SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

Work Life Balance

I see a lot of posts about WLB, I want to know what do you consider as a decent WLB. I will go first.

  1. Leave early if the work for that day is done
  2. No pings and calls post work hours, there are always exceptions and thats okay, should not become a norm
  3. Respecting when someone is in vacation and not disturbing them.
  4. Not rejecting leaves

I will add more in comments If more comes to my mind.

10mo ago
PrancingKoala
PrancingKoala

Rule of thumb
If you get work thoughts outside 9-6 or weekends, it's not WLB.

SillyDonut
SillyDonut
TCS10mo

💯

SqueakyWalrus
SqueakyWalrus

What kind of work thoughts? Is it bad if I think about how I can improve my projects and learn new things to do so?

BouncyCupcake
BouncyCupcake

Micro-management is the biggest red flag for me and also night shifts.

SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

@Humanist123 yes, but for some its really needed, they start taking things for granted and start enjoying in the name of WFH. But in general I also really don't like micro management, big red flag for me as well

SquishyWaffle
SquishyWaffle

Then I am in Mars 🤣🤣🤣

JazzyBoba
JazzyBoba

My WLB requirements are very simple.

  1. I'm there for the company for the defined working hours.
  2. Maximum working hours is 8.
  3. Maximum work days is 5 per week
  4. If you want me to work extra, pay extra and inform me 3-4 days ahead
SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

@BigBussyHunter are you getting all of these at your current place, point no 4, doesn't look like you can control that

JazzyBoba
JazzyBoba

Yes most of the time. We have to plan production deployments way ahead of time with change requests and other approvals. I've been here 2 years now. I was asked to work late twice and on weekend once but that was conveyed well in advance and paid accordingly.

WigglyRaccoon
WigglyRaccoon
Google10mo

This WLB is a shit dream; just a lie. Org like Google is pushing AI team more than 80 hours a week!

SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

Some people are living the dream, I myself included

SqueakyBiscuit
SqueakyBiscuit
Swiggy10mo

🤯

SqueakyKoala
SqueakyKoala
  1. Not asking the reason for leaves - its highly unprofessional and unnecessary.
  2. Not taking on other teams/members lack of planning as my urgency and extending my day for it.
  3. When working across timezones - Im working in my shift + taking calls in early morning/late nights. Huge issue in my current org - Im essentially working in 2 timezones while being paid for 1.
MagicalPickle
MagicalPickle
Amazon10mo

You mean to say Managers should ask reason for leaves before approving?

ZippyPancake
ZippyPancake

I think they mean it the other way round; that managers shouldn’t be asking for reasons.

JazzyPickle
JazzyPickle
Clear10mo

Rant alert! I have only worked as an intern for an early-stage startup and my experience has been mostly bad. I believe that points 2 and 3 must be followed irrespective of the stage of your company or the seniority level of the employee. Regarding 2nd point, I got a call (not a msg but a direct CALL) from my mentor and the Co-founder for a file that he misplaced and needed to work on and it was fucking 1 am on the 1st of January this year. 1 hour after the start of a new year. And this thing was a norm but this particular incident tops it all. Regarding 3rd point, I was working on a file before my exams which my mentor kind of persuaded me to finish before I took my leave. It was not really possible to complete within time but I somehow did it. For context, it was my end-semester exam worth 50% of my grades and I had 6 exams on 6 consecutive days. 2 days later when he was working on the same file, he noticed an inconsistency in the data which I should have noticed as well (not blaming the unreasonable time deadline or anything). I had my exam at 2 pm (which he knew), he called me at 1 pm and then gave me a lecture on ownership and accountability. He basically said that he would not touch the file at all and I have to do it all over again ASAP. I assumed full responsibility and told him my situation and asked him to wait for me to come back from my exam. I did not really mind it since it was my mistake but I did not appreciate the fact that he did not try to cover for me or anything given the fact that I did most of the work, 12+ hours most days (even working during my lectures) and 6 days a week, even Sundays if needed. I came back at 5, saw 3 missed calls already from him, started and completed by 9 pm, and then logged out. The same thing happened the next day but this time it was an urgent file that the development team needed. Since I was the one handling data tasks and had all the files, he asked me to log in again. He then called the 3rd day again with similar 'urgent work' but this time I stood my ground and told him that I would be logging in on the next day after my exams ended. He did agree to that and yet called me to log in an hour later after my last exam. Not a good experience for my very first internship to say the least.

SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

Why did you even continue

SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

@tommy_shelby you got scared even before stepping into corporate life, a lot depends on your mentor manager for you to grow and learn and get to your full potential, not everyone can bring do that and its a sad reality in Indian IT culture

BouncyBoba
BouncyBoba
TCS10mo

Work life balance means sleeping time - amount of work weighted = time given for personal life.. So following this calculation if you are sleeping 7 hours then working hours should be 24-7 = 17 , 17/2= 8.5 hours
If working hours including travel time is 8.5 hours then your WLB index is positive. Hope it makes clear

SnoozyPotato
SnoozyPotato

@CoderTCS Including travel time is not practical in cities like bangalore, not everyone stay or can afford to stay near their office to save on travel time, you can optimise on travel time or the rent cost. I say 10 hours including commute in worst case I would say is a positive index

BouncyBoba
BouncyBoba
TCS10mo

I have mentioned the definition, not everyone who will have positive index..even me if I had not wfh exception i would have spent 13 hours outside home

ZestyPenguin
ZestyPenguin
Intel10mo

In all the companies that I worked for

Annual Leaves there is no approval process ..
the manager gets notified. That's all .it's the responsibility of the person applying for leave to give. A heads up when taking annual leave

For casual and sick leaves less than 2 days you can inform the manager and apply after coming from leave.

For more than 2 days sick leave you need to have certificate from the doctor.

SparklyNarwhal
SparklyNarwhal

I hate sick leaves. BC leaves are leaves

GoofyDumpling
GoofyDumpling
  1. WFH.
  2. 3-4 hours of concentrated work.
  3. Unlimited Leave policy ( although with the given amount of hours you won't be taking any ).
  4. Minimal Meetings ( maximum 2 calls per day ).
  5. No Disturbance on Vacation.
WobblyPenguin
WobblyPenguin

Sounds Great, does any company offer this?

GoofyDumpling
GoofyDumpling

Yeah, remote startups abroad. ( Can't say about 5th point though)

TwirlyHamster
TwirlyHamster
PWC10mo

I am working as manager and I can feel that team is actually not working productively for entire day and still they come and question about work life balance but here the reverse question to them is “ are you seriously working so much face work life balance issue “

Log in 11 AM and above
Lunch 1 hour Snacks 30 minutes Log off 6:30 PM maximum

They don’t even stay in office for 8 hours and still they charge 8 hours in time sheets for projects

Isn’t this life enough for them or still they want more work life balance

Is the expectation same from this group as well with respect to timings mentioned above?

TwirlyHamster
TwirlyHamster
PWC10mo

On top this I need to get beltings from partner for things which team was supposed to do and informed to them as well.

Now a days people are not working only and they just want only money and no one to ask or bother about work

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