I.T. Work Culture in India specially for Women

wanttor2i · Post by **wanttor2i** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:27 pm

This is already asked previously in the forum but there were no appropriate answers. So here I am asking again.

I have heard that working hours in I.T. in india pretty long. People often work 10-12 hours and on weekend too. How true is it? Is it across everywhere or limited to certain cities/industry/type of job?

How do women (specially with kids) cop up? Do they have to compansate in terms of salary/promotion? Or there is no way around it?

guruji · Post by **guruji** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:21 am

It's true that most of the IT companies have terrible working hours.. It's never less than 12 hrs a day. Weekends are probably not on a continuous basis... but when you are near the end of the project etc. In summary, work culture sucks big time in india!!!

OzChennaiGuy · Post by **OzChennaiGuy** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:27 pm

Dunno..

In my company it around 8 hrs...

somedays we work 7 somedays 9-10 hrs...

very very rarely its 12 hrs... I ask my team guys to leave for home in time but they stick around sometimes...

direstraits88 · Post by **direstraits88** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:15 pm

In India, the productivity is quite low.. People don't turn up to work on time. And they have no incentive to leave on time. Free food at work and peak time traffic make bachelors stay back... Also free internet at work is hard to resist....

This 12 hour work day is a myth.. Same about weekend work... Most people work for some western client or in a MNC. In my experiene, i've seen no place where people toil long hours..

In bangalore, it's quite common for people to come in after 10 AM. Add 2 hour lunch+coffee+snack break, your 8 hour work day will strecth to 8 PM..

Usually they work for only 6 hours in a day..

wanttor2i · Post by **wanttor2i** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:19 pm

Thanks for the reply. From all the replies above I can conclude that long hours is not a norm. Occasionally you need to work overtime which is fine.
IMO ones you are used to stretch your day it becomes a habit so no matter how much work you have you end up working late. Sometime there might be only 4-5 hours worth of work, but completed in last 4-5 hours of the day.

DesBhakt · Post by **DesBhakt** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:31 pm

My experience is that if you're doing real work, i.e. understanding complex code and reading complex specs and implementing them, the brain becomes dead after 5-6 hours of continuous work. Then its time to shift to lower gears.... and write some emails( can become complex too).

nand · Post by **nand** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:00 am

the key to success is to get comfortable at work. think about it this way - everything is taken care of at home, no cooking cleaning etc to do. What will you do coming back home early?? make friends at work, eat good food, relax and do your work in between. If they really expect you to work 18 hrs a day then quit!! the human body adjusts accordingly. Another important thing is to get up and walk around every hour or so and do desk and chair yoga.

desipardesi;45920In India, the productivity is quite low.. People don't turn up to work on time. And they have no incentive to leave on time. Free food at work and peak time traffic make bachelors stay back... Also free internet at work is hard to resist....

This 12 hour work day is a myth.. Same about weekend work... Most people work for some western client or in a MNC. In my experiene, i've seen no place where people toil long hours..

In bangalore, it's quite common for people to come in after 10 AM. Add 2 hour lunch+coffee+snack break, your 8 hour work day will strecth to 8 PM..

Usually they work for only 6 hours in a day..[/quote]

samjoe · Post by **samjoe** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:17 am

Has anyone tried work from home options or parttime options in India.Especially ladies who have r2ied.
I came across some websites that offer programming assignments to work from home. Are parttime options available in Chennai.

Any experiences?.

r2ijobseek · Post by **r2ijobseek** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:32 am

We also need to understand what makes people stay back late in evening.
One of the reasons for work hours getting extended beyond say 6pm is mainly because of
time zones.Since majority of the clients are from US(worst being west coast) and software in india is mainly service oriented
we need to sync up with client time zones for telecons,meetings etc.
Since people stay back late in eveing ,they tend to come late in the morning ,around 11am.
I am not sure why people comment generally that "culture sucks big time in india!!!"
I think it is our cheap mentality to be self-critical .
India has changed a lot in recent times.

skn · Post by **skn** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:33 am

#1,

The question to ask is if you are in Development or are in Services. If in Services, then you can leave work/life balance out - there is no such concept in India and seriously no one will be able to even understand what you are talking about ;-). Women cope with it by having family/grandparents at home, live-in maids and like for everything else - "that is the way it is".