Rural Posting - Forced Service?

As per the recommendations of the A. K Khandelwal Committee that has been accepted by the government of India, new clerk recruits in public sector banks will have to serve three years mandatorily in rural and semi-urban areas. All banks have now been asked to prepare a human resource plan incorporating these recommendations and get them approved by their Boards of Directors latest by December 31, 2011.

How successful do you think this new ruling for government clerks would be? Success would be determined by not only the implementation timeline but also its real acceptances amongst the government clerks. Real acceptance signifies ‘engaged’ acceptance.

Now before you start thinking that I am a kind one who belongs to the anti-rural movement, that’s not correct. However the fact is that people shun rural postings in India. Not so long ago the doctors were up in arms against forced rural postings. Slogans like India still lives in villages, the real India is the rural India have only remained as utopic dreams. All these beautiful pictures and tableaus of Indian villages are only on ‘incredible India’ videos (the tourism promotional mouthpiece of the government). The truth is that our villages lack basic amenities and have people living in downright pathetic conditions. Our villages still lack in basic facilities like hospitable roads, clean drinking water, primary health care, good schools, hygiene and sanitation. Now who would like a posting and move happily with bag, baggage and family to rural areas. Will you? Then there are other aspects like the amount of money you make (the attractive city allowances vanish), professional growth chances (opportunities and exposure are vastly unequal when it comes to a comparison between cities and villages).

Our villages need development but such realties cannot ride on such philanthropic ideologies alone. Even if such policies are thrust by the arm of law and government acts, how ‘engaged’ the government clerks would be is a huge question. And then it is not only the question of clerks, this question is going to pop-up whenever doctors, engineers or any other professional is forced on a rural detour.

Solutions require deeper analysis and thinking. However as a pointer, I would like to quote from my book ‘Employee Engagement’ – “In an employee feedback and organizational health survey of the employees in remote locations by Aditya Birla Group, the company found that employees in remote locations – factory townships had long-standing needs that were similar to their colleagues in urban locations. Some of the issues that emerged were healthcare, entertainment, education and career for spouses. The findings were very interesting and showed how place or location may not change the way people wanted to live. They found, for instance, that today’s middle-class, young engineer finds a dissonance. He not only wants a great job and a good company, he also seeks a contemporary look and location. To ensure that such locational dissonance did not happen, the company came-up with a range of solutions. To start with it changed the exterior colour of the residential flats; it tied-up with an event management company to develop events that appeal to various constituencies like musical nights, devotional music programmes, concerts and so on. The company is also said to be discussing with PVR cinemas for setting-up multiplexes near the townships.”

If we can’t change our villages, we can atleast make the ‘rural-postings’ more rewarding both in terms of opportunities and living. May be the resultant ‘engagement’ shall then change the rural skyline! 

Temp(ting) but is it healthy?

Fast foods are among the most tempting eatables available for consumption. Yet many times questions are raised on their nutritional values and often they are branded as junk food. There are people who agree with the same and there are others who do not abide by the same faith. Fast food preachers count the pros that such foods have, like they are cheap (compared to a gourmet restaurant) yet tasty, they are readily available and they can be consumed anywhere. Those who oppose fast food blame their belief on the silent damage that such foods cause to the body making it obese and less efficient.


The issue of temp hiring is also quite similar to these temp(ting) fast foods. There are companies who think temps (temporary recruits) are good ones to have while there are others who do not really believe in temp-hiring. Those companies that do temp hiring count the benefits such as temp-staff give them the flexibility to manage the unexpected business demand, seasonal manpower requirement, quicker scaling with tested/productive workforce, trial run to convert from temp-to-perm seamlessly and more importantly cost advantage. Recent reports suggest that many leading IT firms in India have increased their temp hiring (contract staffing) by almost 20 per cent this year. HR analysts say that in retail, temp hiring has jumped by almost 45 per cent. It is estimated that this year, the six-lakh temp workforce in India is expected to grow by 20-25 per cent over 2010.

Yet there are others who have burnt fingers with temp hiring. Maruti Suzuki is an excellent example. The recent labour problems at Maruti Suzuki plants in northern part of India have mostly stemmed from contract temp workers. Certain industry leaders believe that temps may serve the short-term need of a company but the damage that they cause in the long-run mostly goes undetected till it flares-up phenomenally like in the case of Maruti. Experts believe that the degree of engagement and commitment in temps can never be very high – one of the reasons why Titan has recruited mostly on-company-roll employees in their retail stores.

Many companies like Titan, believe the degree of engagement with the internal customer (employees) has a direct or indirect impact on the degree of engagement that a company has with its external customers. For instance, retail sector in India suffers from high rate of attrition especially when it comes to floor level workers. They are paid very less (salaries can start as low as $60 per month even in cities like Bangalore) and these workers switch sometimes for just $10 hike. Retail companies are not too concerned about it because they can find a lot of temp staff and they believe that the only thing these staffs have to know is what is kept on the shelf, which they can learn quickly. But how many times have you as a customer been irritated when you walked into a retail store and found no help when you tried to locate something or found an unsolicited help when you preferred to browse at your own pace and will? How many times has the sales executive at the store has been able to help you with valid information, in other words how many times have you received an informed help?

Coming back to fast food, yesterday we ordered our dinner from Domino’s. I visited the store and ordered for pizzas and pastas, paid my bill and requested for a home-delivery. The order was delivered in 30 minutes sans the mousse cake that I had also ordered. The delivery boy (a temp) realized his mistake and went to fetch the mousse cake. Since the same thing had been happening last couple of times, I was not very impressed. Anyways after good 20 minutes the cake was delivered. This time it was some other delivery boy who asked for the payment of the bill, as well. I told him politely that I had already paid-up the bill. He didn’t seem too convinced yet left. Around midnight when we had almost retired for the bed, our door bell rang. And voila…there was the same delivery boy who came to deliver the mousse cake with another delivery boy. They charged me that I had not paid the bill. I was surprised and very angry. I had tough time in convincing them that I had already paid the bill causing me immense embarrassment and annoyance. I called-up the store manager and asked him for an explanation. The store manager apologized profusely for the terrible mix-up (which does not lessen my suffering). However I told him that all these things have started to happen in Domino’s of late only and I am sure that it indicates at some systemic-rot. Do the delivery boys really care about engaging with the customer in the right way (after all they are more in service delivery role). Bigger question is are they engaged themselves to Domino’s ?

Many times my son, who has been told in the school that fast food is junk food, asks me – ‘If fast foods are junk food, should we have them?’ I tell him that there is no harm in having them occasionally but be sure that you have it from the right store and eat it the right way. In short approaching fast food with more ‘engagement’ with an eye on quantity to be consumed vis-a –vis the normal food consumed, which fast food stores to really visit and looking at the compatibility of the type of fast food with your body system (for example some people are allergic to some substance like monosodium glutamate seasoning used in fast food) becomes important. Similarly, hiring temps could at times become operational and strategic necessity but it is important to have greater ‘engagement’ with the temps in terms of their number in proportion to the permanent on-rolls, focusing on the source from where they are hired and training & deploying them in the right way in the organization.

Temp(ting) could be healthy too!

Cab Driver ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hain?

The title litreally means - Why does the cab driver feel annoyed? For those of you, who have kept a regular track of my posts, I am sure that you must have noticed my absence, since no new posts came for the last two days. A hurricane trip to one of my close friend kept me occupied. Returning from the airport yesterday night, I was dog-tired and was having a bad headache. The drive from airport to my home is a long one. Sometimes the time to reach home from the airport may be equal to the flight time, if you have just taken a domestic flight. Comfortably perched in the cab, I decided to catch a nap by the time I reach home. In Bangalore, however, man proposes and traffic disposes...the heavy traffic, constant blaring of horn, sudden braking by the cab driver to save some precious idiot's life and bumpy ride over the illegal speed humps kept me awake and miserable. The cab driver also looked frustrated by the traffic pile-up and started an impromptu discussion with me, perhaps in way to vent his frustration. Although I was in least mood to engage in any talk, I could not ignore his conversation since I knew he was feeling better after talking to me. More than philanthropy, I thought he will drive better if he can vent his frustration. This is what he had to say (I being a bengali and he being a kannadiga the only common languages between us are Hindi or English. He told me all in broken Hindi that I have translated in English) –


‘You know Sir, this entire traffic problem can be solved. But none tries to do that. Illegal speed-breakers on the road, too may U-turns, too many traffic lights all slow down the traffic, causing traffic pile-ups. Every time a new mall comes-up you shall find a new u-turn in front of the mall to facilitate more footfalls. Why should you cause pain to public for pleasing someone?
Then at this junction (I am masking the name of the junction that he told me) a flyover can be built on this side too (there is flyover on one side of the junction) but it will never be because there is a huge petrol pump station on this side of the junction. If the flyover is built then the petrol pump will lose some business. Why Sir, for pleasing one person all others are put through so much trouble? The flyover, if built can ease-up the traffic at the important junction considerably.
I drive about 300-400 kms every day and because of these bad speed-bumps I have now started to have a back-pain. You know Sir, there shall be never a traffic problem in this city – only thing you need to is remove illegal speed bumps, limit U-turns (instead of having them at the will of few) and have traffic light junctions at a minimum distance of 200 meters. And of course a few additional flyovers should solve the problem. It is very simple Sir, but no one knows what to do.’

I think there is some merit in the cab driver’s suggestions. Anyway my journey ended and I thanked him and paid-up my fare. However the cab driver’s words stayed in my mind and I wondered whether his suggestions and plight shall ever be heard in the traffic strategy rooms of the city!

So many times organizations try to have strategy-meetings to solve problems and yet fail, whereas the simplest and workable solutions may be with the employee working at perhaps the lowest level in the hierarchy. Such solutions and suggestions can only be heard by ‘engaging’ with them. Even more importantly, the real problems can be understood. Engagement approach helps you to keep your ear to the ground.

When PMS killed Engagement

Puneet works as a Project Manager in ITECH Corporation, a 150 year old technology company. The company offers various technology based solutions in a broad-range of areas to a wide-array of industries including telecommunications, banking, retail, automobile, logistics, aerospace, media and advertising etc. Puneet works in ITECH’s Hyderabad-based facility in India.


Puneet a computer engineer from one of the premier engineering colleges of the country has been working in ITECH for the last 1.5 years. His total work-life of 11 years is filled with rich experiences. He brings all that into his work coupled with his dedication and ingenuity. He reports to the global Delivery head Mr. Nataraj Srinivasan. 19 other project Managers like Puneet also report to Mr. Srinivasan.

Puneet has been a high-performer through-out and has been trusted by his seniors for challenging responsibilities. One year back he was assigned to his current project. At a time when he took over there were lots of issues in the project. The client was high on discontent and the project contract to be renewed this year was wide-open to competition. At such a juncture last year, Punnet was asked to take over the reins of the project. He had dual challenges: one to sort-out the issues in the project and second and more difficult one, to retain the project. Punnet’s whole-hearted devotion, his excellent leadership qualities and his strong technical understanding had his team rallying behind him and in a year he was able to bring the project on track.

The annual appraisal interview had just concluded and Puneet was crestfallen. The ratings by his supervisor Mr. Srinivasan had left him with a huge sense of discontent and displeasure. Actually ITECH had a 65% weightage on the KRAs or the core job responsibilities and 35% weightage on the ICAs or the individual contribution areas other than the core job. Punnet’s focus on reviving the troubled project saw him scoring very high on the KRAs, however that left him hardly with any time to focus on contributing other than his core job responsibilities. Hence his overall rating had taken a hit. He tried to rationalize this with his supervisor. However Srnivasan expressed his helplessness as he had to operate within the ‘system’ ITECH also had a policy of comparative rating and forced distribution. This meant that supposedly 10 team members were reporting to a person X, then X would have to rate some 20% of the team members with A- rating, some 50% of the members with B-rating, 10% as C-rating and the rest 10% as D-rating, where A was the highest and D would mean PIP (Performance Improvement Program). Puneet’s overall rating among 20 project managers was C and he was distraught at the logic and felt cheated. He rued the fact that he took up the challenging troubled project on insistence of the management.

His hopes of 360-degree feedback system that the company had, were also dashed on a comparative note. ITECH had a system whereby the appraise could choose his/her 360-degree ratees. Puneet had made honest choices and had got a reasonably good feedback. However he later came to know that some his fellow PMs had hand-picked the 360-degree ratees and had received ‘fixed’ feedback.

Punnet could not see any motivation to continue in his current project and even in his current organization.

All characters and affiliations in this story are fictitious except the story itself. So many times organization's forget while designing their PMS that the only objective of having a PMS is developmental and everything has to be done keeping that in mind. Managing and appraising performance is a double-edged sword. It can 'thrill' but can also 'kill'. In Puneet's case it 'killed' motivation, drive and engagement.

Dust Strikes Trust

Three strikes at three major manufacturing companies - Maruti Suzuki, Bosch and Coal India are worrisome.

The strike at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant is spreading into ancillary units and is becoming a major threat not only for the company but also for the entire NCR industrial belt. The bone of contention has moved from worker's demand for a separate union to management's demand that workers sign a good conduct bond and now again to worker's demand that the contactual labours be taken back into fold.

In case of Bosch the strike by the workers at Bangalore plant that started couple of days back turned ugly yesterday when executives were prevented from entering the factory premises by MEA (Mico Employees Association). The bone of contention in this issue is that workers are opposing the management's decision to outsource certain anicillary functions. The workers also accused the management of breaking its promise not to outsource any such activity.

A one day strike by the Coal India workers around the country resulting a huge loss on October 10th is another problem brewing hot. Thebone of contention in this case is the incentive payout. The workers are demanding more incentive and state that it is much less compared to the dividend doled-out to the shareholders. The workers have threatened that if the issue is not resolved soon then this strike would come back.

On closer introspection the common thread in all these conflicts appears to be  severe lack of trust between the employees and the management. Every other leader preaches the need of building a culture of trust. But so many times such terms remain as mere esoteric concepts rather than practice. Many even brush-off such issues as very academic concept.  Looking at all these three cases, I find severe trust-deficit at the heart of all such disputes, in addition to everything else. Trust is fundamental to engagement and one of the building blocks. In its absence no structure shall sustain. The responsibility of building the trust is mutual but the first onus lies on the employer.

Performance-based Pay Reversing Compensation Trends in Asia

What do the organizations pay their employees for? Do they pay them for the time that they spend in the organization? Do they pay them for their inputs? Do they pay them for their skills? Or do they pay them for their performance? There is an argument in support of each of them and another to counter as well. However over the recent years most of the arguments have been in the favour of performance and skill-based pay.


In its global executive pay trends2011, Mercer predicted that the executive salaries in Asia may soon surpass those in the US. The top management salaries in Asia have crossed those in Europe and Mercer anticipates that by 2013, these could even cross US levels. The average pay increase across Asia, except for Japan, was 7 per cent, whereas in western Europe and North America restrained by debt crisis and weak economy the average pay hike in was barely 2-3 per cent.

The reasons attributed to narrowing of pay-gaps between Asia-Pacific regions are:

• Resurgence of equity-linked pay at mid-management levels in smaller organizations that have not yet run into dilution pressures. Although at senior levels, Mercer finds that pay has risen disproportionate to performance, and it feels that going forward this could lead to greater pay governance, increased scrutiny by boards on compensation structures and remuneration benchmarks with more emphasis on performance as a criteria for reward.

• Leadership Shortages and inflation.

The pay-gaps are narrowing between the Asia-Pacific region and what is fascinating is that more and more organizations in Asia are moving their executive compensation towards performance-based compensation. Such moves are on one hand helping companies to grow and at the same time doling better compensation to its employees. This marks a huge departure from the earlier trend of low salaries being a competitive advantage in Asia . Organizations have increasingly realized that such advantage cannot be retained for long in a region where economies are growing faster than any other economy in any other region. However the only way to effectively reverse that trend is to pay for performance.

Refreshing Smell

Subject No Object

'A credit card company was faced with something apparently inscrutable: A negative correlation between its internal subjective perceptions of customer service and what customers actually thought, so much so that what the company defined as good service was actually bad service, and vice versa.
But the company assumed it was doing the right thing because the employees followed predetermined steps with perfect compliance, reads a narrative in Breaking the Fear Barrier by Tom Rieger (Gallup). When the company started letting customers rate their service encounter experiences and employees delivered on those expectations while still ensuring compliance with legal requirements and policy, service ratings skyrocketed, Rieger continues.
Performance metrics
The key takeaway from the tale is that subjectivity can stoke fear. Explains Rieger that when organisations base performance metrics on clearly communicated and achievable targets that pertain to objective outcomes, then everyone knows exactly what they need to do. “But when performance is determined subjectively, based on nothing more than a supervisor's opinion, an organisation opens itself up to this courage killer.” (Source: Reward the courageous employee, D. Murali, Business Line)

'Pujo' Notes

Bengalis all over the world go on an overdrive during the annual Durga Puja celebrations. The event that symbolically marks the victory of good over evil also coincides with another Hindu festival of Dusherra. The fun and gaiety that lasts for over a week sees bongs of all sizes and shapes step-out of the limits of their dwellings and let down their hair to go full-throttle on ‘fashion without ration’ and ‘ration without caution’. All kind of clothes right from the humble ‘tant-saree’ to the pompous ‘dhakaie’ are on display. The food stalls at the mondops serving ‘mughlais’, ‘luchi kosha-mutton’ and ‘rosogollas have the most figure-conscious ones too gorging on the oily delights.


I being a half-Bengali (not by birth, more so by my cosmopolitan upbringing) become almost a reluctant participant in such festivities. The happiness of becoming a participant comes from the joy that I see on the faces of those close to my heart. And hence, I do not mind running from one ‘pujo-mandap’ to another to see the same rituals being repeated all over again or to experience the cultural overdose.

Reeling in the midst of such jamboree, I many times find time for observations while the ‘bhadraloks’ and ‘bhadramohilas’ engage in ‘pujo’, ‘bhog’ and ‘anando-mela’. This year’s celebrations came to a close yesterday and I thought it apt timing to share some of my experiences that I thought had parallels with some lessons on engagement:

1. Parking woes: One of the toughest things at almost every ‘Durga Puja’ venue is to park your car. Many a times we had to leave a venue without even entering it because we could not park our car. This causes tremendous irritation at times. Although in a city like Bangalore such problems are not too uncommon, however during such events you expect the organizers to be a little more cognizant of such basic facilities. (Engagement Lesson 1: Organizations must never short-change on providing basic facilities to its employees. In recent times there have been instances when some IT companies in Bangalore have failed to provide even parking facilities to all its employees. No one is going to take this hassle very kindly).

2. Members Only: Adding to the parking-woes is the tag ‘members-only’. If you are member of a ‘pujo-committee then a parking space shall be reserved for you, otherwise you are very much left to your own fate. If you are lucky you can park it somewhere by the roadside otherwise keep going misery-go-round. Now what’s wrong in having reserved parking-spaces for members. Nothing wrong till you are having some place available for the public in general also since it an event that has been organized with public-donations and charity. (Engagement Lesson 2: Exclusive privileges and benefits must not be reserved for some employees arbitrarily. Benefits as much as possible should be broad-based. However if some benefits have to be privileges of few then make sure that they well deserve it and can be justified).

3. Bhog: ‘Bhog’ or the holy food that is consumed en-mass by the people is a huge draw at every venue during day hours. The menu is very simple – a rice-pulse porridge, a tomato ‘chutney’ and a dry vegetable. Despite this people throng in big numbers to catch-up with ‘bhog’. And in the midst of consuming the same, people chant slogans like ‘Durga Mai ki Jai’ meaning ‘hail thou goddess Durga’. (Engagement Lesson 3: Organization may offer lunches however community seating arrangements at lunch venues shall always add to the charm of the lunch-break as it provides employees an opportunity to socialize and bond together).

4. Food Stalls: Bengalis are foodies and hence you can always find a food-stall next to the ‘puja-mondop’. People gorge over Bengali, Mughlai and Chinese delicacies, without any guilt. (Engagement Lesson 4: It is popularly said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. That still holds true and for both genders when it comes to employees. Giving employee various options of food-menus has little cost but high value in terms of engagement. Companies like Google have done that long-back).

5. Cultural Rendezvous: Evenings, during the week-long celebrations, is a time for cultural candies. There is a whole range from ‘robindro-shongeet’ to rock-bands, from ‘desi’ stars to ‘Indian-idols’ and from damp-squibs to hit numbers. However what is surprising is that in centers out of Bengal you can find a lot of non-bengalis also thronging the venues in the evening for attending the cultural-potpourri. (Engagement Lesson 5: Everyone wants to have fun. This cannot happen by just having few events on Fridays. Instead the workplace concept has to change from a drab-boring place to one that stands for ‘work is fun’. That shall never stop the serious business transactions but definitely add a bit of fun-flavour to the same. The ‘hot-seating concept at Philips India office at Gurgaon is an example).

Solution is a Problem

The government in an effort to discourage the use of plastic has introduced a rule whereby the shoppers shall be charged for the plastic carry bags. Now from every small shopkeeper to a mall, during billing you will be asked 'do you need a carry bag?' I am thin king what else shall I do carry the stuff on my head? And then as you say yes, they shall tell you 'Sir another 3/5/6/7 rupees', depending upon the size of the bag. Another few bucks may not be difficult for you to pay but does it solve the problem.

Principally the initiative sounds so green but in reality its is another eyewash. here is why:
1. I am supposed to carry my own shopping bag. Seldom shopping is a planned activity and hence it is most likely that shoppers will end -up without bags. Besides if you carry a bag inside a mall they shall frisk you, then inside the mall when you try to enter the hyper mart they shall ask you to leave your bag at the baggage counter.
2. Penalising use of plastic bags is fine but what about insisting that shops should have jute or paper versions. They shall never do that. Instead they will keep only plastic bags and then charge the customer for the sane. This way they can pass additional cost burden on the customer. As a customer I should have the right to demand jute, paper or some other so-called environment-friendly carry-bag version. And if the shop keeper fails to provide so then I must not be charged for a plastic bag. After all the idea should not have been to charge people for using plastic bags, it should have been to provide them with better alternatives.
3. Besides while banning plastic bags, the government should have banned all plastic materials. But that does not happen. Besides the filth and muck that people in general have to encounter on street corners and pavements is unimaginable.

So What?
The moral of the story is very simple. Solutions should never be problem in themselves. They shall always be when they have been devised as a way to avoid the problem and not solve it.
Organizations must also take lessons from the same. Passing-the-buck and avoidance of the real problem will never help. Real problems must be faced and broad-spectrum solutions must be developed. Such solutions shall always be engaging.

WHO's Healthy Workplace model

The Pseudo-Flat Organization Syndrome

Recently during Anna Hazare's fast one debate that raged-on was - who is supreme? Is the parliament or the people? Whereas most political leaders were of the opinion that the parliament is supreme but the Anna's camp was very clear that the people were supreme. The supporting argument from Anna's camp was that people created the constitution, the constitution created the parliament and the parliament created parliamentarians. The creator is always greater than the creation, hence the people are supreme. I kind of buy into this argument. However is this what happens on the ground? I seriously doubt. How many times you believed that happens in reality?  The concept that the government is of the people, by the people and for the people remains an utopic dream. This is what I call the pseudo-flat organization syndrome.
The pseudo-Flat Organization syndrome exists in many organizations too. Here is a simple test to find out whether your organization suffers from this syndrome. Have you felt the concept of freedom,. empowerment in your organization is only on the paper and a mere rhetoric? Have you felt helpless at decisions being taken in your organization? Have you felt that speaking your mind could be injurious to your health? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then your organization also suffers from this syndrome.
Such organizations may reap cash profits in the short-run, if the demand outpaces the supply in the industry in which they operate. However their long-term sustainability is seriously questionable. Only a cultural transformation and a 360 degree mindset change can cure the syndrome.

LOOSEMOTIONS

'People around the world get up happy but become grumpier as the day wears on, according to a study of Twitter messages. Researchers analysed more than 509 million posts from 2.4 million users of the micro-blogging Web site to study trends in their moods over a two-year period. They found that outlook of people varies greatly depending on the time of day, the day of the week and whether the days are getting longer or shorter.
In the morning, people wake up full of optimism, but it declines during the day and only recovers after 6 PM when the stresses of work are forgotten. Negative emotions such as anger, distress and guilt are lowest at the start of the day but continue to build until we go to bed, the study revealed. 
Twitter accounts from 84 countries across the globe showed the same pattern despite having significant cultural and geographical differences.Overall British Twitter users were more optimistic than those in France and Portugal, but less than people in the US and Australia, scoring slightly below average on a global scale, the findings showed. On weekends, people were generally more positive but the morning surge of optimism arrived two hours later because people enjoyed a lie-in.
Writing in the Science journal, Scott Golder and Prof Michael Macy of Cornell University in America said the positive effects of sleep, along with our natural behavioural cycle known as circadian rhythm, could explain the trend. They used a text analysis computer programme to scour their sample of Twitter messages, or Tweets, to look for words which suggested how the writer was feeling.
Some messages expressed positive feelings such as enthusiasm, delight, activeness and alertness, while others indicated negative emotions like distress, fear, anger, guilt and disgust.
Positive language accounted for about six per cent of all words used at the highest point but dropped to five per cent during working hours while negative messages rose slowly throughout the day.' (Source: Work makes people miserable, says study, Business Line, Oct. 1, 2011)