PL Strategy
I love solitude. The lesser the people around me, the more comfortable I am; not that I'm an introvert or something, I'm just wired that way. Even while in insti, I hardly ever went home; always finding excuses to stay back in insti during holidays and vacations. Not because I hate my home or anything, just that being kind of alone in such a huge campus is an exhilarating experience. You get to wake up whenever you want, get to do whatever you want, lots and lots of free time to pursue hobbies and extra-curricular activities. And I find that nothing has changed in me after coming into corporate life.
Now, a PL or a Privilege Leave is a law that compels organisations to grant its employees paid leave for a certain number of days a year. As the name hints, it is leave that an employee earns on working for some time in a company. So, if a company offers 28 days of PL, and an employee takes just 5 days of leave over a year, it turns out from a purely financial point of view that the employee is losing out on (28 -5) 23 days worth of pay (as in working for 23 days while they could have been paid for not working). In order to encourage people to work, corporates may also reimburse the lost leave with additional pay. For instance, accumulate the 23 days' worth of salary and pay it at the time of parting ways.
But this is quite common knowledge, and this post serves a greater purpose. It's Diwali this week with holidays today (Tuesday) and tomorrow. So in essence, if an employee marked yesterday, Thursday and Friday as PLs, they can practically get 9 days of holidays! Pure bliss! And that's what most people do! But there is a catch in this seemingly wonderful plan. Since there are very few people in office anyway, there is hardly any work to be done. The suppliers' places are closed since they're all enjoying holidays. Managers with families are out of town, enjoying holidays. It's like being a kid at home without adult supervision. One can work at his own speed, without any pressure from the top. No one to bother you when you work on part time, "doesn't make sense to the business" work. Hell, one can also set up a library in the time earned!
But then this is a double edged sword. Let's say everybody stays back citing similar reasons. Then the ofiice would be packed as usual, deadlines in place and everybody working full steam to complete their deliverables especially at year end. Which means no free time. Which means in turn, the same work that you do everyday continues without a change. So for this model to work, it is essential that others enjoy the extended weekend.
The down side of staying back is the infi sympathetic looks that people give you when you say you're staying back assuming that you are unwanted at home or something. The worst part is people asking what you did at home this Diwali, for which my reply this year shall be - Grew a beard.
Now, a PL or a Privilege Leave is a law that compels organisations to grant its employees paid leave for a certain number of days a year. As the name hints, it is leave that an employee earns on working for some time in a company. So, if a company offers 28 days of PL, and an employee takes just 5 days of leave over a year, it turns out from a purely financial point of view that the employee is losing out on (28 -5) 23 days worth of pay (as in working for 23 days while they could have been paid for not working). In order to encourage people to work, corporates may also reimburse the lost leave with additional pay. For instance, accumulate the 23 days' worth of salary and pay it at the time of parting ways.
But this is quite common knowledge, and this post serves a greater purpose. It's Diwali this week with holidays today (Tuesday) and tomorrow. So in essence, if an employee marked yesterday, Thursday and Friday as PLs, they can practically get 9 days of holidays! Pure bliss! And that's what most people do! But there is a catch in this seemingly wonderful plan. Since there are very few people in office anyway, there is hardly any work to be done. The suppliers' places are closed since they're all enjoying holidays. Managers with families are out of town, enjoying holidays. It's like being a kid at home without adult supervision. One can work at his own speed, without any pressure from the top. No one to bother you when you work on part time, "doesn't make sense to the business" work. Hell, one can also set up a library in the time earned!
But then this is a double edged sword. Let's say everybody stays back citing similar reasons. Then the ofiice would be packed as usual, deadlines in place and everybody working full steam to complete their deliverables especially at year end. Which means no free time. Which means in turn, the same work that you do everyday continues without a change. So for this model to work, it is essential that others enjoy the extended weekend.
The down side of staying back is the infi sympathetic looks that people give you when you say you're staying back assuming that you are unwanted at home or something. The worst part is people asking what you did at home this Diwali, for which my reply this year shall be - Grew a beard.
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