#WorkLifeBalance: Do Not Take Calls Or Answer Mails After Office Hours

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E-Commerce companies are often in the news for various reasons, be it customer service or inflexible working hours and tough working environments for their employees.

In an interesting development, a recent advise is reported to have been issued by Amit Agarwal, CEO-Amazon India, to his senior team members asking employees to allocate enough time for themselves apart from work and not to take calls or reply to emails after working hours.

Although there is no confirmation on this particular mail from the Amazon headquarters, reports have suggested that the latest announcement from the country Head says, “No business decision should be made between 6 pm and 8 am.”

Speaking on this, Abhishek Kumar, an MBA marketing student, say “It sounds very fascinating. However, that is hard to convert into reality.

Not only Amazon, but in any private entity, owners usually refrain from implementing such pro-employee initiatives. When it comes to business, there always is a possibility of 11th hour work.

“If an employee is not available, it might lead to a huge loss. Having said that, no one should have a 18 hours work schedule anywhere. Some flexibility should always be there.

“I do not believe that this leading e-commerce portal have come up with this initiative. Either they are playing this to get attention or is a gimmick since many of their employees haven’t received any notifications as of now,” says a city-based writer on request of anonymity.

“In fact, one of my cousin brothers works with the company. During the huge sale they have for the Independence Day period, he had to work for 19 hours a day, he added.

Raghini Meghwani, a city based professor feels that such a work and personal life balance should be respected by all organisations.

“It is evident that people are now suffering from anxiety, depression, stress and other lifestyle ailments. A hectic and torturous work routine only adds to all this and leaves no time to replenish and refresh one’s mind.

Moreover, the family bonding and relationships are also being affected because of this. Kids are left at play schools or with their grandparents while their own parents go for work.

This is such a sad reality and people should be sensitive enough to think of their employees and not jut their business turnover,” Meghwani adds.

“Although I do agree that personal life should not be affected with work pressure, it is also important to respond to a customer if need be after office hours,” says Sheeya Rampara, an entrepreneur.

“For such huge conglomerates, it is possible to have employee working on different shifts and complete the task, but for small companies and startups, it will be difficult to manage the work load.

Hence, it is better to take some work home and complete the task from there rather then, spending hours in your office. Moreover, these instructions are suitable for employees at the managerial level, but for people in client servicing etc, it is a bit difficult,” Rampara adds.

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#All views expressed are those of the respondents and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.

Loveleen Kaur