Working on saturdays...

[Raghavendra nandavar]

Some companies are in the process of implementing this new measure due to the rupee appreciation. Any thoughts on this, can this be avoided.

[Chetan Parekh]

Wheer you read? Any link?

[Raghavendra nandavar]

Today's Times of India Newspaper, Bangalore Edition, front page news.

[Arjunkumar Shastry]

Instead of that they should change the number of working hours from 8 to 9.Many non-IT industires like small-medium shops,shopping malls,trnasport service, people work more than 8 hours.

[Mansur Khan]

Same page of the news paper also asks a question

"Since companies are wanting their staff to work extra due to rise in rupee value, will they ever think of getting their staff work lesser (like 4 days/week), if the rupee value falls!"

In my opinion, they should leave things at status quo. Anyway most people in IT work 10 hrs anyways, also on Saturdays. There is no point in asking them to work extra. Just allot extra work. That's it. Shrewd Managers!!

[Eric Pascarello]

Originally posted by Raghavendra nandavar:
Any thoughts on this, can this be avoided.

Outsourcing some work to other parts of the world where it is cheaper?

Since there was no article that I could find looking at their site, I am guessing they are not shifting schedules so people still work 5 days, but have them working 6.

The people that own the companies are in it to make money. When they see their margin's drop, they try to make it up again.

They will try to find ways to do it! If that means forgetting that their employees have family and friends, they will do it. I left a company for making me work way too many weekends and way to many hours in general!

Working too many hours causes only one thing to happen: tons of bugs and sloppy code!

To me it sounds like the companies need to look at how to save money in other ways. Having people just sitting "On the Bench" is a hit to the pocket. Would cutting those people save the amount of money gained by forcing another 10 hours a week?

Eric

[Tim Holloway]

Sounds like desperation to me. Like they say: "You mean you're cutting my hours back to only SIX days a week? Hooray! ".

The "meat grinder" theory of sofware development is alive and well.

[Srikanth Basa]

Though I did not read the article, I strongly believe that small companies/ startups may ask you to do so. I'm sure that none of the well established MNCs would say that.

There may be certain known companies where irrespective of the currency changes, people work 24X7 (Because of policy I cannot name those)

How to avoid it ?
Well, the answer lies in working with companies where work quality matters and not the quantity.

[Raghavendra nandavar]

Originally posted by Arjunkumar Shastry:
Instead of that they should change the number of working hours from 8 to 9.Many non-IT industires like small-medium shops,shopping malls,trnasport service, people work more than 8 hours.

A couple of IT companies have already implemented this, the working hours have been increased to 9, but still it comes to 45 hrs a week and the remaining 5 hrs, they want to make it up on saturday. I guess in most of the IT companies, atleast service based, work pressure basically depends on the deadlines, estimates and lot of other criterias, which can force the employees to work for more than 50 hrs a week as well.

[Rambo Prasad]

If Rupee appreciates further what will the companies do..?Will they say the employees to work on Sunday also

[Mahima Singh]

found this link..

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/20bpo1.htm

it seems like that big IT companies are also considering this option

[Manish Hatwalne]

When Ruppe (INR) devaluated, India had to pay more ruppes to buy services, products from other countries. So if USD is devaluating, US has to pay more USDs to buy serives,products from other countries, or find cheaper services. Wipro's Azim Premji mentioned recently while declaring quartery results that they have managed to re-negotiate their contracts with their clients and in case of 65 out of 100 big clients they have managged to get higher rate. It's high time Indian companies showed some existance of spine by taking a firm stand.

As Eric said, there are other ways of cutting expenses. One would be proper management of resources & projects allocated. Then they could cut on pampering employeees with free pub/discs/multiplexes passes on weekends & other such corporate deals. Some companies are spending way too much money on such add-ons.

On the other hand TCS has managed to retain high profits by hedging - managing finacces professonally could help as well. After all, employees get only a fraction of the profits that cmpanies enjoy? These companies are enjoying tax exemptions till 2009 - and looking at their infrastructure, results & p/e ratio in the share market - they are raking in tons of money.

So asking employees to work on Saturdays is not a solution. That will only get them agitated and might result in poor performance. It takes more than 1 hour to drive to Software Technology park here in Pune - so working on Saturday would just infuriate employeees. I think it's more of TOI's usual appaling way of creating sensational news based on small set of considerations/information and presenting it as representative of "Indian TT, Software & ITeS Companies"

As it is usualy said - if you burn candle from both ends it might give you more light, but it will burn out faster. And it's not about employee getting fatigue & stress at 40; burn outs show in day-to-day coding & performance!

rgds,
- Manish

p.s. I hope it is not inappropriate to discuss company names here, we are only referring to their publically available official statements and no opinions about work culture etc. Moderators - please consider this.
[ July 22, 2007: Message edited by: Manish Hatwalne ]

[Varun Khanna]

Originally posted by Manish Hatwalne:
Then they could cut on pampering employeees with free pub/discs/multiplexes passes on weekends & other such corporate deals. Some companies are spending way too much money on such add-ons.

They should also consider cutting down the salaries of CEOs and other top brasses/ senior managent etc. They are paid way more than they should be. But then that's highly unlikely since they are the ones on the decision makers seat!

[Mark Herschberg]

It is fine to discuss information about companies in the public domain and I hope that people will feel comfortable doing so. (That said, we must always be careful that it stays with objective information and doesn't degrade into opinions and snipe, but I have faith in the members of this forum to keep things appropriate.)

--Mark

[Ketan Joshi]

I agree to Mansur
The companies will indirectly do that.Allocate more work and by default people work 11 hours per day and on weekends
The smartest comment is You are not efficient and hence you did not finish the work by Friday.So you need to come on Saturday and complete it
As it is in crunch times, people end up working late and on weekends

By forcing working Saturdays,I am not sure how the revenue will increase
As it is work forces you to come on Saturday with an official 5 day week

Now the side effect will be with an official 6 day week,you will have to complete the remaining work on the 7th day

This is no fun.

[Shoumin Li]

In china,there many company require coder to work on saturday ,even on sunday.
Sometimes,we had to work all night to keep plan,
what mess of project management.

[Sumit Patil]

Hi Guys,

Working on Saturdays.....is always fun for me.......

Thanks...

[Henry Wong]

Sumit Patil wrote:Hi Guys,

Working on Saturdays.....is always fun for me.......

Thanks...

Normally, I am not a fan of waking zombies, but since this one has already been awoken... here is a follow up question... Its two years later, what is the sittuation with Saturdays? Is working Saturdays now closer to the norm? Or has the idea faded?

Henry

[Pushkar Choudhary]

Henry Wong wrote:Its two years later, what is the sittuation with Saturdays? Is working Saturdays now closer to the norm? Or has the idea faded?

I work for one of the big 3 in the Indian IT space. There was a news headline in the Bangalore edition of The Times of India a couple of years ago about my company thinking of asking employees to work on Saturdays.

Its two years now and I've never officially heard anyone talk about this anymore. In fact, as of today, all such rumors have also vanished, so I guess the idea has faded... (And Thank God for that!!! )

[Manish Hatwalne]

Pushkar Choudhary wrote:

Henry Wong wrote:Its two years later, what is the sittuation with Saturdays? Is working Saturdays now closer to the norm? Or has the idea faded?

I work for one of the big 3 in the Indian IT space. There was a news headline in the Bangalore edition of The Times of India a couple of years ago about my company thinking of asking employees to work on Saturdays.

Its two years now and I've never officially heard anyone talk about this anymore. In fact, as of today, all such rumors have also vanished, so I guess the idea has faded... (And Thank God for that!!! )

I second that. It was rumor. I don't know any Software company here now working on Saturdays - officially.

[Maneesh Godbole]

Henry Wong wrote:Its two years later, what is the sittuation with Saturdays? Is working Saturdays now closer to the norm?

Work on Saturdays? Hell, people don't even work on weekdays