pakistanis.
Life is imperfect though. My friends also have their share of problems which is affecting their lives in one way or the other. In most cases, these problem occur due to creeping work hours. In the begining they look harmless and go unnoticed, because they are accepted as a norm of corporate life in Pakistan. But slowly but surely cracks began to appear in the fabric of family life. Earning men and women in Pakistan now find themselves spending more and more time in office and less and less time with thier spouses and children.
Some say it is the norm of corporate culture; Some say it is the way their bosses want them to live their office-lives and some say it is nothing but the way things work in a salaried society. But I want to call it exploitation. Exploitation of making employees sit late in the offices to work like a bullock in fields. The work hours now go well after their scheduled 9-5 timing.
Sitting late in the office is making people perpetually tired and irritated. Wives are getting enormous burden of caring for the whole family without due support from their husbands. It is disturbing the balance at home and can lead to lot more severe repercussions. More and more, wives alone are helping children to do well in studies in stiffer competitions at schools; they do shopping for the whole family including their hubbies alone; they drive cars to pay utility bills and look for plumbers, electricians and what they get at the end of the day? A sleepy and tired husband irked after long and tiring day at job which usually spans around 12-15 hours.
I have come across several people in private companies who work untill midnight just because their companies look to get bulk of work done with the lean work force. In some offices, bosses like to sit late in the offices just to show how efficient and effective they. This puts extra pressure on the staff who also tend to stay late and don’t want to appear as those who dare to leave before the boss.
My brother works in a renowned Pharmaceutical Company where work hours stretch to days. My family has seen him spending nights in the offices sleeping on the office desks because they have to finish a project no matter how and no matter what. Recently, I heard from my brother that one of his colleagues quit the job because his parents, and especially his sick mother couldn’t bear his late sittings after what happened with peace and law in recent months in our country.
Money is important. There is no argument against it. But one should not get so blindedsighted in the greed of it that we fail to understand that money is good only when we can have time to spend and enjoy it.
As increased numbers of heart diseases and heart attacks in Pakistani males has something to do with the kind of culture that prevails at our workplaces. Enormous pressures of getting the most out of our jobs to give better futures to our children are making men and women of Pakistan, money-making machines. Our marriages are also getting disturbed by this trend because wives think of themselves as maids who were brought from their parents houses to tender to husband and his family single-handedly. Children are also getting used to the fact that they have only one person to tell each and everything and that is their mothers because their fathers are always in the office.
We need to understand this and stop this exploitation at the hands of our organizations because we are their employees not their slaves.
Photo Credits: Flickr.com
ATP post on Similar topic: Job Security in Corporate Pakistan
It is not in foreign countries to work in office late night. I t happens only bin pakistan
Our Changing Corporate Culture Creates eXploitation. Remember, Its not a one way traffic. One who enters in the wrong way should bear the consequences either its an Employee or the Employer, Decision matters.
Ahsan feels the Change & point it out for all of us, Employees & The Employers. We should negotiate & understand eachother, We Should negotiate & understand ourselves.
May Almighty Allah Bless Us All
It is heartening to see young people feeling discomfort with unbridled capitalism … :)
I started my own blog. Your comments will be appreciated.
Well, I almost read all the comments, I work in a bank (i wont mention name here) recently got my job (5 months back) and there is no late sitting at all, I have left an organization (a software house) who runs 24×7 in my 2 years of job over there my personal and social life was destroyed my all friends were asking to come n enjoy get together but I was always saing i cant b/c of my job, well what i observe in such organization where u have to work in shifts like evening (5 to 1:30am) and night (1:30 to 9:30 am) and morning (9 to 6pm) all the time one can jsut think when i reach home n get sum sleep get up n get ready for office, life sucks….. my family was keep asking me to stay with us for sum hours at home but i cant…. i left that job even they were asking me if the double my salary but i said noooo i dont want to work here….. but now i thank God i reach at home till 6pm have lots of time to sit with my family members… the guys who sit late in offices without any reason r for TC :) n nothing more then that i have noticed that ….. well guy all is about time management n dedication Allah is there to open ways for u. i was shocked after reading that guy post studied in america for 16 years n saying please help me to get job in Pak.. my God v r much better then……..
Young man you are lucky. You were able to get jobs with Economics degree. Think of people in late sixtees and seventees who were cream of the crop with engineering and medical degrees who roamed the streets for months without any job. They eventually ended up in US and Europe.
Having worked in Saudi for a local arab Sheikh, Egypt, England, Pakistan, Canada, USA, and South Korea, I found the hardest place to work is South Korea. Koreans have the longest work week with an average of 56 hours compared to Scandinavians of about 30 hours per week.