It's a Very, Long, Long, Long and Winding Road to Recovery

Day 5 of the pox and Sir is about ready to lose it which also means - despite trying to get out of the house - I am also about to lose it. Taking care of the sick is so taxing...Parents, do your kids a favor, expose them to chicken pox early.

I'd like to take a minute to discuss the Indian work force. I don't know if it's because of overpopulation or this idea that Sir has posed that they are very "process-oriented" but in any given store - grocery, home goods, clothing, sporting - there are an abundance of staff. The two times that this was particularly peculiar was when I went to get a haircut a few weeks ago and today at the grocery store.

I decided I could not wait until December to get a haircut and knowing that it always grows back, I figured, what the worst that can happen? (Since I have not written about this before, you can assume nothing disastrous happened.) I asked my foreign-lady friends for a couple of recommendations and booked an appointment at a place with a familiar street address. (Here's a tip, just because some place has a familiar street address does not mean it is easy to find.) The hair place, "Bounce" was actually off the main road hence Chandan and I were on a nearly impossible mission. But alas, we found it, 50 minutes late. Apologetically, I played the new-to-Bangalore card and said that I would be willing to reschedule if necessary but the women behind the counter assured me it was "no problem." I should have known. Another women also behind the counter told me to have a seat in a chair that I think was really for manicures. Behind this counter area was the salon. I sat and started flipping through a gossip magazine from July with the latest news about Bollywood stars I'm only now starting to vaguely recognize. There were about 4 other chairs set up for manicures, and from these chairs you could see both the counter and the salon.

A women walked in like she owned the place and as I quickly surmised, I think she actually did own the place. She called to girls from the salon to the counter area and started asking them what they were doing and why they were late and did they plan on being late again. It almost looked like a mother yelling at her daughters. The girls looked more annoyed than apologetic, nervous or even slightly concerned about the status of their jobs. Not far from this scene was another group of 7 or 8 people in their early 20s just sitting around. There were two girls sharing one chair and a few men sitting on a step that led to the shampooing area and another couple of people standing chatting - all looking terribly bored. There may have been 4 other people getting their hair cut but definitely more employees than necessary. I sat for about 20 minutes just watching all these people do nothing while the owner (or manager) busied herself with the two girls at the counter. Normally, this would be very irritating but seeing as I was the one who was nearly an hour late, I figured I didn't really have grounds to complain. I did have one person shampoo me and one person actually cut my hair but the employee to customer ratio had to have been at least 5 to 1. And this did not include the separate cleaning staff as there was a women wearing, what seems to be a standard Bangalore cleaning staff uniform, sweeping. She was wearing the same pink shirt with green overcoat that the women who sweep the streets wear. George went back about a week later and came home with the same comment. "Were there alot of people standing around doing nothing?"

Then today, I was at the grocery store and again couldn't help but wonder about the over-abundance of employees. There was a guard at the door and a man to check your bags - both standard Indian practice. The guards duties consist of opening the door and collecting (or checking) one of the multiple receipts you get at the register. The bag check guy ensures that you are carrying nothing while you shop. The grocery stores are pretty small so for each tiny aisle there is usually an employee at the ready to help you find whatever it is your looking for and probably in more cases than not, to help you find the things you didn't know you were looking for. The employees either end up unnecessarily aggressive - "don't you want this Earl Grey tea? It's very special tea. You must try." Or they end up chatting with one another just clogging up the small space.

Anyway, I make my way through the store, sans Earl Grey tea, and go to the cashier. There were three cash registers and three cashiers but no other customers waiting. So, instead of just having one person check me out, I had the pleasure of three people checking me out. You may say to yourself, "well, you must have gotten out of there in a flash!" Or, "Wow, they are really efficient." But no. Instead, the three of them were reaching over one another pushing keys and and fighting for the scanner to the point where I was sure I was being overcharged or going to get away without paying for something. At times, they also looked like they were concerned I was being overcharged or not charged enough. And they were speaking with such excitement, I couldn't tell if they were joking or fighting with one another.

We've noticed this problem of over-employment in restaurants as well but I think I've always attributed it to the fact that we tend to eat early by Indian standards. Most restaurants don't open for dinner until 7:30 and really don't get busy until 9. We are always there between 7:30 and 8 and assumed that the staff probably doesn't seem as big once the restaurant fills up during the peak times.

It's a fine line between effective customer service and and just plain inefficiency. Perhaps they feel that if each person is given one specific task, they will do that task well. But what happens when the guy assigned to the tea aisle starts chatting with the women in the biscuit aisle? Somehow, I think India has lost the balance and perhaps could use less people more wisely. But I guess part of the reason you come to a big city like Bangalore is for employment opportunities. Better to have 3 people working one cashier and 8 people manning the aisles then 10 more people begging on the streets.