BENGALURU: Since it was uploaded on YouTube in mid August, Half Day, an angst-filled rant about a corporate employee’s justification of choosing not to stay in office beyond the working hours has resonated among many.
The video is a scene from a web series on YouTube – What’s Your Status that was scripted by Bengaluru-based Sandeep Balan and has racked up 17 million views and nearly 7,000 comments.
Helming the scene is the seasoned ranter and actor, Naveen Polishetty who achieved fame after his previous rant on the need for English as a job aspirant for another web series. Talking about the Half Day office rant, Balan says, “To be honest, while writing this scene, I had a strong feeling that this one had the potential to spread across social media as the insight was based on a deep-rooted corporate culture that almost everyone had faced at some point. I wrote this office sequence as part of the committed storyline in What’s Your Status”
In the viral scene, TJ (Naveen Polishetty) is trying to leave office on time, after wrapping up his work for the day, to enjoy the rest of his evening watching cricket at a pub nearby, over a couple of beers. That’s when a colleague who is a perennial ‘late-sitter’ passes the sarcastic ‘Half Day’ comment. “Unlike everyone else across corporate offices in the country, who usually just ignore the comment with a smile and move on, I felt it would be really impactful if TJ attempts to end this culture once and for all. The rest is history and almost everyone out there has watched the scene and related to it,” says Balan.
Asked if the scene was inspired from his own experiences, Balan who is also the digital marketing head at United Breweries Ltd, says, “This ‘sitting till late’ office culture is widespread across the nation. And most often, people who practise this consider it to be a barometer for efficiency. I too, like everyone else, have experienced such comments in my previous stints in the media and telecom sectors. And like everyone else, I have usually ignored it but it does keep playing on mind. It also makes you feel guilty for no fault of yours, even though you might have wrapped up your work for the day.”
He adds that most often, the comment is passed in a lighter vein by colleagues who don’t even realise the impact of such a comment on the recipient because this has become so ingrained in the corporate culture and is considered acceptable.
About working with Naveen, Balan says, “The best part was that he had worked in an IT company before and experienced all of this first hand and that really helped immensely. He added a lot of nuances to the scene were dug up from his own experiences, which made it look genuine and honest. He was in the zone and did an amazing job of channeling the frustration of a guy who is tired of such taunts every now and then.”