Recently I saw something in the gym that I go to, which triggered a strong feeling in me about ‘Do-It-Yourself’ tasks. I joined this place recently and was not used to a rather amusing sight. There are of course a multitude of workout machines including stationary bikes, treadmills, EFX, etc and a multitude of people sweating it out working these machines. While I was on the treadmill doing the same, I noticed that there was a cleaning lady from the gym who was armed with a spray-can full of some sort of cleaning/sanitizing liquid and waiting patiently in a corner watching everyone. I was just about to ask myself the question of what her job was when I got my answer rather proactively. One of the ladies who entered the workout area looked around and caught the attention of the cleaning lady with a flick of her fingers and even before I could wonder what she was going to do, the cleaning lady came running along and wiped clean all the handles of the treadmill. The trying-to-get-fit lady got on the treadmill and started her workout. A few minutes later the trying-to-get-fit lady got off the treadmill and repeated the same routine and the cleaning lady ran along and wiped clean the stationary bike. I almost smiled at the mirror in front of me and wondered how this could be happening. I instantaneously despised this lady and thought how she could be so snooty as to not want to just wipe clean the machine herself. Following this I saw it was not just this one lady but several people who were doing the same. This triggered some more feelings about how cheap labour was being used in the country. Is this kind of a job worthwhile someone’s time even if they get paid money to do this? What is the person doing the job likely to be feeling about it? What value would the person attach to the job in hand and therefore how effectively will he/she be delivering the expected outcome? While these questions started popping up in my head images of several such jobs which could easily be abolished if each of us did our share came to my mind.
-Like the job of the guy who was opening and closing an entrance door to a multiplex in one of the city’s swanky malls. I presume he was doing it so that someone wouldn’t just leave the door ajar and thereby reduce the effect of the air conditioning.
- Like the job of the guy in the airport who just checks at the immigration gate if I have filled the immigration form. Again, he presumably does this to ensure someone who hasn’t done it won’t hold up the long queue if his turn comes up.
- Like the traffic police man who mans the subway near my avenue every morning just to ensure that no one pushes around the barricade that he has painstakingly placed.
I am sure you’re by now starting to think of many such jobs. There are several such jobs and it makes me wonder why we have these jobs and whether this is worthwhile and if it is indeed a way of under-estimating human ability. But then, I remember something that one of my Dutch colleagues remarked while another one asked me this question about why we have such jobs. He said, “At least it is a way of providing employment to someone which is better than the social system of The Netherlands where someone just gets paid to be unemployed”. That seems to indeed make sense!
I recently also read about Nandan Nilekani’s idea of the ‘demographic dividend’, which he describes as the benefit that our country is reaping due to its people.
According to this idea, our increasing population which was once considered our liability is now actually paying dividends as the rest of the world (especially Europe) is dealing with an aging population. When I think of this it does indeed make sense that the artificial demands created by an upwardly mobile nation is catering to the vast population looking to make ends meet. And for a majority of this population, may be it matters that they have a job more than what kind of job it is. However, as per Nilekani the advantage of the demographic dividend will be fully realized only if we equipped with the right population, a population that can meet the demands of knowledge based industry and the resultant jobs. Given this, it does look like the way we use most of our population is not exactly helping us reap the dividends. For me however, more than dividends, it is the idea of using human potential for far lesser than it’s worth that is worrying. May be I’m just an obsessive believer in the bigger purpose of life. Can’t tell clearly yet.
Image sources: http://imaginingindia.com/explore-and-discuss-the-book/ & www.cartoonstock.com/directory/b/boring_jobs.asp
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