Its, hours, day, Accenture, employees, India

The change Obama was talking about has come. The markets are changing. The dynamics are changing. So are the work timings. From a 8 hours per day to a 9 hours per day. In 6 months from now the Government will also change.

HCL has increased the timings by 30 minutes earlier. Now, Accenture increased it by 1 hour. Few companies have asked employees to work on Saturday too. If Accenture had done it, I can only guess that many other companies will follow.

Infosys has came up with its own innovation. It has offered employees to go on a sabbatical for 1 year with 50% salary to work for NGO’s. Though there are 2 sides (cost cutting or corporate social responsibility) to this initiative, this could well figure out in the cost cutting column. TCS has declared that there will not be any hikes next year.

From cutting the discretionary spending, onsite travels to removing toilet papers from the bathrooms, companies are doing it all. Irrespective of what has happened so far, it is better than the dreaded pink slips. Unprecedented steps for unprecedented times.

But will the extra hour really increase productivity?