\uf0d8 (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1 – Works and Economic Life )<\/span> Why Shenzhen can serve as an example in the era of work-from-home.<\/p>\n \u2022 In communist society,\u201d wrote Karl Marx, \u201cit is possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner.\u201d THE LEISURE THEORY \uf0d8 (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1 – Works and Economic Life ) \uf0d8 (Relevant for GS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,114,115],"tags":[4328,1421,174,4327,4329,4330,4331,4332,4326,4333,3293],"class_list":["post-10326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-studies-i","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-i","tag-burnout","tag-capitalism","tag-china","tag-labor","tag-leisure-theory","tag-mandatory-paid-leave","tag-mental-well-being","tag-overwork","tag-shenzhen","tag-tech-sector","tag-work-from-home"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10326"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14010,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10326\/revisions\/14010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\uf0d8 (Relevant for GS Syllabus: Paper1- Effects of globalization on Indian society)<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u2022 In the ostensibly communist society of the People\u2019s Republic of China, the utopia of labouring for pleasure, where tasks are carried out purely as a matter of taste, has not come to pass. In fact, such has been the hegemony (in the sense defined by another Marxist, Antonio Gramsci) of state-driven capitalism in China, that citizens have \u201cvoluntarily\u201d been working themselves to the point of burning out. So, in order to ensure the continued generation of surplus value, the party-state has stepped in.
\n\u2022 In Shenzhen in southern China \u2014 basically the country\u2019s Silicon Valley \u2014 it has been made mandatory for workers to take their earned leave. Those with \u201ca heavy mental and physical workload can avoid excessive burnout\u201d by making sure they get some R&R.
\n\u2022 In the Chinese tech sector in particular, working 72-80 hours a week is the norm, and a culture of (often self-imposed) over-work has become embedded. The policy of compulsory paid leave will \u201cserve as an example\u201d to the rest of the country, according to Shenzhen city officials.
\n\u2022 It is more than likely that self-interest and the profit motive, not Marxist principles, are the cause of this enforced benevolence in China\u2019s tech capital \u2014 IT workers and programmers are a valuable asset and need to be protected. But Shenzhen can indeed \u201cserve as an example\u201d in the era of work-from-home. For many around the world, the home is office, the office home, and each carries the faults of the other. And the \u201cmental workload\u201d during the pandemic has certainly increased. Perhaps, a little enforced paid leave, however un-Marxian in its motivations, isn\u2019t a bad idea. Hunting and fishing for leisure is unlikely either in Shenzhen or Siliguri \u2014 but there\u2019s always Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"