- Bengaluru entrepreneur highlights severe traffic delays impacting work productivity
- Employees struggle to reach office on time due to long traffic snarls and congestion
- Small distances take excessive time, leaving employees exhausted upon arrival
A Bengaluru-based entrepreneur has claimed that the city's traffic issues were 'destroying' the ability to do any good work. In a now-viral LinkedIn post, Bala Panneerselvam, founder of Applied AI Studio and the Applied AI Club community, shared a pic of his office at 10:15 AM as it wore a deserted look, highlighting that employees were unable to reach on time due to the long traffic snarls.
Panneerselvam said the sheer effort it took for employees to show up at the office meant that they were often not able to bring their A-game to work.
"How a Bangalore office looks at 10:15 in the morning. How do we expect to do good work if we don't show up? The problem is not the people. But the effort it takes to show up in the office," said Panneerselvam.
Panneerselvam highlighted that even small distances took significant time to cover, which led to employees not being fresh upon reaching the office.
"A 4 km stretch takes 20 mins in a scooter around the HSR area and 30 mins in the car. And peak hours, add another 10 mins. And with all the swirling, dodging random two-wheelers jumping signals, you're no longer fresh when you reach the office," he said.
"And evening, if you leave after 6, it takes double the time to reach home. Even if you leave at 5 pm, you reach home so tired that you cannot do anything in your personal life. And obviously people show up late the next day."
Panneerselvam recalled that it took him two hours to travel 17 km from Whitefield to HSR Layout at around 4 PM, a time he described as a non-peak hour, without any rain or other delays.
"We're absolutely destroying our ability to do good work in this city. If you're so overwhelmed with noise all around you, how do you spend time thinking?"
Check The Viral Post Here:
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Social Media Reactions
As the post gained traction, social media users agreed with Panneerselvam's assessment, adding that somehow the current situation had been normalised in the city.
"It's not only the time. My average daily commute is anywhere between 1.5 and two hours. The potholes and broken roads are terribly uncomfortable," said one user, while another added: "Probably more than the time you show up, the loss of productivity is due to being half-dead by the time you show up."
A third commented: "Well, the issue is this has been normalised in Bangalore, and people living/moved there treat the chronic waste of time/ energy/ resources like it's part of life. A city can only take so much in the name of rapid urbanisation or expansion, and without the basic underlying infrastructure, it would eventually crumble like a tower of cards."
A fourth said: "I went to an event in Whitefield recently and remember thinking how I had lost 3 hours of a Friday just in commute. Hardly had any energy left to reflect on the sessions and the conversations I had while going back home."
