Different cultures and countries have their ways to improve workforce productivity. On December 27, the Spanish government promulgated a new law to eliminate the siesta for all government agencies. Since the gaining of its entry into the EU in 1986 under the socialist administration of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzáles, Spain’s socialist government has been working towards increasing its productivity and competitiveness. The practice of siesta had been under strong criticism since 1999, where the anti-siesta forces argued that a 3-hour siesta was an obstacle to an efficient work system. The original intent of the siesta was to allow workers to go home for lunch. However, as Spain continues to grow, more workers commute from suburbs and it becomes impractical to go home for lunch since a one way commute may take more than an hour. Gradually, there were signs among big companies that their lunch breaks were streamlined to two hours. This new law has further pared the siesta down to only one hour, though it is only applicable to the public sector. Business lobby groups like Circulo de Empresarios welcomed the change and so did millions of commuters. Now that government offices close at 5 or 6 p.m., workers can spend more time at home or to play. According to the 2005 Productivity Study by Proudfoot Consulting (a global consulting firm based in London), a poll showed that an average of only 22% of executives in five European countries, the U.S., Australia and South Africa believed that their business productivity has remained the same compared to 42% of the executives in Spain. An average of 47% of the executives believed that their business productivity has increased about 10% while only 34% of their counterparts in Spain believed so. So will Spain gain a competitive edge with the passage of the new law and forfeit a cultural phenomenon which makes Spain unique? How much culture does a member state has to give up in order to remain competitive in the EU or the world? Will there be any truth to the comment made by a communication consultant who told FT’s reporter Leslie Crawford in Madrid that he is doubtful that anything meaningful can be accomplished in a 45-minute lunch?
Instead of cutting short lunch hour to increase workforce productivity, DreamWorks and Hewlett-Packard gave birth to a silver spoon baby, Halo. According to HP, the Halo Collaboration Studio enables users to communicate in a vivid, face-to-face environment in real time regardless of their geographical location. Halo is said to have all the advantages of videoconferencing plus the attention to color science and imaging minus the technical flaws of the current ones in the market. In order to use Halo, a company has to purchase at least two Halo rooms ($550,000 each) set up for six people each with three plasma displays in each room where users utilize an on-screen interface to collaborate. The Halo room is also installed with studio-quality audio and lighting. Perhaps the best feature is that users can share documents and data directly from their notebooks using the plasma displays. (This reminds me of an electronic judge chamber in Singapore.) So far, HP installed 13 Halo rooms and PepsiCo three.
The quest for more workforce productivity and leisure time tarries. Working culture continues to go through its metamorphosis as companies and countries try their best to assimilate to the international work pace to gain a competitive edge. To avoid sounding like a eurosceptic or globalsceptic, one only hopes that technology will help to achieve these economic goals as well as to preserve cultures to maintain the kaleidoscopic nature of this world.
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Posted by: Unlonsog | January 31, 2012 at 03:53 AM