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The tragic death of Anna Sebastian Perayil has ignited social media bushfires and captured the imagination of authorities. Collective outrage against an organisation has now extended to lamentations about a particular industry. With the benefit of hindsight, let me spotlight certain troubling aspects which we seem to have normalised at workplaces. Each of these appears innocuous when it manifests as random occurrences but collectively, they culminate in a deadly avalanche. Here are three such incidents scattered over a fairly long period of time.
The first one happened a couple of decades back. I was on a panel evaluating candidates for roles in Operations. As is customary, towards the end of the interview, candidates were asked to voice their queries. Typically, the questions ranged from when will I know the result to expressions of gratitude for the opportunity. But this candidate was different – he wanted to know what the working hours were. A fellow panellist, known for his quick wit, quipped nonchalantly- we have an entry time at 9 am, but we do not have an exit time. All of us laughed. Another panellist, probably an Eagles fan, added with a straight face – it’s like Hotel California – you can check out any time you like but you can never leave. All of us laughed again, this time, including the candidate. At that point in time, it was funny. Looking back, I feel terrible. Instead of reassuring candidates about specific working hours, we seem to have assumed that they are bonded labour who do not have anything else to do in life other than to slave for the organisation. We may not say so in so many words but isn’t that behaviour prevalent in so many workplaces?
The second one happened a decade back. I had taken charge of a particular geography and was eager to make a mark in scaling up productivity. To give a signal that we mean business and as a tactical move to set the agenda for the day we introduced a morning huddle. This was to be a fifteen-minute discussion prior to customer service hours. In order to ensure that colleagues take this seriously I used to randomly turn up at various branches ten minutes before the scheduled start to the huddle. Latecomers (by this definition) would be frowned upon and advised to plan their day better. A few months later in an interaction with a senior colleague who is also a good friend, I proudly spoke about this activity which had infused much-needed discipline. Sage’s advice flowed from his side in the form of an innocent question – do you also ensure that they leave on time? I was stunned and was left speechless. To make amends I rolled out an initiative titled 7 Up with the sole objective of ensuring that colleagues leave on time and offices down their shutters by 7 pm and made an honest attempt to enforce this diktat. Now this does not absolve me of anything. In balance, in spite of being well-intentioned, the morning huddle scale weighed heavier than the 7 Up one and we attempt to justify this by blaming the quantum of work that came our way. Sound familiar?
The third one happened half a decade back. It was the time when thanks to the pandemic, management concepts were being redefined. MBWA morphed from Management By Walking Around to Management By WhatsApp. The culture of WhatsApp management coupled with conference calls, sadly strengthened after the restrictions eased. Overzealous bosses wanted to micro-manage through scheduled and unscheduled online meetings. Reporting was mostly through WhatsApp on a group chat. Scathing remarks were made by supervisors, not one to one but on the group usually late in the evening thereby ensuring that the recipient went to bed miserable. If you were not one of the chosen ones for that evening, you’d heave a sigh of relief thanking your stars. In many cases the recipient did a dutiful download to his team, again through a group chat, unmindful of the time, which would further trigger downloads down the chain ad nauseum. Some of us did not pass it down and took those blows on our chin and whined within our inner circle. Was that enough? Certainly not. Shouldn’t we have called out these toxic acts? Most certainly.
It is fashionable to point fingers at errant organisations – it calls for a reality check to admit your guilt. Acts of omission rather than commission, when insecure managers remain silent on sensitive issues, are our bane. Every time we’ve looked the other way, as long as the missive was not directed at us, or assumed that this is how things are everywhere, we have contributed- each one of us – to the current state of affairs. Mea Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint