Hi All,

A question just struck me. Do we need to work hard or work smart to be successful in professional life? I do not want to hear a reply sounding both ! I know there could be a thousand perspectives to this and a million opinions , i decided to bring this on my blog because this is something that the working community today find difficult to get an answer ,especially the corporate ones.

Of course! if each of you had asked this question to your bosses the reply could vary , but what’s best is something subjective and debatable.

Me being a IT professional have listed down my views on both . These are things that i have noticed , heard and seen in my daily life: (this may sound more close to a IT perspective , excuse me if it does)

Hard Worker :

a) Stay late at office immaterial of if you have anything to do or not.
b) Take minimal coffee breaks.
c) Look around for your boss before leaving your seat. Don’t if he/she can see you.
d) Do something that would take a 1 hour in 3 hours and tell people that the task was daunting.
e) Stay late genuinely even if one could do the work the next day to ensure you have some
breathing time tomorrow.
f) Make sure you tell your boss every trivial thing you do which is ideally what is expected out
of you.

Smart Worker:

a) Plan your work as soon as it arrives so that you dont have to stay late.
b) Take as many breaks as you think you can with out affecting your work.
c) Not conscious about who is around and who is not , i do what i do attitude.
d) Stay late at office only when it is required to but prefer not to.
e) Assume that what you are doing is what you get paid for and not tell your boss evey small
thing you do to get his kudos. (Any ways the boss would know what you do in most cases ,
thats what they get paid for!).

Both of the above thesis listed have their own pros and cons. I myself have seen individuals who have had success in both these approaches (or nature if you wanna term it) though the ratios vary.

I personally feel that being a smart worker is the need of the hour. How ever this approach sometimes may not really take you where you intend to go. I would say working smart would be the best thing if you have a smart boss (professionally) and who realizes that at the end of the day , the work being done on time and at its best is what matters. But the above statement itself has a negative side to it. What if you don’t have a professionally smart boss?

There lies the problem! Because there are a lot of people who promote what they do and what they are. Some bosses get impressed if you are a late stayer and if they see you on your seat till they call it a day. Once you brand yourself as ‘Hard Worker’ it stays till you have the same boss. So don’t worry if you are a ‘hard worker’ you have something to cheer about .

I have seen managers who justify their stand that staying late can add value to one self and the organization. How many of them really do ? Is that the only way you can add value ? That’s ridiculous ! You can’t make people do good things by expecting them to stay late or glue them to their seats. Good ideas best evolve when people are let to do what they do best and in an ambience of their choice ( I assume no body would want to write a white paper in a pub .

I am not trying to abet that people should be let at their will , what i mean is once a piece of work is assigned , the person should be given the liberty to plan his/her work to stick to the planned schedule and should have the liberty to utilise their free time to add value in their chosen (convenient) way. Every individual will have a sense of responsibility and guilt which needs to be utilised in a justified way and this pratice should turn out to be a habit over a period of time. Once done , its like a train on a track , you dont need to steer it very often.

The bosses and the reportees should develop a level of trust , which is the key for getting the most out of individuals. Stringent rules and constant monitoring don’t help , but make matters worst. You don’t need a missile to tame an elephant but a little sharp object , sugar cane and a bit of training should do the job . I hope the readers understand what this means in a corporate language.

So what do you want to be ? a hard or a smart worker? I am waiting to hear……