Work from home is the need of the hour

The present pandemic in the world has bought to the fore a prime mistake in the industry. The mentality of the present industry is a carry over from the industrial revolution. The entire work force has to be brought into a walled fortress and hold them for a minimum number of hours under a different setup and set of laws different from the societal setup. The precursor to the industrial revolution was the cottage industry. Every society had its equilibrium by specialists doing what they do best and continue to do so for centuries. Majority of the cottage industry were highly skilled and carefully guarded secrets. Very rarely did finished goods cross the local society. Every society had its dress code based on the raw material and the ability of the tailor in the locality. Majority of the procedures were available in the house of the creator.

Now it is all about nationwide/global markets. Highly skilled jobs have been broken down to easily assimilated steps which can be done by anybody. There are not much crafts which can be called a secret in the present scenario. All the goods created so were physical in nature. It made sense to create the most economical process flow to minimize the costs. This industry also gave birth to the service industry which are truly global. But still there are mom and dad service centers who cater to the last mile.

The one industry which blindly followed the strategies of the physical industry is the software industry. The work content are poles apart. The software industry does not need to collect all the contributors under one concrete building. The industry works on collaboration and there have been many tools available for collaboration through the public network. The industry also employs a considerable number of people and the earnings are also supposed to be good. This industry contributes most to the usage of roads/vehicles since this industry works three shifts. There are not many physical industries which can run all the three shifts with the same efficiency. Code written at home or at desk are no different. In fact, the disturbances of the open office or the cramping of the closed ones dont augur well for the motivation of the contributors.

It is now high time the industry and the government wakes up and stops this movement of the work force. The software and the call center/remote service industry have to start working from home. This will reduce the load on the roads and the infrastructure can be utilized for other purposes. This would also result in stabilizing the real estate prices. This would also stop investment in projects like we-work. This can be utilized in improving the public network backbone. This sort of work culture can employ well deserving remote employees who cant come down to the cities for a job. This would in turn provide opportunity for remote workers in villages to do an evening/night job combined with agriculture and other familial activities. This is perfect for the female staff to take care of their kids and their education. There are many occasions where high earning couples are not having time to contribute for their kids. Just a mere presence of the parents in the house can mean a lot for the kids. This gives an opportunity for real flexi hours based on the commitment of the parents like sending the kid for school and then collecting him back.

Motivational theories are to be re-written, Managerial roles are to be re-configured and definitely will create jobs for people to maintain the public network infrastructure. Improvements should always be welcome and learning should be continuous and inclusive. I request all the software companies to completely shift to remote working and give opportunities to the most remote locations and identify and support capable people wherever they are. The pandemic demands minimum amount of people available in the out. Make the world a better place.

Should people work to live

There is one common thread in all of the world's religion. Work. Every living being has its purpose. This purpose is nothing but something to be done, work, again. All theologians talk about a super being and all the rules to worship that deity. They just differ in minor ways but the intent is to direct you towards an all encompassing entity. But, religion cannot exist out in thin air. It requires people, alive. How do you keep people alive. How do you provide for this. You make them work. Include passages/writings/rules in the framework which somehow tells this is one way to reach the one. In fact you can afford the path to the one only if you work. It is like a minimum requirement to be part of the religion. In fact work has created rifts among the people over the entire human history and continue to do so. With written knowledge now available to all the human beings, The classification is going to be different in the near future. We are going to have a world wherein everybody will be educated. There will no more be a situation where a select few can read the written knowledge being passed on from previous generations. Suddenly this generation can read all the knowledge generated over all the 20 centuries and is available to everybody with minimum effort. With this it will be difficult to get people to work based on old rules of caste/color/region etc. There have to be other means where you have to create dependency which in turn will force people to work willfully without knowing it. It will be more efficient compared to the older models where you forced them to work.

All the economic theories/political theories are not alien to it. In fact these ideologies talk about work in a direct sense. Working people is the basis of all the present economic/political frameworks. Even Marx's thoery starts and ends with work and workers. In fact it starts to quantify work in the best possible way. Ok...ok, I got it. You are telling me that there have been recent experiments where a minimum amount is paid as a "wage" and the individual is not required to work in the traditional sense. Why are the people in these experiments being paid. This is an ideology wherein the system is expecting contributions from the individual on his own. It is pressurizing the individual to contribute out of commitment by paying advance salary. It is a proven fact that actions/efforts happening unconsciously/willfully takes minimum effort of the brain. This arrangement of work can be utilized to increase the throughput of the effort required to complete a job.

Are we born to work. Should we work to survive. Are we not entitled to live on this planet without doing any work. Is minimum wage the answer for the 1% to keep the 99% working. Should the 99% work.

Generics and Specifics

            There are various classifications of the "working" class. When I say working class, I meant everybody. Everbody? Yes. Everybody. Everybody works for "something" It is very difficult to tell the "something" of everybody. The Marxist theory considered only one part of the people who were doing physical work.

           Physical work is the result, byproduct or a requirement for the mental processing. By processing I meant everything from an empty gaze to finding the answers about "everything" and "nothing". Work aganin should not be restricted to what people do for money or to extend their existence. Even shifting a position should be taken as work. In fact if we broaden the scope, anything which changes the entropy of the world is work.

         But according to me all living beings have to do some sort of "work". Let us limit ourselves to Homo sapiens. My classification would be

1. Generics
2. Specifics

1. Generics:  Majority of the worlds population would come into this population. So what do generics do? They do routing jobs which is similar throught their existence on the planet. The job/work the generics do are the result of work done by the specifics. The source of all the generic work can be traced back to the work done by the specifics. Dont ask any examples here. Now, why is the majority of the population doing generic work? Is it that the major work available is generic? Is it because the majority is born that way? Is it because they are brought up in that way? Is it because we are supposed to be like this? Is it because the job/work available in plenty is generic? Is it all of the aforesaid and many other reasons which you may come up? Whatever be the answer, the fact is that majority of the jobs are generic in nature.

              How would you label a job generic? A generic job is easy to pickup, Maybe we already have that capability, You can be trained into it, You observe and pickup, In summation they require a minimum of mental effort and more of physical efforts. But we cannot tell all jobs requiring physical effort are generic in nature. But all physical jobs are to be made generic for optimization. Can the world do without generics? No. Just look around, look inside. There are generic jobs to done throught the life of everybody. Specifics also carry out a lot of generics like eating/sleeping/walking, albeit a little lesser. If we talk about industries generics have one more advantage. Generics are like pluggable modules. We can repair a minor flaw and plug it in once again. The same job can be carried out by another man effortlessly by observation, little training or by using the common sense gained over the years. Scientific management gurus and the japanese took the generics to a whole new level, by optimizing. Generic jobs are normally carrried out in mechanical frame of mind.

2. Specifics:  This is a very small majority of the population. But, they are the reason for all the generic jobs in the world. They normally carry out a very small portion of generics, only for survival. Specifics break new avenues or take the existing generics and take it to a whole new level. They are not pluggable/replacable that very easily. Negligible portion of specifics are born that way. They normally reach the specific mental level by starting from a generic background. They get paid heavily, But that doesnt mean that they yearn for that. They are more bothered about the environment. Some do want to make a "name". Some others would do it for pure fun. They can make the world a better place and at the same time improve on a negative aspect also. Capable specifics can be doing generic jobs owing to other reasons like ease of the job, no load on the brain or they just dont care.

Why dont "all" generics try to achieve that "specific" state of mind?

My answer would be that "They just dont want to do so"

It is my personal appeal to all the generics(including me) to strive towards the specific frame and make the world a better place and in turn motivate other generics to do so.