Feeling Trapped: How to Handle Unfair Work Hours and Bias in Remote Work?

I have been working in a small IT company in Chennai. Now, due to COVID, everyone is at home since March. This is the biggest reason that the manager started to be difficult from day one of the lockdown. My manager seems to have a bias against Indians, especially people from the north. Now, the working hours have changed to 12 hours. I'm getting paid for 8 hours but working 12 hours daily. It is very difficult for me to be in a small village with poor internet. Every day feels like harassment. I receive threatening calls every day to come to the office. In this situation, I don't know how to manage. Please suggest how to escape such a situation of working 12 hours a day. There are no leaves on weekends or any day. Is this legal as well?

Manager's Nationality and Allegations

You could have elaborated on your post a bit more. If your manager dislikes "Indians," then what is the manager's nationality? You have called your manager "anti-national." What made you think so? Your statement reflects the current political trend where anyone opposing political thoughts is labeled anti-national.

Company Size and Work Nature

How big is your IT company? What is the nature of your work? How many employees work in your company?

Work Measurement and Hours

How is the work measured? Why are employees required to work for 12 hours? It's understandable that you are required to work from there, but why did you go to your hometown where internet facilities are poor? Is the disruption in internet services one of the reasons for the long working hours?

Manager's Role and HR Involvement

Is your manager just implementing instructions from his boss? How frequently is the HR department in touch with the staff?

There are so many questions associated with your post. Long working hours can indeed frustrate a person, but dismissing someone as anti-national is a dangerous practice. Please stop it right away.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Can you share your role and responsibilities in detail? There is a psychological impact on every working person in this pandemic situation. It can be dissatisfaction, frustration, or a sense of uncertainty, but believing that it is just a phase and shall pass will keep you optimistic.

Discussion with HR

Have you had a discussion with your HR about your manager's behavior? If yes, what was the outcome? If not, why? There seems to be a lot of conflict in the situation you have shared.

Instead of getting stressed, try your luck elsewhere while you keep working in the company as a stopgap. Is this your first job in your career? If you can provide more details, it would be much easier to advise; otherwise, we may not analyze the whole scenario from the right perspective.

You seem to have concluded that this job is not suitable for you as long as the present manager is not replaced or you are moved elsewhere.

Some companies have asked their employees to report to work from the office, though not all. Do not take that as something personal against you. Understand the situation and see what your local government has advised on working from the office and what type of precautions are in place.

Whether anti-national or otherwise, it is not for us in the forum to decide, and it is not politically correct to comment on them.

If you have other job offers, try your luck elsewhere or try to adjust without too many expectations from the current employer until you take up another job.

Thanks and Regards