Hello,
I joined a startup IT company 6 months ago. Currently I am working as a web developer. There are 2 developers and 3 designers in our company. Recently the workload has increase tremendously and our boss is forcing us to work whole night without any overtime allowance. On average I spend 13-15 hrs a day in the office. I\'m feeling sick and stressed out. When I explained this situation to my boss he says that doing hard work is good for my career growth. However, I\'m currently paid below industry average. How do I overcome this situation? We currently do not have any HR or management team, our CEO himself is our boss who manages us.
From India, Mumbai
1I joined a startup IT company 6 months ago. Currently I am working as a web developer. There are 2 developers and 3 designers in our company. Recently the workload has increase tremendously and our boss is forcing us to work whole night without any overtime allowance. On average I spend 13-15 hrs a day in the office. I\'m feeling sick and stressed out. When I explained this situation to my boss he says that doing hard work is good for my career growth. However, I\'m currently paid below industry average. How do I overcome this situation? We currently do not have any HR or management team, our CEO himself is our boss who manages us.
From India, Mumbai
Dear friend,
What is happening in your company is common to almost all the IT companies. Unreasonable extended working hours is upshot of economic liberalisation that was started in 1991. Today almost it has become a norm. Since the IT industry brings good amount of foreign exchange, central or state governments just wink at the unlawful activities of the modern entrepreneurs.
History has uncanny habit of repeating. What is happening today in India's IT industry, exactly same thing was happening 200 years ago in Europe. It is a perfect case of "exploitation" that Karl Marx propounded in his theory of communism. To reduce the woes of IT professionals, possibly they need to wait for Karl Marx. While he gave voice to the persecution of the labour class, communism brought sufferings of the another kind is altogether a different matter.
So what are the choices for you? Let us list them out. These are as below:
a) Just do nothing and accept long working hours as fait accompli of the job or career itself.
b) Talk to the MD and convince the importance of hiring a temporary workers.
c) Start looking for new job.
d) Collectively, and not individually, approach labour officer of your area and give him complaint about excessive long working hours. But then to give a complaint, you need to have attendance records that provide proof of your long working hours.
All the best!
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
What is happening in your company is common to almost all the IT companies. Unreasonable extended working hours is upshot of economic liberalisation that was started in 1991. Today almost it has become a norm. Since the IT industry brings good amount of foreign exchange, central or state governments just wink at the unlawful activities of the modern entrepreneurs.
History has uncanny habit of repeating. What is happening today in India's IT industry, exactly same thing was happening 200 years ago in Europe. It is a perfect case of "exploitation" that Karl Marx propounded in his theory of communism. To reduce the woes of IT professionals, possibly they need to wait for Karl Marx. While he gave voice to the persecution of the labour class, communism brought sufferings of the another kind is altogether a different matter.
So what are the choices for you? Let us list them out. These are as below:
a) Just do nothing and accept long working hours as fait accompli of the job or career itself.
b) Talk to the MD and convince the importance of hiring a temporary workers.
c) Start looking for new job.
d) Collectively, and not individually, approach labour officer of your area and give him complaint about excessive long working hours. But then to give a complaint, you need to have attendance records that provide proof of your long working hours.
All the best!
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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