Under-employment is that kind of obligated and forced undertaking of job where the candidate does not have any satisfaction but being poor he's been forced to take it up. Often, his Bosses do not possess the skill, managerial capacity that the candidate possesses. It generates a very complex situation.
Under-employment is found in a poor economy where job opportunity is abysmally low. Take for instance the state of job market in India. Less than 0.3% of the population are the Permanent Govt Servants. About 3% work in organised sector, I mean, very big Companies. Rest are either on contractual hire-fire term or are into the gig Job.
Gig job is called such jobs that are not the primary source of income for the person. Let's assume X works in a big organisation as a permanent employee drawing a nice comfortable salary. His job time is 10 AM to 6 PM. He drives an auto from 6/30 PM to 10 PM. This auto-driver position is a gig job for him. Similarly, a lady having inherited a good fortune from her family and in-laws, having a fat-salary-earning-or-businessman--husband takes up an engagement as a teacher at a paltry salary of Rs 15,000/- Per month in a private school, we'll call her teacher's job a gig job. It's a pastime to avoid boredom for her. This is not her primary source of income. Often, gig-job-holders do not stick long and organisations are happy as they do not have to pressurise their Balance Sheet. Zomato, Swiggy, Online order delivery Boys, Tax-filers etc are more examples at hand. Gig-jobbers take up the salary which is far too poor to sustain a family of a regular, serious earner. This is one of the reasons of poor salary in the private sector.
Given such a poor curseful scenario, wherein any man of born-high-caliber-often-in-a-poor-family would often curse his being into this poor country where corruption, nepotism, undeserving people teem these lucrative sectors.
Theoretically, any organisation awards a great deal of discretionary power to the Boss. Any big and corrupt, inefficient structure has less policy and more discretion when it comes to extracting output from the employees. Why?
Because, people work either by Money or By emotion. Majority people are unrealistic egoistic short term thinkers. They are easily motivated by emotion. Give them a few ESOP, Rewards, Medals and sing the song praising them before other--RECOGNITION comes on their way and they are damn pleased to give even more.
A very few clever money oriented people are REALISTIC. They observe how much materially are they compensated. They work on money alone. Such people are very dangerous for being underemployed. They curse their economy, country, Govt and the organisational hierarchy. They can't leave the job and seek a qualified proper employment as this poor economy does not provide them one. Hence, they are stuck.
For better understanding, let me give a few examples. A BE, BTech is made to work as a supervisor which is the job of a Polytechnic Diploma Holder. A PhD is working as a Group D peon in a Govt Office. An MCA is working in a Call-center making small talks-calls in night shifts. A Master degree or a Degree Holder is seen working as a security man in an ATM which might have been manned even by a Class VIII Passed youth.etc. These are only a handful of instances that we encounter in our daily life and in our neighbourhood. They are taking away the jobs of the low qualified youth who run amok being unemployed for their life
The under-employed in an organised Private or Govt sector becomes a dissatisfied lot. Their dissatisfaction snowballs into sabotage of work. An Egoistic, under-pressure, barking Boss makes them go hay ware. The under-employed man dislikes responsibility, disregards Bosses, disrupts the work flow albeit cleverly. Which means, you can't fix responsibility on him. He'll not refuse any responsibility before the Boss, but he'll look to it that the job is not well done. In a big organisation, This often leads to avoidance, sidelining the employee, which, in turn, relieves him of the responsibility and he eventually becomes lazy.
Have you not noticed corrupt officials, lazy workers in the big organisations? Do you not have an experience of often having a nagging authority not showing you recognition and respect? Please write your comment below and let me know.
[By profession this author is a 38 years' experienced private tutor. Visit www.dbhattacharjee.com to know more.
