Should a senior employee be counting work hours?

It has almost been 18 months since I have joined TCS. I was on the bench for a total of 5 months in the beginning, and finally got a project. I went to the office and my manager told me that it would take few days for document verification and security clearance. I was coming to the office daily but had nothing to do. I was getting anxious since I was just watching Youtube videos for almost a month. I wanted WFH but when I asked they said I had to come to office even if I had no work. Finally, I got a KT from someone working on the project. I came to realise that I was doing work that even a 9th class student can do. The problem? 5 people were doing this work. The problem? I was working 30 minutes a day. I had to come early to the office, login using my seniors login creds and do timepass work. I have to send an email to our point of contact at the client side that the work is done at the end of the day. I have learnt nothing here. I feel that these companies are just too inefficient. I am planning to leave ASAP now. I have learnt nothing and I am scared that I will not find another job because I have the Years of Experience but no skills. This is how IT companies destroy your career. Now I am doing DSA to get into another company.

Hi All, what can help me join an early stage startup and grow up to the top close to the founders within a year? I want to be in the middle of the action Has anyone here done it before?

Work-life balance, as I thought it to be in the start of my career is basically for me to work for a maximum possible part of my working hours and never any more than that. Life had a higher priority than work so I used to always involve is smart work and kind of planned "under estimate, over deliver". Rest of the "life" contributed to study and enjoy freedom alternatively. I slowly started to feel, that's not the way. Currently, with a ~4 yoe, I partially think the "Narayan Murthy"s around us aren't wrong. WLB is subjective, at the very start of your career you should hardly look out for it (doesn't mean to work your as* off for the employee with peanut salary, no) but don't expect to work for 8 hrs a day and chillax the rest. To me, it comes in phases and I'm okay with it. There could be a month or few when you might work 70+ hours a week, and then there could be a month where there's hardly any work. Just keep the smartwork going, but don't time yourself at the early stages. Learn and earn as much as you can, so someday you can gift your grandchild a few million ₹ as well. Its completely my perspective, probably because I've been blessed with the my kind of work as a SDE. Let me know, what's your take?

Alright so this post is coming from a place of guilt so do not take it as bragging. I have been employed for more than 16 years now and routinely clocked 60+ hour work weeks till before COVID. Once WFH started, I found it difficult to adjust working from home (especially with two toddlers) and found myself spending most of the time taking care of the kids (which I thoroughly enjoyed). Wife is a doctor and has erratic hours so I thought kids need the reassurance of at least one parent being around most of the time. Around 2021, I realised that my fitness has significantly gone down so I enrolled in a sports club and began playing squash regularly and religiously in the mornings. 30 minute sessions became 45 minutes which became 1 hour to now close to 2 hours (coupled with some running and swimming). By the time I login to work (I have UK hours: 11 am to 8 pm), I feel quite tired and at times take post lunch naps (during office time). My health has significantly improved but I have found that I am simply unable to stay productive at work for more than 4 hours ( around 4 pm to 8 pm). I am pretty good at what I do and one of the few technical people in a team full of Excel worshippers so one can argue that I get things done relatively faster than average colleagues. However, I have a serious fear that this level of slacking may get me in trouble and could even render me unemployable as I get older. Is this just a phase or a manifestation of a midlife crisis? Have others experienced something like this in their late 30s early 40s?

I had this doubt, let’s say team wants to go above and beyond work hours weekends to get shit done when it’s honestly not even required. I do whatever is given within work hours and deliver! Things might take longer since I don’t slog my ass off. My concern is they might say I’m underperforming and who knows, might even fire me! Typical Indian company mentality. How do you handle this situation without getting targeted ? So far I document everything that I’ve done and make sure there isn’t any place they can point fingers at! Looking for some pointers.

Do you guys think going forward when the average age of a tech employee becomes 30+, companies will prefer to hire single folks over married ones? Since single folks have no added burden to maintain timings due to family and can work longer hours, can it be the case that married guys lose edge in the job market? Don't judge me, this was a completely random thought and wanted to see what other think?

F*ck the 8 hours workdays, who would want to work 8 or more hours a day for an employer who could fire me in a day if they like to, I am just another replaceable product. I can be replaced in a week, why would I dedicate my peak years to that company? One time only made 9 Calls in 30 Days for my first company- I was the only SDR in Company , My target was 100 Calls a day. nothing happened to me why? Coz I achieved even in the months before and after that month. I just brought results. one of my leaders used to only come to office for 2 hours a day, yk what happened to him? he was promoted every quarter, why? he brought results in those 2 hours, there was no need for him for 8 hours. Is it about the hours tho? Are the employers actually interested in your working hours? Yes alot of them are and to hell with them. I would gladly take a paycut to work with an employer who does not count hours but work, and not work but results. I don't believe in work hours personally, to me it is always what is my company looking for? Do you know your day to day targets, yes you do. But do you know why those targets specifically and what is the end goal for 2024 for your company as a whole? Most of us don't know that. That's where employers fking fail and employees too- both of them fail here. Boss counts work hours, because they don't know why employee is not achieving the tasks, employee doesn't have any idea why something is critical and keeps postponing these tasks/targets. If both of them focus on the Why, there will be no hour counts, there will be no screen recording, bla bla bla. Fk this mentality.

I am seriously asking this question, how do you work less In office, when you know you can do your work sorta easily, but you also know that whatever work you are doing is senior level work, ie not your pay scale? 🤡 I it just me or am I making sense??