Resource abundance & productivity

It is a well-known fact that resource abundance breeds a mindset that thinks little of waste. The problem is that a lot of resources "appear" to be abundant while they actually are not (e.g. water). Obviously, in such cases, the waste mindset is like a ticking time bomb.

In my experience (albeit limited) of working with Indian companies, I have noticed that the "employee's time" is most often considered abundant by the boss and he thinks little of wasting it. Of course, the employee is often to be blamed - we Indians are terrible at protecting our own time (and often space) and rarely ever push back our superiors' demand for our personal time. Most Indian bosses will not think twice about calling you over the weekend or late at night. The more sophisticated ones may proffer a muttered apology, but many (especially the owners of India's myriad family-owned firms) will not do even that. And most Indian employees will oblige (though often unhappily).

Now that is interesting. We Indians claim (rather loudly at times) that our social fabric and family ties are vastly superior than those of the "decadent West." But most Indians never think twice about sacrificing their personal time (with the family, mostly) to please the boss. Anyway, this is a digression, and not the purpose of this post.

What I learnt today is that it is not only the employee whose time is wasted and productivity sacrificed owing to such practices. The boss also, often unknowingly, sacrifices his productivity. There is nothing more potent than the lack of time that leads to strategically sound prioritization. Any boss who does not force himself to treat his subordinates personal time as sacrosanct loses the ability to prioritize. And prioritization is one of the key traits to be a boss and a leader.

I feel that changing this mindset can do wonders to India's poor labour productivity in the long run. I would any day be productive and leave office at 6 p.m. (and be considered lazy and insincere) than slog 14 hours a day and have little to show for it!