The West has Christmas holidays. The Middle East has Ramzan break. Even China has a New Year week celebrations. India being the land of festivals unfortunately still has no major leave.

Perhaps, it is the result of long years of colonialism and thereafter the struggle to shrug off the third world tag that forced us to take no leaves but work relentlessly to win the hearts of Western Clients. Or it may even be the case of too many choices. Which festival can we uphold as the national festival? This question itself can stoke riots. So, better safe than sorry. None of the festivals is looked at with bias. All are treated equally badly.

Take any profession. Take any position in that profession. One ends up spending almost 10-12 hours at work. Add to that, 2-3 hours of daily commute. Eventually one spends almost 2/3^rd of the day at work. Assuming 30 years of professional life, that comes to contributing the best chunk of one’s life to work. On top of that, we have growing number of workaholic and socially agnostic people for whom festivals, social gatherings make no sense. Work and more importantly slog work is what appeals to them. Such people no doubt rise higher in the corporate ladder and when they manage people, they become the tyrants that make office a hell. For them, leaves are a lame excuse to escape from work. In their calendars, even weekends mutate to be work days. Such bosses engender inhumane work expectations and these percolate down the ladder. It almost seeps in the genes. Families are brought up on such fodder of thought.

But such attitude though it may seem masochist or sadist does not leave the perpetrator without sorrow. Over period of time, such people become irritated, frustrated and depressed with life. Families are wrecked apart. The spark to live life passes away and that is when life becomes drudgery.

Indians boast with pride the cultural values of family bonding. With such increasingly hectic schedules, even nuclear families are at risk, leave alone joint and extended families. With festivals losing the warmth of yesteryears, family ties are weakening and Indian values are slowly fading away. The West looked upto us for this; we are looking down upon it.

If the objective of work is to live, not leave, a better life, then is not a break mandatory? Does it not make sense to run away from work for a while, rejuvenate, contemplate and come back charged and excited? Even the passionate require a break from their pursuits. A timely break can spell wonders. A little time off to talk with close friends, relatives, family is extremely crucial to get back to life.

Sometime ago, the concept of optional leaves was started to allow the choice of leaves for the employee. But, the word optional means ‘not mandatory’ for Indians and that leaves such holidays as forsaken for work. With weekends also counted as ‘worked from home’ hours, employees have literally become machines that need only oiling and cooling, but no downtime. This is the primary reason for burnouts, blackouts at young age.

We need to design a system which enforces leaves onto people. We need to push people back home, back to their families and not pull families into work using Company outings. We must throw people out of offices and thrust leaves into their calendars.

It would sound hyperbolic but why not compel people to take a minimum number of leaves every year. Why not penalize people for not taking the minimum leaves? Why not award people for taking leaves and achieving their targets?

Concept of half days is also interesting but often misinterpreted. Many times, we do not have work, but just to fill up the hours, we end up dragging ourselves across to office. Why not include a fixed number of half days in the set of available leaves?

Work from home is another feature in current attendance policy. But, expectations are not set in accordingly. If one is at home, is it right to expect the same level of work, response as in office? One can possibly respond to emails, get involved in calls, but is it fair to bundle loads of work over email?  Besides, smart employees mask leaves under this reason and that has spoiled the lure of the feature.

There is no reward for full attendance. So, let us reverse the logic and penalize full attendance. This sounds absurd and unfair, but who likes to work all the time? If the answer is none, then why approve people for that? By approving such relentless work, we tend to idolize it and that sets in expectations for juniors. Will it be unreasonable if we set in simple penalties for 15 months of no leaves? Let the companies decide what is the threshold, but let there be a threshold.

The sky never falls if one takes a leave. The company will never die if one takes a break. There are always enough load bearers in this world. One needs to accept this and respect one’s life.  There is a serious, pressing need for corporations to redesign the leaves system. They need to relook at the breakpoints for every project. The workforce needs to be awakened to their own needs for their own betterment.

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