SOFT HOLOCAUST

I thanked myself after seeing the videos and reading about the holocausts of World War-II. This was because I was not born at those ages in those places as a Jew or even as German either to experience or inflict those kinds of horror and pain. Those were horrible times when the Jews were treated like animals. The secluded living in the ghettos with unhealthy working conditions in factories, long exposure to pollution and finally shortage of food portrays those scenes as a hell to me.

Trying to forget these horrors and focusing my attention back to work, I felt a strange coincidence between the IT industry in which I work to the horrors and conditions of holocausts. The first thing which made me to feel like this was the employee ID tags of software companies being similar to that of the arm band containing Star of David worn by the Jews during the period of Third Reich. Though at start this may be a silly comparison, but as I began to analyze both the situations (holocausts and IT industry) I began to visualize some solid similarities. At first there may seem to be a heaven to hell difference between the environments of holocausts and IT industry like physical conditions, nature of work but I found some grave similarities from a different perspective.

Thinking of the health impacts, the conditions at the factories those times were horrible, unhygienic and pollution prone. Labourers were made to work in engulfing smokes of carbon and sulphur gases. Long hours of work added more adverse health impacts due to extended exposure to pollution. But one may wonder how these conditions are being compared to the present IT environment. In IT industry one uses to work sitting in front of computers in conditioned air for long time. The long exposure to monitor along with the work stress affects the eyes a lot. The conditioned air for a long time makes one sick due to lack of natural air. Moreover long hours of sitting without physical work/activity may lead to obesity and cardiovascular diseases. The above effects can be avoided if regular exercises or precautionary measures are being taken. But I feel that due to work pressure and mental stress the IT people tend to forget the exercises thus creating health problems for themselves.

Going back to the World War-II period, the labourers were made to overwork and lot was extracted from them for below standard wages. This I feel similar to the meager pay which the IT companies give to their employees after making them work on a 24X7 basis in spite of the huge profits they get. Even though the work deadline an be fixed at a considerable span of time, the IT managers schedule out the work for a short period and thus making their employees work day in day out to finish the projects.

What I do not understand is the reason why the management of IT companies makes their employees to work extra time. The Hitler’s men squeezed out the Jews in order to show their talents and dominating them, so as to impress their boss and to get higher ranks. But I wonder whom the IT management is going to satisfy or impress by making their employees work so hard although the work can be done at a normal pace? The answer may be the innocent/ignorant stakeholders (who are not aware of the modus operandi of the IT world) or the IT management themselves.

Whatever the pains and difficulties the suppressed under the Third Reich would have experienced they certainly had a cause to resist them. The cause was the quest for the Holy land which they finally achieved in form of the birth ofIsrael. But I am not sure what the IT workers have in minds as their cause to sustain in IT industry. It may be the money or the career or something else. Only time will tell it.