It’s about 10 PM and the night has started off with some
strong philosophical debate. I was lost in thoughts about the value of IT,
automation and how sometimes the ‘real’ value of humane consciousness may be
losing after all! Let me forewarn this is a philosophical yet valuable
thought-train for technology leaders and an interesting question for fellow
bread-winners to take away…
First the question: are you relishing the salary that you draw especially in current macro-and
micro-economic period?
In my school days, I remember how the 1st of
month set the expectations rolling and how the family prepared itself to the
run up-to an end of month. Planning started at least a fortnight in advance and
the joy of being born in a middle class family means – it allows the family
members to gain a concept of ‘planning’ – This prepares the younger members of
the family to understand the concept of money, planning and more importantly
saving. Straightaway as a kid, I got myself the hat of project manager –
Planning and Commercial acumen on the mould.
There was a little hum of joy for the first few days, the
cash would be counted and the old man would go to a state run bank to deposit…
Subsequently this element disappeared as the cheque came through and very soon,
the money was directly deposited and cheque as well disappeared, but now there
was a payslip.
Fast forward to 1990s when I began to earn. This was a time
where IT bloomed in India and I earned much more than my dad would have in a
decade – Soon I was in the land of opportunities where the pay cheque was
delivered twice a month. The feeling was double and the payslip was a good
feel-factor.
Subsequently with good business cases for IT automation and ‘value’
to employee, HR departments have totally done away with the payslips and now it
is just a downloadable pdf. The situation is I don’t download the payslip that
often. In fact I even forgot the last payday, which is what set these thoughts
rolling… I will throw in a piece of info: every month-end, I still review the
accounts, debt etc. Anyone who knows me, will surely concur on my management
accounting skills and how I apply it on my household finances as well to review
my investments and debts… I share this coz’ it’s not that I am at a position
where pay-cheques are not important – I give due consideration to finances, but
the very fact of automation means that many of you like me, wouldn’t be
receiving a pay cheque or a pay slip – so back to my opening question – do you
relish your paydays anymore?
How many of you enjoy or carry the feeling of earning money?
Have the HR teams made an incorrect decision about doing away with physical
payslips – has this concept subconsciously made us the humans lose the very
concept about relishing what we earn and would this impact our productivity? According
to me, this is quite an interesting concept in the days of ‘everything on
social media/cloud’ and ‘smart-computing/tablets’ – How humane are we? How is
technology impacting us subconsciously?
PS: If I have money and time, I would be keen to do a
research on this topicJ!
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