- We spend more than 56% of our life in our offices.
- We are highly influenced by the environment at our workplace instead of that at our homes.
- Unless we improve our standard of working, we will not be able to improve our standard of living.
Table of Contents
(Disclaimer: The Author has a deep respect towards every form of nature, well it be humans or animals.)
Story behind the Model
Recently, I was working with a big retail brand (at least in terms of image) at their outlet in one of top-notch shopping malls in Pune.This brand has a huge customer base in its own niche and is very popular with every urban citizen of India.The brand is thought to be one of the premium channels operating in the modern trade format with a presence across the nation.Now, this was a sumptuous and premium store of 2474 square feet where one end was not visible from the other end.
You, I believe, already have an idea of how every brand stores look in terms of aesthetics.
Prior to joining the company, I knew that I was to be deployed at this store which they called their flagship store in Pune.
The store was well designed, architecturally, looking at all the interests of a walk-in customer.
It was well lit & polished with racks & gondolas all over the floor guiding customers towards products.
Hence, I believed that being such an enormous store that operates in LFR (large format retail) setting, there will be obvious basic facilities for employees such as a pantry or a backroom.
On the very first day of my work, I entered the store proudly and went ahead to the other end of the store to keep my bag as I saw a door (probably of a backroom).
I opened the door in a hope of entering a backroom comprising of a set of tables & chairs for employees to have lunch or to sit at break hours.
Also, I had already visualised a cabin for a store manager with a cubicle for the inventory manager as well.
But wait! This was not the scene there.
Instead, I encountered a 6 ft x 8 ft room that contained 15-20 boxes of inventory, a small water dispenser bottle kept on the floor which seemed to be never mopped and a chair trying hard to fit in somewhere.
As all these was not enough for such a tiny space (I’ll never call this a room for sure), there was an iron rack that seemed to collapse at any moment containing boxes, hardware, and other things which seemed never required in future.
Also, there were things like broom, wet mop, dry mop, bucket filled with filthy water, a huge UPS machine making a weird noise and a wall cabinet of approx 100 switches of store lights and connections.
I stood there for a minute or two trying to figure out what was this space actually.
Was it a backroom, a warehouse, a pantry, a UPS room, or a dump yard ?
No, but it was neither of them or it was all of them in a space of 6 x 8 feet.
The first impressions that came to my mind were, “haven’t this company had human employees before I joined or did it actually forget about its employees while laying out the store planogram?”
“Or the company even knows that employees are humans who require at least a hygienic room to sit and have lunch? Forget about a backroom and a cabin for the store manager.”
“How was the previous store manager doing at the store for so many months?”
“Did the upper management tried to think about their employees at this store?”
“Who is the person or the team responsible for devising such a stupid store planogram which gave no sh*t for employees?”
“What actually is the company into? Only making cash and filling their quotas of profit?”
The store is making a business of 20-25L monthly, the profit margin is 50% average on all products, and the salary of each employee is not more than average 11K monthly (except me as a Store Manager and above), then where is all the cash going?”
Yes, the company today has its expansion agenda at the PAN India level and also I am aware of the losses every company registered due to Covid lockdowns past two years.
But the covid scenario was not at all present when the store plano was drafted and when the store was constructed.
Also, the expansion plan of any company shouldn’t come at a cost of its own employees’ basic facilities and wellbeing.
I suggest that such companies should hire donkeys instead of humans who will work the hard way without ever demanding for hygiene and other basic facilities.
Why trouble taking interviews and wasting money on humans when donkeys will only need to eat instead of taking salaries.
Coming down to employee facilities, where the global trend is going upwards day by day, this company stands nowhere.
Apart from the absence of a pantry, backroom, warehouse, store manager cabin, and even a seating arrangement in the whole damn store, there were many other facilities missing.
Employees never got their salary slips, senior employees who were a part of the company for so many years didn’t even get their appointment letters!
Employees didn’t have anything like PF, ESI, Mediclaim, etc.
They never got any masks, gloves, etc. from the company which are crucial necessities in this worldwide Covid scenario.
And during this time of IT age where even a local shop owner has an attendance tracking App for his shop labour, this company registered its employees’ attendance in an excel sheet. LoL!
I spent my days there thinking every day that what the company and the management are doing with all the cash if they are not spending a fraction for their employee wellbeing.
And as you can now expect, I quit the company within two months.
Need for the Model
This incident has made me realise and devise a concept of what follows in this post.
Every individual wants to raise his/her lifestyle standard or the way of living.
Also, the same goes for every other corporate and business entity.
They want to sustainably raise their profites, standards of operating, work environment, organisational culture, public relations, etc.
And as a matter of fact, every company is nothing but a set of individuals working towards a common goal.
These individuals desperately need and deserve a better way of living at offices.
The employees can earn money from offices and raise their standards in their personal life, however, the emphasis here is more on improving life at offices (work-life).
Because we are now spending more than 56.25% of our life in our offices (9 out if 16 hrs*) and raising our life standard will not help much if we won’t raise our work-life standard.
We stay out of our homes working for money and only come home to dine & sleep.
We are today what we are, not because of the culture in our families, but because of the work environment at our offices.
In such a scenario, a huge emphasis should be on improving work-life standards.
Because unless and until we don’t improve the standard of working, ultimately we will not be able to improve our standard of living.
Improving our work-life standard is a prerequisite for improving our personal life standard.
(*24 hrs – 8 hrs sleep = 16 hrs)
The “E-E-E” Model for Work-Life Standard
1. Improving Work-Life Standard at an “Essential” level
a. Infrastructural Essentials: Employees are humans, and humans need to eat food.
They need to take breaks and sit for a while to recharge their batteries.
They need to keep their belongings such as bags, uniforms, etc.
They need to use washrooms and clean their hands and faces.
For this purpose, there should be a well-laid pantry, backroom and a staff-only washroom with a focus on space and hygiene.
If 3 such rooms are not possible, there should be at least 1 room big enough to be divided into pantry, backroom & washroom.
All employees ought to have access to quality & safe drinking water and air, if not food (office canteen).
Also, there should be safety equipment such as a first aid box, fire extinguishers, and the like.
Having such equipment only will not work if there is no training about how to use the same.
An office is no office if there is no such space and infra for employees, especially female employees.
These spaces are not to decorate the interiors of an office but to actually enable employees to have quality break times and re-energise themselves which will ultimately boost their productivity.
This will not only benefit employees but employers as well in the long run.
If employees are not energetic or are frequently leaving their offices to take long breaks, it is for sure going to hamper the company’s performance today or tomorrow.
b. HR Essentials: Employees are a part of an organisation, and an organisation should treat them as such.
They should be empowered with a self-help portal (preferably a smartphone App) where they can retrieve their Appointment Letters, ID Cards, Salary Slips, Attendance Data, etc.
Also, here they should be allowed to raise leave applications, training requests, attendance regularisations, complaint registrations, and other such support tickets.
These things are not privileges for an employee but are basic rights of them for being a part of the company and contributing towards its goals.
There should be proper attendance tracking systems, training sessions, incentive programs, recognitions & rewards, appraisal systems, referral programs and the like.
There should be no employee without PF contributions, ESI or Mediclaims, Reimbursements, Dearness Allowances, etc.
Here, I am not diving deep into any of these parameters for the sake of reader convenience and space.
There are much quality research on these topics as well as magazines & newsletters such as HBR, Business Inc., Forbes, etc.
Every company should leverage these freemium resources to incorporate basic necessities for an employee.
Because 20 happy employees are equal to 80 unhappy ones.
Companies should follow good HR practices for their employee well-being as well as their own sake of business performance.
Last but not least, every company should rename & revamp its Human Resources department to Human Capital department.
c. Process Essentials: A company is just a group of people if it doesn’t have a well defined hierarchical structure and SOPs.
If there are no proper mechanisms enforcing employees to be well-groomed and well-disciplined towards the company, customers, stakeholders and of course towards each other, then the doom of such an organisation is not far.
Every company ought to have proper grievance departments such as POSH and should conduct “Open House” at least quarterly.
The rules and disciplines at the office are the only things that align the behaviour of employees towards the expected vision, mission and culture of a company.
Lack of such process essentials always leads to chaos at the office which destroys employee as well as employer wellbeing.
2. Improving Work-Life Standard at an “Environmental” level
a. Organisational Environment: The demanding nature of today’s result-oriented companies have deteriorated the quality of the organisational environment as a whole.
The organisational environment is nothing but a culture that runs throughout every structural level of a company.
The quality of the environment will always be poor and the rate of attrition will always be high in a company where there prevails organisational politics, discrimination, doppelganger phenomenon, emotional decisions, and other such malpractices.
Such a type of organisational environment portrays the company as a hypocrite towards its published vision and mission hampering public relations as well.
An organisational environment is a thing every CEO / MD should keep a check on.
No employee will remain happy in a company where the environment is suffocated at the corporate level.
The disintegration of such a company is the only future that awaits.
b. Office Environment: If the organisational environment is a tree then the office environment is the branches that grow towards unchecked directions.
Also, it is a reflection of the organisational environment with its own mutations.
The office environment is a thing that gradually imbibes into an employee’s demeanour.
The basic reason behind most of the cases of domestic violence is nothing but a bad day at the office.
An employee stays more than 50% of his/her working life at the office, making the office more than his/her home.
The influence of office ambience is always seen at home by the way of behaviour and communication of a service professional.
The above-mentioned infra and process essentials are of what use if the environment at the office is toxic?
If there prevail unrecognised efforts and frequent burnouts, how can an employee feel to contribute more?
If there are unhealthy competitions in the office and the team, how will there be synergised productivity?
Also, on the other side, if there are love affairs blooming within employees, how can they be focused on their work and projects?
If office environment is polluted, there will be seen no productivity but only envy, debate, gossip, cold war, etc. on a daily basis.
Hence, a responsible manager or a team leader should keep a frequent check on his/her team and the environment at the office.
Because employees in such an environment will only work towards their own interests instead of the company’s.
c. Work Environment: The work environment is the only thing that works as an adhesive for an employee to stick there forever.
I have seen a young man turning to an old one, working in the same company (mostly this is the case with government employees), and also I have seen people hopping on jobs every month.
The primary and the most influential parameter of determining the standard of working is the work environment in which an employee breathes.
Companies should always endeavour to consistently improve the work environment of their employees.
Managers should always keep a check on his/her subordinate’s workload and should evenly distribute the load to prevent burnouts and idle times.
Every company should have a well-documented manpower plan which will consider the workload and the available headcount on a frequent basis.
Hiring a smart well-skilled employee after rejecting hundreds of applicants and then making him/her work day and night as a donkey is not the way towards a company’s sustainable growth.
Treating every employee as you treat your family and friends is the only way out.
3. Improving Work-Life Standard at an “Emotional” level
a. Employee Motivation: Money doesn’t always motivate an employee, neither does dry recognition or promotion.
What will motivate every employee out there in a company is a matter of debate.
There should be a blend of monetory and non-monetory motivators in every company’s HR planning.
Leaders should lead by example.
If a leader, who is always seen sitting on a couch watching random videos on YouTube, talks to his team about the importance of hard work and dedication, everyone knows at what level the team will be motivated.
There are several theories of motivation penned down by many leaders in history which should be used as a tool to keep employees motivated to keep the show going on.
b. Emotional Connection: How many of the times, being an employee, you have seen your leader recognising your non-verbal communication and then modifying his/her communication for most of the conversations?
How many colleagues at your workplace are able to connect with you at a personal level and make you feel high and motivated?
How many times you have enjoyed at your office hearing and dancing to your favourite music, or hanging out with your seniors and colleagues?
How many times did you feel emotionally connected towards your workplace or the company because it did something for you which no other company will do?
Will you think about quitting such a company or a workplace when a different company offers you a tempting hike on your current package?
The significance of connecting with your employee at a personal level and making him/her feel at home is a favour every employee will return by maximum productivity and integrity.
Challenges for the Model
This model is easy to plan but hard to implement for the following reasons.
However, if we succeed to overcome these challenges, the door to a happy & healthy life will be found open for all.
1. Outdated Indian Labour Laws
Currently, there are a plethora of labour laws in India that are very loosely connected to each other, if not disconnected.
These laws do have clauses related to the working conditions of an employee or labour.
However, they only protect an employee/labour in terms of working conditions, safety and security.
These terms are very narrow in nature and have little scope to improve an employee/labour wellbeing overall.
The word “conditions” only focuses on the immediate surroundings of an employee, and “security” and “safety” are more physical in nature.
To get into the wider picture, the term “standard” comes to the rescue.
The definition of working standard includes everything from working conditions, safety security, wellbeing, and so on.
However, the definition doesn’t stop here, it goes beyond the above-mentioned factors on a macro level and consists of every other parameter of an environment where an employee leaves and breathes upon.
The unorganised labour laws should be amalgamated into well-defined codes that will be both, easy and mandatory to implement by employers as well as able to go beyond just a “fair” level of protection to the employees.
In 2020/21, the Government of India has in fact proposed to merge these multiple labour laws into 4 primary labour codes: Codes on Wages, Codes on Industrial Relations, Codes on Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions and Codes on social security (ref: www.labour.gov.in).
However, just merging and amending clauses will not suffice and won’t give relief to the never-ending pain & poverty of lower & middle-class employees.
These codes should actually contain each and every element of a working environment of a worker having specific definitions.
Mandating an employer to deploy a standard working condition physically will not help if the law doesn’t have any comment on the emotional torture to the employees.
Hence, we are in desperate need of having the “E-E-E” Model of working standards.
This model deep dives into the life of a worker starting from the aspect of physical surroundings to the psychological ones.
It emphasises on the well-balanced parameters of work standards at the Essential, Environmental and Emotional level, which does not only take into account the hygienic conditions of a workplace but also the emotional environment circling an employee.
2. Cash-hungriness of Companies
The nationwide Covid19 lockdowns have afflicted thousands of companies to the losses like never before.
They have become cost-conscious than ever and are heads to toe to cut out costs in the hope of recovering the losses.
For the same, they are leaving no stones unturned and have cut down the costs in every function of the business.
Many of these companies laid off their employees, re-devised their manpower planogram, cut off their employee salaries, halted the promotions, stopped filling the headcount even after watching their existing employees burning out and so on.
Their orientation has totally shifted from their employees, if they had any earlier, to their cash flows.
Some of these nasty employers are in fact riding on this “loss scenario” and are pretending to be severely cash shrunk, where they are actually being cash greedy.
I asked one of my seniors why there was no housekeeping staff in the store and why our store employees are mopping and dusting the floor wearing the brand uniforms.
They said me that they are suffering from the Covid losses and hence cannot afford housekeeping.
This was the same excuse when I asked them why our staff are dumped so much of work which requires them to do overtime every other day without any overtime pay or at least meal bonus.
And this is the same company which opens a brand new store in the neighbourhood and that too in the same month which is plush with inventory and customer experience. LoL!
Such companies are just putting out excuses of Covid losses and are enjoying the ride wherein their employees seek for their basic necessities in vain.
However, these companies should realise that their assets are not stores, displays and machines, but they are their human employees who work hard and build the company’s empire and make things happen the way a company wants.
Providing a decent working standard to an employee is not a favour, but a fundamental right, which employees too should ask for proactively.
On the other end, companies should realise that even if raising the working standards of their employees will increase their operating costs upfront, it will improve their performance and productivity in the long run in many other ways which was never imagined before.
Because it is that happy and loyal employee of yours who has absorbed all the tribulations and endeavoured consistently just to give you that position where you are now.
3. Over-supply of Unemployeds and Under-supply of Jobs
The 3rd and primary reason for the deteriorating working standards in the employment scenario is the oversupply of unemployed workers with respect to the undersupply of relevant jobs.
If you are jobless for say 6 months and have been left with no financial resources for the next month to eat and live in an apartment, the working standard or condition of a job is the last thing you will think about while taking on that job.
This skyrocketing demand for jobs is leveraged by these employers who are in an attitude of “Gone 1, Got Many”.
They don’t care about an existing employee because they know that they don’t have to when there are so many other even more qualified candidates waiting in the queue for that same job.
You know, your knight can’t just jump and take over your opponent’s queen when your king is in check.
And that is why your knight is killed soon by a pawn.
Here, your survival is your king and your working condition is the knight.
The only way out of this trap is to never leave your king prone to checks by having a fence of “unity”.
The union and like-mindedness of all the employees out there in this world is duly needed.
If all of us won’t agree to work in a dirty or toxic environment, the employers will have no choice but to improve their working environments or else to employ machines in their offices rather than humans.
This union of like-minded employees will have the power of overthrowing the helplessness caused by the undersupply of jobs.
Creating more jobs in the market is not in our hands, but asking for our fundamental right of work standard is with us for sure.
Don’t tolerate, don’t compromise, don’t settle, and you will get what you have always wanted.
In Short
- We spend more than 56% of our life in our offices.
- We are highly influenced by the environment at our workplace instead of that at our homes.
- Unless we improve our standard of working, we will not be able to improve our standard of living.
- We need the “E-E-E” Model to improve our standard of working.
- First E in the model denotes the work-life improvement at an “Essential” level.
- Second E in the model denotes the work-life improvement at an “Environmental” level.
- Third E in the model denotes the work-life improvement at an “Emotional” level.
- The challenges for this model are: Outdated Indian Labour Laws, Cash-hungriness of Companies, Over-supply of Unemployeds and Under-supply of Jobs.
