From Darkness to (moon)Light - India's Services Sector in Need of Enlightenment

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." - Oscar Wilde

What is Moonlighting? 

Very simply put, people taking up extra work other than their full-time job, which is traditionally expected to be 9 to 5, without informing their current employer, is called moonlighting. 

Recently this whole discussion came to the fore in India when Wipro's chairman Rishad Premji tweeted "There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple."

Following this, last week, Wipro also sacked 300 employees stating the same reason, further explaining that they also worked for Wipro's competitors. Following suit, TCS, Infosys and IBM have also warned their employees that moonlighting is unethical and will lead to disciplinary action or even termination. 

However, Tech Mahindra CEO, C P Gurnani, recently said that it is required to change with the times and also said, "I welcome disruption in the ways we work". 

India's Union minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, yesterday joined this debate by tweeting in support of employees moonlighting if they wish to use their skills and time to expand their work, which will also help the country with talent deficit. He has strongly recommended companies to embrace this change and not to suppress talent & the very intention to innovate.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Micrsoft, went one step further and coined a new term "Productivity Paranoia", which is companies feeling their employees are not being their productive best, leading to unwelcome activities such as spying on the employees. Microsoft firmly believes that employee surveillance is just wrong and in today's hybrid work models, to bridge the gap between what employers and employees want is of utmost importance. Employers should in fact be more concerned about employee burn-out as worktime and 'other' time have completely blurred following the imposed WFH culture due to the pandemic.

It is my opinion that people must have the freedom to work on what they want in their own time (i.e. time not paid for by an employer). Most companies do have 'Non-disclosure' agreements (NDAs) and ‘Non-compete’ clauses (NCCs) in work contracts which employees commit to, which should cover any ethical concerns. Employees on the other hand could avoid conscientiously working for a direct competitor and should definitely not engage in unethical practices which will only spoil it for everyone as seen in the case of Wipro. 

Of concern, however, is in the loose definition of 'competitor'. Big conglomerates could even consider a start-up as competition and thus stop employees from utilising their private time to work pretty much anywhere within a sector which would otherwise benefit from access to their skills. This could be the primary reason for employees to leave other work undisclosed. 

It should be deemed unethical for companies to have a blanket contract that prohibits employees from taking up any other paid work. Not only is this treatment of employees as bonded labour antediluvian, but it is also plain unconscionable and does not fit in a digitally mobile world, especially post COVID! Employees must stand up for their rights, including that of privacy, and reject such contracts. NDAs and NCCs, on the other hand, need to be rational and clearly articulate a company’s terms, which must be explained to prospective/current employees, giving them a fair chance to accept, come clean, or reject the terms. Such mechanism can help mitigate perceived threats of moonlighting and develop an atmosphere of trust in which employees are self-motivated to ensure ethical conduct and can feel safe disclosing their other commitments. 

 More than policies and policing, it is a company’s culture which will define whether moonlighting becomes a threat or an engine of positive transformation for both employer and the employee.

Women leadership, biases and biology

Came across this interesting research which shows that women are better than men in a vast majority of leadership competencies measured - Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills (hbr.org)

The summary of the study is in fact misleading, stating that women are every bit as effective as men. Wrong. By this data, statistically, women are clearly better and more effective than men in every competency measured except two where very marginally men are better. 

The study points out another interesting aspect where women rate themselves much lower. This is no surprise to me, as I know people of my gender are masters at doing this. We constantly tell ourselves to be humble and firmly believe that there are many ways of doing the right thing or getting a job done. This somehow gives the idea to the other gender that we are indecisive or lack the capability to take immediate and rash decisions as they mostly do. We do lack the arrogance that our male counterparts seem to be born with and that society loves to encourage in men starting right after their birth!

A woman achieving success in a corporate environment is a mix of sheer hard work (many times more than men), talent (needs to be proved constantly to compete with men and there is no scope for errors at all), and multitasking like a super human being (you have no idea!). All this while fighting biases continuously, tackling them from subordinates and superiors. 

As the research tries to explore, why do most women step out of the race? Many times they are forced to! Senior leaders, men mostly and some women, are very united in their thoughts to not allow a woman to be elected into senior positions. Or at a certain point the women give up the fight. In spite of all the hard work, who would want to deal with constant pressures and biases and bad mouthing by colleagues for no reason except that she is a threat? 

After all this throw in biology. If the woman wants a family, she is doomed. Please don't try to give me the far and few examples of some women who have made it while also raising a family. They are a rare exception and the other 99.9% of women are proof of this. Women work with guilt all the time if they have kids. They plan their work while at home and plan other home errands while at work too. This is a superhuman requirement that only seems to affect women. Men are never expected to do this and they would never be bothered even if someone expects them to. 

This post - Why Women Do the Household Worrying - The New York Times (nytimes.com) - regarding the mental load for women to bear is very interesting and bang on. Cognitive labor divided into four parts - anticipate, identify, decide and monitor is solely left to women in most cases. 

Women also deal with fluctuating hormones everyday (menstrual cycle), pregnancies, menopause and many other hormonal problems at different stages of life. These are amazing statistics that in spite of all this, women shine in leadership skills. Kudos to all the exceptional women in any level of professional career and relationship status. What you all do is completely exceptional and magical!

#women #leadership #cognitivelabor #equalparenting #mothers #men

Remembering the Trailblazers of Iceland on International Women's Day 2021

One of my most favourite historical events took place on the 24th of October 1975 – the day the women of Iceland went on strike!

90% of the women of the country, to demonstrate their importance, decided to not show up to work and perform their routine responsibilities for just one day. They came together in the streets to rally for equal rights. The strata of each woman in society did not matter; it did not matter if she was educated or not; it did not matter what kind of job she held. Homemakers, cleaners, white-collar employees, business leaders, MPs, girls - all rallied side by side. Rural women who were not able to physically join the rally in the cities, still followed their sisters and took the day off. I cannot think of another historical event that showcases the tremendous power, solidarity, and strength of women as this one does. This was surely not the first women’s movement however it was the most powerful, changing the course of Iceland’s policies with respect to women completely thereafter.

The country came to a standstill. Businesses had to close and, if open, dads had to take their children to work. They had to cook, clean, and be responsible for childcare. All for just one day. Things came back to normal the next day but with the knowledge that women are equal pillars of society. This proved to be a watershed moment, bringing to the fore the sheer force of and need for women.

Over the next five years, main changes included electing the first female president for Iceland - Vigdis Finnbogadottir – a divorced, single mother. Also, Europe’s first female president and the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as president. She was so popular, she remained president for the next 16 years!

While there were some reports of men not supporting this movement, most realized that they would come across very poorly in the face of such unity showed by the women. Some joined and fully supported the idea behind the movement. The husband of one of the main speakers was allegedly asked by a co-worker, "Why do you let your woman howl like that in public places? I would never let my woman do such things." The husband shot back: "She is not the sort of woman who would ever marry a man like you" (BBC). How we need more such men!

On this International Women’s Day 2021, it is important to recall such events, the strength it took, the mindset changes that it brought about in both men and women, and the empowerment it generated.

Let us invite all men to unite with the women in fighting for women’s basic rights, which are in fact human rights. Break your deafening silence and join the ranks of great men who were pioneers for women’s rights and liberation even more than women.

I honour some of such great men from India.

1)   Raja Ram Mohan Roy

The first Indian man to, as early as 18th century, work for upliftment of women. Worked to abolish the barbaric practise of Sati and fought to break the shackles of caste system.

 2)   Jyotirao Govindrao Phule

Activist and reformer, worked especially for women of lower castes. Together with his wife, Savitribai Phule, he started the first school for girls, despite being ostracised by their families. He advocated widow remarriage and also started an orphanage to reduce the incidence of female infanticide.

 3)   Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

The chief architect of the Constitution of India, Babasaheb is renowned for championing the rights of Dalits and their upliftment in society. Apart from this, he was responsible for the introduction of the Hindu Code Bill - which allowed women the right to file a divorce petition, and the right to inheritance.

 4)   Subramania Bharathi

One of the pioneers of modern Tamil literature who strongly opposed the caste system and worked tirelessly to uplift women through literature. He fought for the emancipation of women, against child marriage, stood for reforming Brahminism and religion.

Happy International Women's Day. But more than happy, let us make it a thoughtful and productive day, continuing through the years to come!

 

Women and Naipaul

This is what VS Naipaul had to say about women writers: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/summertimefun/vs-naipaul-says-women-writers-arent-as-good-as-men-can-you-tell-the-difference-2492834/
This from a man who was married for 41 years in what was publicized as an unhappy marriage! He is known to have visited prostitutes regularly, had an affair in which he was abusive and was seeing his current wife prior to his late wife's death in 1996!
I don't think women really care about his opinion of women or women writers. We don't have a very good opinion of him either.