6/3/2006
10: 45 PM
Office Life in Hyderabad
Because I spend so much of my time in the office, I thought I would share some interesting aspects of office life in an Indian office in Hyderabad.
Water Cooler: There are no disposable cups. All of the cups are glass or ceramic. The office employs women whose job it is to: 1) offer everyone coffee or tea in the morning, 2) offer everyone coffee or tea later in the day, 3) offer everyone coffee or tea or water during meetings, 4) keep the place clean overall, and 5) wash all of the dishes (the glasses, cups, and office dishes and silverware people use to eat lunch—including dishes people bring from home to carry their food to work. As an aside, I don't see much plastic or Tupperware here—everything is tin or glass). Theoretically, you never have to leave your desk. I am a bit independent, so it has been hard for me to get used to having someone set up my lunch for me every time I want to eat. I rebel and get my own water – it's the only mental break I get during the day and I am not about to give it up.
“Office Boy”: This individual's job is to go do errands for anyone who needs him to, including ordering lunch for anyone who wants to order and picking it up if necessary. He also is the only person (that I can tell) who has keys to the office. (Maybe the CEO does too.) He opens the office in the morning and has to wait until everyone is gone in the evening to lock up.
Workweek: The Indian workweek is from Monday to Saturday, usually from about 9:30 AM until 6 or 7 PM for the average worker. Many people stay even later. (While I sometimes do some work-related stuff on Saturdays, I am not bound to this work schedule. I have that luxury since I am doing pro-bono work.)
Recruitment Practices: In India, it is legal and common to specify desired gender and age as part of the required qualifications for a job. Rock recently noticed an advertisement for stewardesses for a new Indian airline. Among the specified qualifications: female, young, unmarried. I have seen several job advertisements requiring applicants to be 35 or under. I only have a few more good years left to contribute by that standard!
Infrastructure: The building I work in at Hyderabad is an old building. The walls could use some paint, the floor is old, the bathroom toilet leaks unless you turn the water off, the power goes out from time to time, and the internet connection occasionally dies. Only the two conference rooms and the CEO's office have air conditioning. Everyone else gets ceiling fans. I have really re-gained an appreciation for the extent to which infrastructure can enable or block the efficient running of a business. Overall, though, it is not too bad—not much worse than what I have seen elsewhere. I hear that the working conditions in the more blatantly for-profit organizations are better. I believe it—there is a lot of construction in both Hyderabad and Chennai with a lot of beautiful new buildings going up.
Lastly, I read an interesting newspaper article the other day that spoke of the nouveau-middle class “call center yuppies.”
10: 45 PM
Office Life in Hyderabad
Because I spend so much of my time in the office, I thought I would share some interesting aspects of office life in an Indian office in Hyderabad.
Water Cooler: There are no disposable cups. All of the cups are glass or ceramic. The office employs women whose job it is to: 1) offer everyone coffee or tea in the morning, 2) offer everyone coffee or tea later in the day, 3) offer everyone coffee or tea or water during meetings, 4) keep the place clean overall, and 5) wash all of the dishes (the glasses, cups, and office dishes and silverware people use to eat lunch—including dishes people bring from home to carry their food to work. As an aside, I don't see much plastic or Tupperware here—everything is tin or glass). Theoretically, you never have to leave your desk. I am a bit independent, so it has been hard for me to get used to having someone set up my lunch for me every time I want to eat. I rebel and get my own water – it's the only mental break I get during the day and I am not about to give it up.
“Office Boy”: This individual's job is to go do errands for anyone who needs him to, including ordering lunch for anyone who wants to order and picking it up if necessary. He also is the only person (that I can tell) who has keys to the office. (Maybe the CEO does too.) He opens the office in the morning and has to wait until everyone is gone in the evening to lock up.
Workweek: The Indian workweek is from Monday to Saturday, usually from about 9:30 AM until 6 or 7 PM for the average worker. Many people stay even later. (While I sometimes do some work-related stuff on Saturdays, I am not bound to this work schedule. I have that luxury since I am doing pro-bono work.)
Recruitment Practices: In India, it is legal and common to specify desired gender and age as part of the required qualifications for a job. Rock recently noticed an advertisement for stewardesses for a new Indian airline. Among the specified qualifications: female, young, unmarried. I have seen several job advertisements requiring applicants to be 35 or under. I only have a few more good years left to contribute by that standard!
Infrastructure: The building I work in at Hyderabad is an old building. The walls could use some paint, the floor is old, the bathroom toilet leaks unless you turn the water off, the power goes out from time to time, and the internet connection occasionally dies. Only the two conference rooms and the CEO's office have air conditioning. Everyone else gets ceiling fans. I have really re-gained an appreciation for the extent to which infrastructure can enable or block the efficient running of a business. Overall, though, it is not too bad—not much worse than what I have seen elsewhere. I hear that the working conditions in the more blatantly for-profit organizations are better. I believe it—there is a lot of construction in both Hyderabad and Chennai with a lot of beautiful new buildings going up.
Lastly, I read an interesting newspaper article the other day that spoke of the nouveau-middle class “call center yuppies.”
posted by Jen at 10:20 AM
2 Comments:
No way, the people who work in call centers are known as "yuppies?" Is there a lot of resentment in the country against them? You mentioned them in an earlier (I think, I've been reading them out of order) entry where it seemed that Indians are against call centers, but then for the rest of the entry you talked about how many people were helped by that man who worked with Dell's company. Was his company a call center? Why are these people yuppies? Do they really make that much more money than everybody else? I'd love to know.
By the way, thanks for all the great observations - my International Club is in charge of presenting India at a festival next year, and I'm printing out a lot of these for my students to read and familiarize themselves with "real" India. So, THANKS!!!
Hi Karin,
Thanks for the comment. I don't know how much our observations are the "real" India, but glad to be helpful.
I don't know what that man's company specifically does. Probably more techy than call center, but not sure.
I don't know where I might have given the impression that anyone in India is against call centers. They definitely have provided jobs to educated Indians and are helping create somewhat of a middle class, which is where I think the "call center yuppies" phrase came from. They don't make huge amounts of money, but they are part of a growing middle class and make significantly more money than the very poor, who are still quite plentiful in India. (The newspaper article that used that term was actually a commentary on affirmative action, caste, and the creation of "new" castes, one of which was the "call center yuppies." Very interesting article.)
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