Job Blues in India

My exhilarated sister, with a gush of delirious happiness and satisfaction, on completion of several interview rounds of cut-throat competition, called up her mother to share her achievement of getting a dream job. This “tears of joy” feeling is experienced by each individual on bagging one’s first job. The transition from a university graduate into a formalized and professional outfit is akin to a changeover for a woman from her own family lifestyle to a post-marriage life promulgating a life with greater responsibility. It is important to note that everyone is not born with a silver spoon to have all check-boxes ticked while finding the most desirable first job. Different needs and circumstances beget a choice to be made by an individual which is plausibly not in one’s control. So, the offer letter gets signed off starting a new journey which is completely different, making one realize that the life was (maybe) much more enjoyable before this change.

Three to six months into this journey, those tears of joy turn into #MondayMorningBlues, mid-week struggles and a countdown to weekend to get out of the office desk and run away into wilderness. Individuals are hopeful of an extended weekend or are wishful of holidays which they relished in colleges during the summer or Diwali break. Now, the breaks taken either get deducted from the casual leaves or could also pinch one’s pocket in the form of a lowered salary. The excitement on the start of the very first day at office starts dipping and things which enlivened one during the first week at work turn-out to be points of complaints with each progressing day. Late night working drains out the happiness of an individual who is putting in those extra miles for the employer.

A number of thoughts flash across my mind when I try to understand the rationale behind these feelings. Are these feelings experienced by only those who fail to get into their so called “dream job-profile”? Probably not, as the reluctance to get out of one’s bed on a Monday morning to kick-start a robotic process for the next week is experienced by all.

Firstly, the idea of “Law of Diminishing Marginal utility”, steps into action while analyzing the dip in the enjoyment at work. Utility is measured as the total satisfaction received from consuming a good or service while marginal utility is the incremental increase in utility that results from consumption of additional unit of good or service. To illustrate this idea, a consumer who is fond of eating mangoes is provided with a platter full of mangoes and is told to savour on the juicy aromatic pulp as much as possible. As the number of mangoes intake increases, the utility declines, becomes zero and subsequently turns negative. This idea of diminishing marginal utility can be similar to the hours which one puts, increasing the utility initially, but reaches a saturation level after a given point of time. The weekend acts as savior and puts an individual into inertia of rest (from work). However, life moves forward, giving a jerk (the backward jerk as experienced in a bus) and reminding one of the #MondayMorningBlues.

Another idea close to the idea of utility is that of “Consumer surplus”. The idea of a consumer surplus can be explained as the total difference between the total amount that consumers are willing and able to pay for a good or a service and the total amount that they actually pay. However, this idea gets modified while working in a corporate world. The surplus here is the difference between the salary/perquisites/awards won by an employee and the amount of efforts put forth by the individual. When this surplus turns into deficit, the saturation point gets triggered leading to one just going through the motions day-in and day-out.

The idea of a “learning curve” which teaches us that with the increasing number of hours put in to do a job, the experience to do it increases and the hours to complete the task plateaus. Similarly, by doing the same thing again and again, the expertise increases but the enthusiasm to do the same thing dwindles. However, the falling enthusiasm to do a repeated activity is not experienced by everyone as the perception of each one looking at it is different. If one tries to learn something unique each time one performs the activity, the learning curve (as studied above) will take its normal shape, but the value-addition done each time will never dwindle one’s enthusiasm.

Lastly, the cut-throat competition between employers and peers and the sword (placed near your epiglottis) in the form of “deadlines” tries to bring the best in you, but results in one putting in so much overtime hours that by default you await the distant weekend in anticipation. Those overtime hours bring in additional incentives, but the lack of time to spend them brings further disutility. 

This micro-level analysis brings me to draw a small tangent to a macro level picture on employment concerns based on the recently released annual State of Working India (SWI) report by the Azim Premji University, with a detailed ground level research conducted by Dr. Amit Basole, Dr. Arjun Jayadev and team. The recent article in Livemint by Anurag Behar, the CEO of Azim Premji Foundation, providing a summary of this report brings out few key points which caught my attention:

1. India has been growing at a much faster pace since 1990 than the 1970-80s, but the employment growth has been much slower since 1990
2. Majority of Indians (67% of households as per the report) have a monthly earnings of upto Rs. 10,000/- in 2015, reflective that Indians may not be earning sufficient to have a sustainable living
3. Labour productivity is increasing at a much faster pace than wage increase during the past 3 decades.

The numbers are a reality check not only for the present government, but for all the governments in the past three decades as the idea of “jobless growth” in India clearly gets reflected. The macroeconomic picture looks bleak and requires interventions from all ends (private and government) to clear the deep-rooted problem and create sustainable jobs in India. However, the critical point is from the micro perspective which requires individuals to shed those working blues experienced and focuses more on individual creativity in making the job-profile more and more happening. The idea of the learning curve is not only to gain expertise in doing an activity faster but to learn different things each time you do the same activity. My sister now has a dream job which augurs well for her future. However, it is upon her to re-live that dream and make it as thrilling as she can!!!

-       Sushant Hede

     30^th September, 2018

Bibliography:

a.) Opinion: Sustainable and Just jobs for all; 
Author: Anurag Behar
Link: https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/CM0USHZoSjrJ083yMUgzTM/Opinion--Sustainable-and-just-jobs-for-all.html