The New Age 'Shop Floor'...

One of the most dreaded places on earth is a place called 'Shop Floor'. Mechanical engineers would agree in totality. During my transition from an engineering setup to an IT company and then to telecom has made me think "Are we witnessing the emergence of a new shop floor???"

Well, typically a shop floor would be defined as:

Workers + Machines + Supervisors = Production

Over the years, the young Indian graduating out of any school has seen a drastic change in this equation. It has now become:

(Workers=Machines) + Bosses/Supervisors = Deliverables

At the core level, there has not been any significant change. It is still the same old story. Reach office at nine (Or whatever flexible time you feel like coming). Do the same work you did yesterday (or day before or the day before day before..) and leave office once you are done. There have certainly been some minor changes here and there:

• Shifts have been replaced by 'Flexi timings'.. Though you still work nine hours a day.
• 'Machines' are more jazzed up. They are sleek and dont occupy as much space. No oiling required but frequent restarts required (thanks to 'Windows').. But, there is one thing that has not changed - They are still black and don't listen to what you say...
• The worker is replaced by a smart (i am not sure if that is the right word) B-School grad who earns much better than the worker by doing nothing.
• No more overtime. Thats because you dont even contribute for what you are paid for... is contribution inversely proportional to salary drawn or is it vice versa?? or is it a straight line passing through the origin where contribution is on the X-Axis and compensation is on Y-Axis. (Now, this is called an engineer's language..)

The discussion would go on and on and on... But, the point is :

If you are one of those who look forward to Mondays (Provided that Monday is not a weekly off) then you are certainly NOT working on the 'Shop Floor'.. This is the question each one of us needs to ask ourselves - "Are we working on the 'Shop Floor'???"

Is this new emerging 'Shop floor' going to be as dreaded as the older one?? Only time can answer...

NOTE: There is no intention to spoil the beauty of a manufacturing setup, it is just being used as a metaphor...