Hardship Allowance

‘What role can a strategy management consultant play in designing H.R. Packages?’ I asked the CEO of the HR consultancy firm who had called on me in my office at the fag end of the day. He looked so harassed that I feared his state of mind, concluding that perhaps he wrongly strayed into my office instead of my neighbor in my office
complex. ‘It is this new allowance introduced by our country’s airline that has started the snowball of problems even in other sectors’ he cried. ‘How can allowance of the airline like overnight allowance to cabin crew apply to plastic bucket manufacturer?’ ‘Not that,’ he sobbed, ‘hardship allowance is the one.’ Now I had to do some research on what this allowance was all about. The newspaper of the day (see inset) was a sufficient introduction.

‘So what is the chaos’ I asked. ‘The list is long’ he answered and rattled off the following:

1. Shift workers in shifts other than General Shift face hardship of conveyance, food and sleep. Therefore the first and last shift workers demand hardship allowance.

2. Married men posted out of town in bachelor accommodation face the hardship of cooking on their own and washing their own clothes etc. so they …..

3. Persons forced to work in ‘dry’ areas face the hardship of lack of sleep due to absence of alcohol and thus….

4. Drivers on the payroll of companies also ask for hardship allowance when their boss goes out and they cannot eat from either the subsidized canteen or their favorite restaurant.




5. Bus drivers find it hard to drive during the office rush so…..








6. Airline pilots get rich food on duty and are surrounded by beautiful hostesses which makes life period of non-duty a hardship therefore…..









7. Chefs of 5 and 7 start restaurants also have to create and taste artistically cooked and presented dishes every day. The rich food in the long run gives rise to diseases related to rish intake therefore this hardship should be recognized.



8. Bar tenders also face hardship when they have to perform their duty. The smells and taste of so much alcohol goes to their head and yet they have to show they are sober which is not easy and therefore hard. So…….



9. Bus drivers in Mumbai also demanded an additional ‘Monsoon Hardship allowance’ since they were taught to drive busses and not sail them every monsoon in the rivers of Mumbai.

I stopped him, saying ‘I get the drift’. He was now blubbering, ‘The limit is when even in the same chair and same timings, people are asking for hardship allowance just because their boss is harsh and fires them often. They call this hard work. Now my HR budgets are haywire and companies may actually face closure.’

Since it was really not my cup of tea I had to seek time to think and asked him to see me the next day.

After I went home and found the usual complaints of the wife I realized that now even I need hardship allowance just to stay married.