According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the working hour for all levels of employees and workers should be eight hours per day. However, many of our private sector employees work from 9:00am to 6:00pm. Some work in shifts throughout the night and some have to work overtime. Working longer shifts does not always increase productivity. Rather, it may cause stress, monotony and anxiety among the employees, which can disrupt the qualitative work.
We do not live for work. We work for a living. Employees have another life too outside their office. They will work better next morning if their previous evening is spent well. If companies pressurise employees to stay longer at offices, employees will not even complete the work in a short time. They will take longer as they know they will have to stay at the office. So, it does not increase productivity. At what time employees leave the office is not important. The important thing should be whether they are doing their work properly or not. Therefore, the employers should make sure that their employees do not work more than eight hours a day. In the private sector, Saturdays too should be declared as holidays like government employees.
Afroza Sheikh,
Dania, Dhaka,
ilcbd2008@gmail.com