Why Can Indians Not Adapt 3-Day Working Week Culture?

There is a buzz that Indian employees won’t fit into 3 days work culture to boost productivity at work, as believed by some HR Experts. Why? Well, before we get into that, let’s just give a quick peep into from where did this model come into
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3-Day Working Week Model:
This model is suggested by Carlos Slim and Richard Branson, world’s top billionaire business leaders, according to whom, “employees can work for 11-hours a day for three days, following which they can have a 4-day long off in a week.” They believe “employee productivity can be improved with longer working hours in just three days, as against spreading them across more number of days.”

What’s experts take on this?                             
In India this model is not apt for certain industries as well as job profiles, as believed by Indian experts. “The idea of 11-hour work days is like sprint running or a 100-meter dash and therefore the model will only suit some industries or jobs. For instance customer service, retail, entertainment and healthcare cannot operate on this model,” SAP Labs India HR head T Shivaram said. He continued, “In developing economies where productivity is the key, the need is to create more jobs and therefore this model will not work.”

Other reasons why Indians won’t fit in this work culture:

* Adverse effect for workers on hourly wages: 
As per the model, if employees would work for 11 hours each day for 3 days in a week, then they would in total work for 33 hours, whereas the standard hours today are 40 hours. The workers who are paid on hourly basis would have to suffer with their income and might have to look for second income.

* Unsupportive current situation: 
At present situation, productivity at workplace is still an issue, and in that situation if this model is introduced then it would further affect the productivity. “We in India are poor on productivity and a 3-day work week would reduce that further. I believe even now a 5-6 day week produces only as much as 3 days equivalent of work in the western world,” says Joseph Devasia, managing partner of global executive recruitment firm.

*  After work life: 
In India there is a family culture, where every person has certain responsibility for his family which might not get possible during workdays, if this 3 day work week model is introduced.

* Different meanings of flexibility: 
Well, if the complete idea of introducing 3 week work model is flexibility then there are other options. Giving options in flexibility not in terms of working hours but how and where to accomplish the work would even contribute in retaining talent.

by-CareerBuilder India