So how did your New Year Eve corporate bash go, assuming you had one at all? Was it an extension of your last management committee meeting, where the boss held forth on subjects all and sundry? Was the only difference that your ?significant other? had to attend the party, bored to death until he or she could slip away to fulfil personal commitments? The answers, unfortunately, are none too happy in most cases.

The exclusive nature of an office party is no big deal. But it is a symptom of a larger malaise. It shouts of low employee morale, at a time when all hands need to be on deck to keep the ship afloat. It?s not because running a business is more difficult today than it was a decade ago. (It is, but that?s another story.) The key factor is that employee expectations have gone sky high.

?If you look at the surveys that are being conducted today, you will find that employee morale in the West is on the decline,? says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. ?On the other hand, employee morale in India is climbing rapidly. For instance, everyone expects 2005 to be a much better year.?

?But if you compare the perks, benefits and add-ons to a job in the West to those available in India, you will find that employees here are being distinctly shortchanged,? continues Singh.

So why are employees more optimistic about 2005? First, they expect fatter pay packets; surveys show that Indian salary increases in 2005 are expected to be the highest in the world. (According to Fredrick Herzberg, salary is a ?hygiene factor? that leads to satisfaction but not motivation. But that too is another story) .

Second, probably for the first time, employees feel they have a choice. Traditionally, they have stayed with the same firm for their entire working life. Now, as early separations have spread to all sectors of the Indian economy, the average worker is suddenly realising that he can get a job elsewhere. The psychological problems associated with being put out to grass early are vanishing. If you can?t do anything else, set up a small shop on your own. You will find your former company ? though it has given you the heave ho ? willing to support you with finance and orders.

Third, thanks to the Internet as an information source, people are much more aware of what they can command. You cannot as yet hop across to the US and take up a job there if you are unhappy at home. But the moment there is a huge difference in salaries and benefits, the job itself is likely to move here.

Fourth, yesterday workers were workers (an underclass of sorts) and executives were a distinctly different and feted lot. Today, the unskilled worker as a category is disappearing. And it is easier to replace a manager than a skilled worker. The latter is becoming a key corporate asset.

There are several other reasons why Indians are so gung-ho. These range from macro factors such as the booming economy to issues in individual companies. ?We are pulling out all the stops,? says the HR head of an Indian family-run business.

It?s a new role for him. Workers were earlier just numbers for the department; it was only the much-maligned seth who knew most of them personally. It was not even called the HR department; it was the personnel department. Today, each and every employee counts.

?The office party ? held during some suitable Indian festival ? is no longer a durbar, where supplicants are given a box of sweets and a few rupees,? says Singh. ?It is more a meeting of equals.?

Equal, of course, they will never be. But if you want to keep employee morale high, that?s what you need to pretend the future will bring.