Today I woke up to an article in The Times of India about one of India's respected industrialist Ratan Tata expressing sadness about fellow industrialist Mukesh Ambani's opulent lifestyle. India media widely reported Mr Tata's published interview in UK's newspaper The Times. In a classic case of picking convenient news peg, TOI chose to ignore Tata's comment about Britain's work culture, which was picked by another newspaper Hindustan Times. The same interview mentions Tata commenting on how unlike their Indian counterparts, British managers are 'unwilling to go the extra mile' and offices are empty by Friday 5 pm even if there is a crisis.
For a first timer in the UK and an Indian like me, this comment is not a surprise. One of my early unusual experiences here was see see shops closing at 5 or 6 pm and empty high streets on Sunday evenings. Banks, fashion shops and offices all shut at 5 pm and people run towards the tube or rail station. As an Indian, am used to spend Sunday evenings outside doing window shopping and eating, here high streets are lonely after 4 or 5 pm on Sundays. Brits believe in partying hard on Friday and Saturday and Sunday is a rest day. My university library is open 24x7 the entire week, except on Fridays and Saturdays. If the university cafe is scheduled to close at 4 pm and you land up at the counter at 4.03 pm, you will be disappointed. Same thing applies to the opening times. I believe here people strictly work on time slots and will not sacrifice their social life for professional reasons. And this makes me wonder how do organisations like my professional sector like media work here? Will have to wait till I personally experience it
No comments:
Post a Comment