How is work carried out?

How Work Is Actually Organised

Work in Indian industry is not a single, uniform experience. It ranges from fully automated large factories to small home-based production units. At the heart of every workplace is a basic tension: the manager’s job is to control workers and extract more output from them. There are two classic methods to achieve this — either lengthen the working day, or increase the amount produced within a fixed time. Machinery helps raise production, but it also carries the threat that machines will eventually replace human workers.

Both Karl Marx and Mahatma Gandhi saw mechanisation as a danger to employment. Gandhi, in particular, distinguished between machinery itself and the “craze for machinery.” In Hind Swaraj (1924), he wrote that what he objected to was labour-saving machinery that saves time for a few while throwing thousands out of work. His alternative was the spinning wheel — adopting it would solve unemployment, end the exploitation of one nation by another, and stop the rich from exploiting the poor.

The Worker as an Extension of the Machine

In older industries like textile mills, workers often described themselves as extensions of the machines they operated. Ramcharan, a weaver in Kanpur cotton mills from the 1940s, explained that weaving required continuous focus — the eyes, neck, legs, and hands all had to move together. With four machines running, all four had to be kept in motion without stopping. The worker could not go anywhere; the gaze had to remain fixed on the machine.

The Cost of Mechanisation: The Maruti Example

The more mechanised an industry becomes, the fewer people it employs, but those who remain must work at the machine’s pace. At Maruti Udyog Ltd., two cars roll off the assembly line every minute. Workers get only 45 minutes of rest in the entire day — two tea breaks of 7.5 minutes each and one lunch break of half an hour. Most workers are exhausted by age 40 and take voluntary retirement.

While production has risen, the number of permanent jobs in the factory has fallen. The company has outsourced all services — cleaning, security, and even the manufacture of parts. Parts suppliers are located around the factory and send components every two hours, following a “just-in-time” system. Outsourcing and just-in-time keep costs low for the company, but workers remain tense: if supplies fail to arrive, production targets are delayed; when supplies do arrive, workers have to run to keep up. No wonder they get exhausted.

The IT Sector: ‘Time Slavery’ and Taylorist Labour Processes

Software professionals are middle class and well educated. Their work is supposed to be self-motivated and creative. Yet, as Box 5.1 shows, their work is also subject to Taylorist labour processes — the same logic of control and intensification found in factories.

An average workday in IT is 10–12 hours, and it is not uncommon for employees to stay overnight in the office (called a “night out”) when facing a project deadline. Long working hours are central to the industry’s “work culture.” Two reasons explain this:

• Time difference with clients: Conference calls tend to happen in the evening, when the working day in the United States begins.
• Underestimation of project costs: Outsourced projects are often priced and scheduled based on an eight-hour day, but the actual work requires far more mandays. Engineers must put in extra hours to meet deadlines.

Extended working hours are legitimised by “flexi-time” — a management practice that in theory gives employees freedom to choose their working hours, but in practice means they must work as long as necessary to finish the task. Even when there is no real work pressure, employees tend to stay late due to peer pressure or to show the boss they are working hard.

Social Consequences of IT Work Patterns

Because of these long working hours, in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Gurugram — where many IT firms and call centres are located — shops and restaurants have changed their opening hours and stay open late. When both husband and wife work, children have to be put in crèches. The joint family, which was supposed to have disappeared with industrialisation, seems to have re-emerged: grandparents are roped in to help with childcare.

The Debate on Deskilling …