Workspace happiness is new corporate credo

New Delhi: The latest corporate buzz is to make people happy at workspace - to liberate the butterflies, turn on the fountains of love and to help find joy in the small things in life, saysmind and innovation guru Rekha Shetty. 

"In workspace, people should have two real daily laughs - the first laugh and the last laugh. I don't want to talk about the rocks, stones and the scorpions at work, but I want to liberate the butterflies and turn on the fountains of love in companies," Shetty, founder of the Mindspace brand, told IANS in an interview.

Mindspace and the company Farstar have been working on innovation initiatives and work-life balance for the last two decades.

Shetty was in the capital to launch her new book "The Happiness Quotient" (Westland Limited).

Shetty, the author of the best-selling "Corporate Strategy: Mindpower, Innovation and Innovate! 90 Days to Transform Your Business", said "companies were waking up to the need to make their workers happy".

"The ICICI Bank, at one of its Mumbai branches, allows its workers to bring their kids to the workplace on Saturdays. The children have fun for a couple of hours while their parents work. And then they take off directly from the office for the weekend," Shetty said.

"I know of a top bank executive - a strategist - who works for the first six months of the year. He is on leave for the rest of the year, which he spends in his village developing it. He is building a school there. His bank has realised that he does not need to work round the year because he plans strategies at the beginning of the new fiscal," the mind guru said.

According to her, people spend two-thirds of their working hours in office and happy employees can do double the work compared to their unhappy colleagues.

She reminded that "more and more women were working from home after they have babies".

Shetty stressed that the days of Henry Ford (who wanted working hands) are over.

"Most of the workforce in corporate houses now are knowledge-based workers and they cannot be forced to do anything. They have to be inspired to work," Shetty said.

According to her, preventing stress is a negative way of looking at life; "instead, fill your mind with your garden of poetic emotions like laughter, wonder, love and compassion to counter lust, anger, obsession, greed, jealousy, fear and repulsion".

Shetty advises 20 minutes of meditation every day.

"It is like there is a room in my mind where I can walk in and walk out any time."

People ignore their bodies till they have a major problem, she said.

Citing statistics, Shetty, who was the group vice-president of Apollo Hospitals, pointed out that "anger and stress pour 36 toxic chemicals into the blood which require 48 hours to get out".

"Each individual can take the fight to the corporate battlefield but does not have to become emotional about things one does at work," she said with an example of "an unhappy CEO with a beautiful wife, lovely kids, swanky car and an expense paid account, but no relationships at home or happiness".

The Mindspace founder says countries all over the world are tagging happiness quotient to economics.

"Countries like Bhutan, India, Thailand and Australia are carrying out surveys to establish whether 'Gross National Happiness' will increase their GDP. You need happy people to solve problems and innovate."

Shetty, who has worked with hundreds of blue chip executives in the last 21 years, said she has developed a "cascading methodology of 47 methods to think out of the box at workplace".

Her book "Happiness Quotient" looks into wellsprings of happiness and draws from traditional Indian wisdom to map the road to increased happiness - how to be emotionally, socially and physically compatible with everything around us - to "lead significant lives". 

Young women most vulnerable to HIV: UNAIDS

New Delhi: At least 26 percent of all new HIV infections in the world are among young women in the age group of 15-24 years, a UNAIDS report released Friday said.

According to the report "AIDS at 30: Nations at the crossroads", gender inequalities remain a major barrier to effective HIV response.

"HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, and more than a quarter (26 percent) of all new global HIV infections are among young women aged 15-24," it said. 

The report also said that apart from women, HIV prevalence among homosexuals, people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients and transgender people are higher than among other population.

"Access to HIV prevention and treatment for populations at higher risk of infection is generally lower due to punitive and discriminatory laws, and stigma and discrimination," it added.

It said that till April this year, 79 countries treated consensual same-sex relations as a criminal activity.

The report said that globally, the rate of new HIV infections declined by nearly 25 percent between 2001 and 2009, it said.

An estimated 34 million HIV-positive people live around the world, while nearly 30 million people have died of AIDS-related causes globally since the first case was reported 30 years ago.

In India, there are 2.5 million HIV/AIDS affected people. 

Are You Unhappy At Work?

Bangalore: Now that is a billion dollar question that every working person would like to answer. A Deloitte's Shift Index survey revealed that about 80 percent of people are dissatisfied with their jobs. While some of you would muster up the courage to change your careers, while some of you would like to grin and bear it. But considering the fact that we spend a lions share of our waking hours at our workplaces, don't you think that we need to improve the quality of where and how we spend 80 percent of our time? 

So where do we start with, the number of things that make us unhappy at work?

Studies say that looking up for leadership, job satisfaction, communication, teamwork and work environment are the top five commitment drivers for employees and it is not the fat pay checks which interest the employees. Quality of workplace relationships, lack of meaningful recognition, an ineffectual manager, lack of opportunity to progress or learn new skills, ideas being ignored, are some of the drivers which make unhappy employees.

So the challenge is how to tackle the unhappiness? Even though you desperately want to quit to get away from your horrible workplace, you may be hesitant to actually do anything about it because there are other thoughts which hold you back from taking such a crude step. And of course there is no guarantee that the next job you join will be all smooth as well. It is always good to "make hay while the sun shines", so how do you stop yourself from quitting, at least for a little longer?

You need to first build the right attitude. Accept that this job is not where you want to be, even if you can't make a change today. But begin taking steps to change things.

It is actually not the absence of the stressors that will make us happy, but the attitude that we carry towards them that matters. Your personality structure has to be altered to address your unhappiness. You need to address your unhappiness and experience in a deeper perspective and should not try to solve things too quickly.

Be proactive. Brainstorm with trusted friends and family members about your ideas. If there's something you'd like to change, decide whether your boss is approachable and if so, the best tactics to use.
Make a list of the good points about your job. Listing what you do like about your job will help shift your perception and keep you from feeling so trapped. You could also try learning a new skill like make a list of things that you not suppose to say to your boss to avoid encounters.

If you feel you have your reached the saturation point and are about to burst, the one option is to seek out your company's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if it has one. EAPs counsel you and may even provide solutions to your problems at work. The problem could be that you not able to vent out you problems, but once you do, the relief of sharing helps you think for solutions. EAP's also maintain your problems confidentially.

Whatever your reasons for being unhappy, you need to maintain your professionalism and prevent a bad attitude from sabotaging you.

Medical tourism attracts NRI's attention to save costs

Bangalore: Soaring medical cost in countries like U.S. has made India the next prominent destination for medical tourism . Millions of NRI plan their medical treatment and surgeries in India to get treated by lower healthcare costs available and at the same time enjoy their recuperative holidays across India. 

Medical tourism is a highly expanding sector in India and is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 3O percent, making it a  9,500-crore industry by 2015. NRI's are finding the prospect of international travel for medical care increasingly appealing. With medical tourism one can mix health with pleasure trips just as businessmen merges business with pleasure.

It is estimated that around 150,000 of people travel to India for low-priced healthcare procedures every year. In the year 2008 a survey was conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) where it estimated that India is set to earn 80 billion ($1.87 billion) a year in foreign exchange from medical tourism by 2012 and looking at the current influx of NRI coming to India for medical tourism it seems to hold true.

Medical tourism seems to be a superior option for people staying abroad, who are not insured as there is a very high cost of difference in the medical facilities offered in India and abroad. There are also considerable delays in getting treatment in some western countries due to financial and hospital backlogs of patients waiting for medical procedures. In the UK every medical treatment has to be routed via the NHS (National Health Service). Hence one treatment has every chance of getting delayed.

India and Thailand are the two countries who definitely have an edge over its counterparts both in terms of the number of hospitals and the cost advantage. Among the cities, its Delhi who receives highest number of medical tourists as it has better air connectivity; this is followed by Chennai and Hyderabad.

Insurance companies in the United States are now examining the concept of medical tourism and some medical insurance companies are giving their insurer the option of getting medical procedures done abroad. The insurance companies can see the cost savings and no doubt will offer incentives to their insurer to agree to medical procedures abroad since Insurance companies can also save money. Costs of comparable medical procedures in countries like India are far cheaper than western countries even after adding the costs of airfare and accommodation. Hospitals in India sometimes also provide help with visas, travel arrangements and accommodations.

So identify the city and the hospital depending upon the availability of the treatment, the cost and the success rate and also do not forget to check the credentials of the hospital and consultants.