The weekend concept, borrowed from the West by many Indian IT companies, is gradually a witnessing a change, as some IT companies in Bengaluru have started giving mid-week break to employees to enable them overcome stress.
Some top IT firms in the city are now adopting "staggered format", in which weekend holidays on Saturdays and Sundays are split to a mid-week holiday and a holiday on Sunday.
The idea of breaking up the weekend for the vast IT workforce in the city is expected to result in less traffic on roads and save time for commuters.
Many IT firms in Manyata Tech Park, Whitefield and International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB) have already moved from the weekend concept to a staggered format, according to the city's Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) MA Saleem.
"We are also encouraging the same and campaigning for a midweek break so that work hours can be divided. This in turn will lead to lesser office commuters on the road and manageable traffic even on a weekday or during peak hours," The Economic Times quoted Saleem as saying.
Anurag Patel, a senior HR executive at a Whitefield-based IT firm, is in favour of shifting to the new concept.
"Working constantly through five days in very high-pressure jobs in the IT industry is not feasible anymore. Employees are burning out even before the week ends. So a midweek break is definitely a good practice," he said.
According to Srinath R, an employee of Atos India, who also supports the new concept, said that a holiday in the middle of the week will assist in raising the overall productivity levels of the workforce.
Minacs, a US-based BPO firm, has already put in place the new concept for its employees which allows them to take holiday on a Wednesday or a Thursday, with Sunday being the weekend holiday.
"Most of us are accepting and enjoying the midweek break concept as it gives us a chance to recharge and refresh," said S Amrutha, an employee at Minacs.
Netdata and Iron Mountain India are the other companies following the new concept.
