Sunday, April 30, 2006

Work Hard, Play Hard, Result = Increased Productivity?




In the workplace, imagine we can work and play at the same time?
If you are bored with your work, go down to the cafe, get yourself a cup of cappucino, sitting down while watching Astro Supersport, or Astro MTV.
Then you saw your friends enjoying a game of pool and snooker laughing away as if there are no worries in the world. SOme are having a go at the board games, Scrabble, Piktionary and chess
Down the corridor, somebody just woke up from their afternoon nap, walking past, greeting you,
"Good afternoon" (Wow, imagine you can sleep during working hours?)
After a 15-minute workout at the company gym, you head back to finish up some work.
Wouldn't it be nice if we can work in this environment?
Will it increase productivity, thus increasing supply?

These are not from some fictional environment, it is happening in Shell Malaysia at Cyberjaya.
“We recognise that work and life are intimately linked,” says Mabal Tan, director of Shell Information Technology International Sdn Bhd. But personal values and commitments versus company schedules and demands can unbalance one’s work life.
At Shell IT’s cheerful purpose-built office in Cyberjaya, sports club members can indulge in football and kickboxing, among other things. For indoor fun, there are games like Pictionary, billiards and table tennis. The gymnasium is well equipped, and has ample space for salsa, yoga and aerobics classes

For more information, read this..
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/4/30/lifefocus/14099864&sec=lifefocus

With the good relations between employers(firms) and employees, there are no worries of bad industrial relations, what happened to labour productivity and supply?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

walao...so cool...this shud b emphasize to all company in Malaysia..:D

They call it workers facilities, we call it workers right..:D
haha.

Anonymous said...

with the work n play concept, one will not be too stressed out,or maybe even looking forward to work ...thus increasing productivity. However, i think there are some limitations about this work n play concept. One may be looking forward to work d day, but-towards the play session instead of the work session.. will this decrease productivity?the employer should implement certain rules and limits before having a go for this concept

Wizzerd said...

not 2.3,
yes, companies should practise this concept. However, it depends on the resources of the company, and the nature of business the company is in.
Not all companies can apply this concept well.

Wizzerd said...

anonymous,
"However, i think there are some limitations about this work n play concept. One may be looking forward to work d day, but-towards the play session instead of the work session.. will this decrease productivity?"

Of course, there will be limits to the flexibility no doubt. Otherwise, the system will be abused. Rules have to be in place to ensure that work get done despite the facilities. But according to their HR manager, so far there has been no abuse. Workers themselves felt compelled to produce their best after they have been treated well.
And the disincentive will be: Any thing that goes wrong, all these will be taken away for good. Thus, workers might not want to risk that.

Anonymous said...

i think bfore a company decide to provide such facility,they must consider the characters of their employees..bcoz if they have bad and indicipline workers,they will get the trouble by proviing that facility..right??