We need a better work culture
By Glenn C. Kharkongor
This article will meander through several topics, but eventually we’ll get to the conclusion that if we all work harder and better, Meghalaya’s economy can develop faster for the benefit of us all. The main beneficiaries will be our youth, whose job and financial prospects will be enhanced.
The Shillong Times of Mar 10, 2025 carried a front-page article titled, “Meghalaya among states with shortest working hours for government and private employees.” The data was compiled and published by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). The study highlighted significant differences in working hours across the country, with Meghalaya standing out for its notably shorter workdays.
The study sample included more than four lakh individuals, aged 15-59 years, across the country. The national average time spent on paid economic activities is 422 minutes per day, about seven hours. In Meghalaya, individuals work an average of 375 minutes per day, approximately 6.25 hours, placing our state among the bottom states, with the lowest time spent on economic activities.
Government employees in urban areas of Telangana and Rajasthan work two more hours each day on an average than their counterparts in Meghalaya. In rural Meghalaya, the report indicates similarly low working hours, suggesting this trend may be influenced by social, economic, or lifestyle factors unique to the region.
US$ 10 billion one
year early
According to the EAC-PM report, 1% more time spent on employment work is positively associated with a 1.7% per capita increase in the Net State Domestic Product (NSDP). So, if individuals in Meghalaya worked as much as the national average, that is 11% more, the increase to the NSDP would be about 19%.
In Meghalaya, the NSDP reached Rs. 37,925 crore (US$ 4.76 billion) in 2022-23. With national level working hours, it could have been US$ 5.67 billion, a big step closer to the state target of US$ 10 billion by 2028. This goal can be reached one year earlier just by increasing work hours to the national level.
Shillong Culture:
slow motion
In a recent conversation with a young Gen Z colleague, I remarked about our slow motion pace of life, our tendency to take personal and work priorities lightly, and the lack of high aspirations. She chuckled and said, “Well, that’s Shillong culture!”
The participants in a recent survey among working professionals in a higher education institute in the state called for better work-life balance. This is of course an important priority. But several of the respondents suggested even lower working hours.
Less working hours and a slow pace seem to be inbuilt into the psyche of the general work force, especially in organizations with fixed hours like government and education. But even in Meghalaya there are certain sectors like health, hospitality and journalism in which long hours are inherent in those workplaces.
Shillong Culture has become a Shillong Syndrome. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a syndrome in medical parlance is “a group of signs or changes in the body that are typical of an illness”, or in sociology, “a set of opinions or a way of behaving that is typical of a particular type of person, attitude or social problem”. A social attitude that seems to be prevalent among Shillong youth is the low aspiration of just to get a job and a life partner. Such a mindset will affect attitudes to work.
Ability of the future
workforce
The Annual Status of Education Report 2024 (ASER), covered youth aged 14-18 years, across the country. Among students of Class 8 in Meghalaya, 57% cannot do subtraction of a two-digit number with borrowing, and 81% cannot do division of a three-digit number by a one-digit number. Of children in Class 8, one-fourth could not read a Class 2 book. These indices are among the lowest in the country. The performance in government schools were by far the poorest in the country, less than half of the next lowest state, Rajasthan.
Only 3.3% of schools in Meghalaya had computers, the lowest in the country, compared with 84% in Punjab. Almost all, 95%, of rural households in our state, has a smart phone, but only 38% of teenagers use it for educational activity, though 74% had used it for social media.
When these teenagers enter the workforce, there may be a question of work ability and efficiency. The quality, or lack of it, of the state education system will determine the standards of the future workforce in Meghalaya.
Why so few hours?
One obvious factor is the large number of holidays, more than other states in the country. Apart from the national holidays, we pay obeisance to a host of religious and cultural events and historic personalities, by commemorating them with holidays. For the most part these are local holidays, pandering to vote banks and enforced by pressure groups.
The actual number of hours actually spent working in an eight-hour day has been studied extensively. For those sitting at a desk in front of a computer, a UK survey showed an average of 2 hours 53 minutes per day in an observation study of office workers. The rest of the eight hours was spent on lunch and coffee breaks, socialising, social media and sites like TikTok.
The most productive professionals may perform 5-6 hours of work tasks, including meetings, emails, writing reports, or other job-related duties. Breaks may take 1-2 hours and the remaining non-work time is spent in stretching, walking around, and talking to colleagues. Of course, psychologists tell us that for humans, concentrating on work for every minute of an eight-hour day is impossible.
Time zone or change
work timings
Wrong work timings are the bugbear of the northeast states. We go to work when the sun is high up in the sky and in winters, we reach home after dark. These hours are misaligned with the diurnal fluctuations of certain body hormones, such as cortisol.
Cortisol follows a pattern of daily fluctuations, called the circadian rhythm. Sunlight plays a key role in regulating this rhythm. Natural morning light causes higher cortisol secretion, peaking shortly after waking, promoting alertness, concentration, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making. As the day progresses and light fades, cortisol levels decrease, reaching a low in the evening.
There are morning people who tend to have peak performance during the morning hours. For them, about two-thirds of the population, starting the day earlier, say at 8:00 am, will result in better focus and productivity, as their cortisol and alertness levels are high in the morning. Evening persons may struggle with early work hours because their peak physical and mental performance occurs later in the day. Children and adults tend to be more morning-oriented, while teenagers and youth tend towards later sleep patterns, leading to better evening performance.
In the Northeast, morning peak performance hours are lost, because we go to work several hours after dawn. Then we struggle to work optimally in twilight because our cortisol levels are at a low ebb. So, either we continue to push for a different time zone, or begin work earlier in the day, say at 8:00 am. Our bodies and minds can then capture these hormonal benefits.