The IT workforce in the city has always gone by the weekend concept of the West, with a five--day work week, where Saturday and Sunday are holidays. This has driven the city's retail and food industry as well. Malls have done roaring business over the weekend, though they have often grappled with parking and capacity troubles. The state government too has been accommodating the weekend rush and extended the timings of the city's bars and restaurants until 1pm on Fridays and Saturdays, to cater to the 10- lakh strong IT population in the city. But the weekend concept is slowly about to undergo a change. Multinational companies in Bengaluru are seeing a shift in their work culture and workforce management.
Some major IT companies in the city are now moving towards staggering and spreading their two--day weekly offs by breaking up the weekend, with a holiday mid-week, followed by a holiday on Sunday. According to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) MA Saleem, many IT companies in Manyata Tech Park located on Outer Ring Road, Whitefield and ITPB areas, have already changed their two--day weekly offs on weekends to a staggered format. "We are also encouraging the same and campaigning for a mid-week break so that work hours can be divided. This in turn will lead to lesser office commuters on the road and manageable traffic even on a weekday or during peak hours," he said.
Anurag Patel, senior HR personal with a Whitefield--based IT company, supports the thought. "Working constantly through five days in very high-pressure jobs in the IT industry is not feasible anymore. Employees are burning out even before the weekends. So a mid-week break is definitely a good practice," he said.
Srinath R, a techie working with Atos India, who agrees with him, added that a break in the week will help increase the productivity of professionals overall. Going by this trend, US--headquartered business and technology outsourcing company, Minacs has adopted the concept. It now gives its employees a choice of a holiday on a Wednesday or a Thursday, followed by one on a Sunday, that applies to all. Amrutha S, who works for Minacs, said breaking the weekend started at the company two months ago.
The majority of the workforce which spends on an average five hours on the road to commute between work and home, gets exhausted by Friday. "Most of us are accepting and enjoying the midweek break concept as it gives us a chance to recharge and refresh," she offered. Apart from Minacs, companies which are following the pattern are Netdata and Iron Mountain India.
(Originally published in The Times of India)