The typical working day

Respondents‟ working day involved heavy workloads, long hours, training and development programs and after-hours social obligations. In what follows I will explore each of these dimensions in detail.

Workloads and working hours

Seven private sector respondents in early and mid-career commented on the extensive workloads and long hours which characterised their typical working day:

I have been trying to put a number on the hours I work a day but I am too scared to count. I work day and night - it is no joke. Most of these clients’ calls come in the nights – around 8.30 pm to be precise. So I hang around office till then. We have only three people including me at the department. We are seriously understaffed but nobody does anything about it. I told them that we need more staff, and they told me

that I can hire another person to the department if I want to. But I don’t have the time to do it - I need their help. And they never asked about it again (Shanili, 36)

Shanili‟s extensive work schedule seems to be partially attributable to understaffing in her organisation. Three other private sector respondents similarly spoke about how their employers entrusted them with additional duties out their official job specifications. Nishanya explains:

On my first day I discovered that the administration responsibilities also came under the finance manager for a couple of months! They said it is just for a few months but I have been doing it for three years. I am very annoyed when people complain to me that there isn’t toilet paper in the bathrooms and tell me to do something about it – I am the finance manager for gods’ sake! (Nishanya, 36)

Interestingly, early and mid-career women‟s jobs in private organisations also included unofficial duties such as entertaining corporate clients after hours:

Whenever consultants from abroad or anybody like that comes to Sri Lanka, HR is required to entertain them. I guess they assign me to entertain foreign clients because I had lived abroad and could easily talk to foreigners. I once said to my boss that I am the one person from HR who entertains people the most. He said that I was the best person for this since I could talk to people easily (Shamila, 32)

Like Shamila, three other respondents complained about having to socialise with corporate clients regularly. Significantly this extended their working hours. However, most women

seemed to have adapted to their unofficial and official duties. Notably though, two respondents were looking for work in other organisations discreetly and planned to hand in their resignations once they secured another job.

In contrast to private organisations, workloads and working hours in the public sector appeared to be less gravelling. Natasha who works as a journalist for the pioneer state owned newspaper in Sri Lanka talked about her reasonable work schedule in comparison to her friend Anouk who worked at a leading private television station:

Work hours in government sector organisations are very good. They are completely overstaffed so there are many hands to share the work - whatever it is. My friend Anouk works about 14 hours a day at JTV. I leave work around 4.30 (Natasha, 25)

This encouraging view of conditions of service in public organisations prevailed across all public sector respondents‟ accounts.

Training and development programs

Twelve respondents in early and mid-career spoke about having to attend regular training and development programs in their organisations. Ten women were from the private sector and two were from the public sector. Most of these programs were on topics such as teamwork, leadership, motivation, emotional intelligence and stress management. Notably, many women did not think very highly of the content of the training programs they were often compelled to attend. Kishani shares her views about a training program she had to attend during a weekend:

A program on stress management on the only free day you have… ridiculous isn’t it?

(Kishani, 31)

Although many women were considerably burdened by having to attend these programs out of work hours, they emphasised that their employers expected them to attend and participate in these programs. Sherangi explains:

In my entire life I have never been trained so much. I have been to so many programs – I can’t even remember the names of most – it is all about teams. Most programs are held out of office hours and everybody sleeps through them. But in an organisation – you just have to attend. You could call in sick or get excused if you have an emergency but otherwise you just have to go (Sherangi, 26)

Significantly, almost all women appeared to be attending these programs selectively or coming off halfway through programs discreetly. Nishanya explains:

I don’t decline every program - I go for the short ones, come off during half of the program when the program is long (Nishanya, 36)

Three other respondents spoke about how they negotiated around training courses in their organisations in a similar manner.

After-hours activities in organisations

Seven private sector respondents in early and mid-career talked about how they were required to participate in after-hours activities held by their organisations, ostensibly intended to

provide leisure and entertainment for employees and promote organisational citizenship.

Shanili who works for a leading financial services outsourcing firm explains:

They hold too many events for employees – too much that it is not pleasurable.

Within this year they celebrated Valentine’s day, Halloween, the Sinhalese new year – all those were big do’s – we’ll probably have another array of events for Christmas and New year. And we have the regular Friday night drink that everybody meets up for, and there are these cricket matches that the Namba team plays against other offices. The management encourages everybody to attend these matches to build citizenship but they play a match almost every weekend! And Saturday morning is the only time I have to do some shopping with my family or take my son to play (Shanili, 36)

Like Shanili, other early and mid-career women were also burdened by these compulsory after-hours obligations at their workplaces.

Many women commented on the challenges they faced at home in having to attend organisational events held at night, especially since spouses and elderly family members vigorously opposed their participation. This point will be further developed in Chapter 11.

However despite all the reservations women had with these regular social activities, no one was willing to risk upsetting their superiors by simply „not going‟. Shamila explains:

My ex-husband had issues with the regularity of office events but I just had to go. I know some of the other girls had problems too. Some of the girls who were married just had other things to do in the nights – you can bring your partner to these events,

but most men just don’t want to go to places they don’t know much people. But nobody wanted to get the management on their bad side and risk their prospects (Shamila, 32)

In this insightful statement Shamila highlights that negative career consequences may follow those women who decline participating in these gatherings. Thus women‟s response to the difficult situation their organisations put them into was attending organisational events selectively, calling in sick occasionally to avoid after-hours social activities and/or using their young children as an excuse to not attend.

Roshini spoke about how she typically attends only social occasions which her husband can accompany her to and subtly avoids others:

I try to go with him [her husband] as much as possible. I try to avoid events which he cannot attend (Roshini, 28)

Four other respondents talked about how they compromised in the same way.

Three women explained how they called in sick occasionally in order to avoid after-hours get-togethers at work:

I occasionally say that I am not feeling well. Sickness is a good excuse. But you have to be careful not to do it too often and make them wonder why you get sick on every other weekend (Sherangi, 26)

While simply not attending social events was not justifiable, staying away for reasons of ill-health was acceptable, especially for women as long as it did not happen too often.

Kishani talked about how she explains to her boss that she cannot attend every occasion at her workplace since she had a young child at home:

Sometimes I say that I have to go home to Tirun [her son] – I don’t get a lot of time to spend with him after all and he is very small …… (Kishani, 31)

The women in this sample attempted to manoeuvre themselves around after-hours obligations at work by the various means noted above. However, given that bosses and managers in private organisations expected employees to participate in these social gatherings, attending events selectively may not be feasible from a career point of view.