Live 2 Work, 2 Die - Asia waiting to 'Explode'

‘She ignored sleep so much that the latter embraced her forever.'

This became unfortunately true for Mita, the young copywriter who died after 30 hours of continuous work, with no sleep. A professional working for Young & Rubicam, an ad agency owned by international powerhouse WPP at Jakarta, would often work with no regard for sleep or rest. Her final tweets that later became a chilling countdown to her death are an evidence of her extreme work behavior.

Mita Diran, 24, collapsed to the floor and slipped into a coma last Sunday after weeks of sleeping little and downing energy drinks just to keep going. 

Mita’s case brings back the memories of Karoshi – a term coined in Japan as early as 1980s of a price for prosperity that people are paying with their lives.

Audrey Tsui’s seminal work on the cost of prosperity in Asia stands-out as a study that clearly proves that Mita Diran’s case is not an isolated incident.

The findings clearly indicate that there is something hugely wrong with the way people are juggling their work and lives-

“The rising prosperity of Asia's growing economies has drawn adverse consequences on employee wellness and the work-life balance of many people. Intensified global competition and the expanding wealth gaps in Asia induce stress and create tension. Long working hours, excessive workload, weekend duties, inadequate physical activity and an unhealthy lifestyle are often cited as the key sources of chronic fatigue and work stress. Mounting incidents of occupational illnesses/accidents, and the growing number of Karoshi and suicides among prime-aged working adults further raise concerns regarding individuals' health awareness and corporate effectiveness in employee wellness management.”

Back in India a recent bus accident that killed 45 people on board, the inquiry revealed that accident occurred since the driver was overworked and under slept. During festival season when demand for omnibuses increase in India, drivers often do extra-trips for long distances with little or no break. The recent tragedy was avoidable had the driver not been forced to make three trips between Chennai and Theni, a distance of more than 500km, with just a five-hour break.

Despite these incidents, Asia continues to work in a pressure cooker, waiting to explode any moment.

After all what are we working for? Forget it no one has time to think that… So dump the thought and live to work to die…literally!

The Idiocy and Ignorance of 'Adjustment'

‘Swalpa Adjust Madi’ is a local dictum meaning 'adjust a little please!' Life in this country means making a lot of adjustments. 

The other day state government ran a two page pullout along with the regular newspaper, highlighting and self-praising its achievements. All government departments ran advertisements, each one having a common photograph of the 'leader'. Among this clutter, one ad caught my attention – that of the water works department. The appeal made by the ‘leader’ through this ad was interesting – he appealed to people of the state to stop using shower for bathing and instead use a bucket to save water. On second thoughts, why use even a bucket of water, we can have a pond dug in every locality. All people living in that area can then bathe, wash in that pond itself. Won’t this save even more water? C’mon, swalpa adjust madi!!!

Rainwater harvesting, water recycling that could actually save and conserve water have remained paper plans for countless years and are likely to remain so for another 100 years. But illegal bore well drilling (without concern for ground water table), theft of water remain rampant. Take Bangalore for instance. The city, once upon a time, had enviable share of lakes. Most of these lakes have either dried-up or have become huge drains or have become the dumping ground for 'after-festivities', years of ‘adjustment’ and utter neglect have struck a death knell for these lakes.

Common man is asked to adjust and I think we adjust too much. Extreme tolerance is nothing but ignorance and leads to poor governance.

For the last 11 months there is a water shortage in our apartment due to the fault in the bore well and irregular supply of corporation water. But our building association asks us to ‘adjust’. The solution lies in getting additional bore well drilled, but in 11 months all our association has managed to do is to get two spots paint-marked on the ground where probably new bore wells can be drilled. Temporary solutions like sourcing water from water suppliers also needs association’s approval. The association is run by three people and they decide the fate of all residents. If proactive people like us raise our concern or even offer to help (for example, to take lead in ordering water tankers) till new bore well are drilled, we are branded as ‘uncooperative’. Rest, who are ‘adjusting’ are the good residents.

Few days back an utterly tragic incident shook me up from within. What makes it even worse is the fact that the tragedy was completely avoidable. Two kids – a boy and a girl aged 7 and 4 years were electrocuted to death by a live electric wire that had snapped from the electric pole and was lying unattended for couple of days. The kids belonged to a laborer couple who had moved in to that area a few days back in search of new work. The electricity department failed to turn-up despite a report. 

After all it takes few days for electricity department to act on the report – they are ‘busy’! Till then residents in that area should have ‘adjusted’.

As per the newspaper reports, the little girl inadvertently stepped on the wire first and in the process of saving his sister, the boy was also electrocuted. The photograph in the newspaper of the mother clinging on the bodies of her dead children, refusing to give them away to be taken for post-mortem and last rites was heart-breaking. The mother, reportedly, did not utter a single word, just held the bodies of her kids refusing them to let go…The laborer couple must have toiled day and night to feed their kids. And now with both their kids dead, what would they live for?

But who has time to think about them or about their dead kids…eventually they will be also asked to ‘adjust’.

Leadership is not about ‘adjusting’ but about innovating,. Creating new ways, new means and new resources; and finding better solutions and not temporary jugaads.

Then expecting a certain set of people in leadership positions to bring about the change is a bad idea, for leadership is a role and not a position. The least you and me can do is to stop ‘adjusting’ and shun tolerance that is equivalent to ignorance.

An engaged society or an engaged organization is one where members are not pestered to ‘adjust’ but called-upon to maximize (resources), invest (in ideas), convert (problems into opportunities) and create (better and innovative solutions).

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Socialists Fail to Bell the 'Fat Cat'

On Nov. 24^th Switzerland held a referendum on a proposal by David Roth, the president of Switzerland's Young Socialists and the referendum's leading sponsor. 

The proposal was to limit the pay of the top executives by a ratio of 1:12, that in other words means that the CEO’s pay cannot be more than 12 times of that of the lowest paid worker in the company.

The voters rejected the proposal comprehensively. The votes against were roughly 65%. At a time when Obama is bent on turning America into socialist and make entitlements a way of life, thankfully Europe or at least certain sections of Europe is rejecting the socialists theory that makes people believe that ‘someone’ else can take care of them better than they themselves; and that 'someone' is better than they themselves when it comes to decisions or choices that affect their lives.

As absurd as this proposal and the reasons behind this proposal may have been, the development still assumes a lot of significance both for Europe and  for the rest of the world. The ground-breaking referendum assumes significance as such proposal if accepted will not only have a ripple effect on everyone’s compensation and potential to earn (when you have a ratio for the CEO, you have some ratios for everyone in the (ladder), it would have seriously hampered performance, crimped competitiveness and damaged the economy.

The 1:12 or a move to cap "fat cat" pay is like going to a class and saying that the best a student can do in the class is only going to be ‘x’ times better than the others and not what he/she can possibly achieve. The possibility of providing equal opportunities to perform is acceptable; but the problem with socialists is that they try to assure equal outcomes to everyone.

That’s penalizing the ones who go the ‘extra’ mile, who try that ‘extra’ bit more and who out-perform others to rise and lead; and rewarding ‘mediocrity’.

Roth appeared less gracious even in defeat as he reportedly blamed ‘scare tactics’ by the companies to impress upon their employees to vote ‘against’. It is hard to imagine that in a country-wide referendum and in secret ballot system, employees would vote with fear than with their own judgement. Anyways people have chosen their ‘right’ over Roth’s accused ‘wrong'.

Time for Rot-h and his likes to take a walk, may be with their cats.