Workplace

First published on Facebook on 16 June 2020

Groupism, favouritism and personal bias are natural parts of any work group. It is rampant in every organization and if anyone claims that their workplace is free of that, then they are either blatantly lying or ridiculously naïve. The best place to work and similar employee engagement surveys are farcical nonsensical exercises.

I was part of corporate work culture for fifteen years and a major part of my decision to move away from it was my inability to deal with this menace in a tactful way. I was reasonably efficient but too “in your face” and most of my managers, baring a few, were extremely insecure about it. Insecurity exists because of incompetence and mediocrity. Individuals with limited ability will most definitely become insecure people managers, of course there are exceptions.

Regional groups, religious groups, social groups are here to stay and no matter how many cross functional teams you make and how many team building exercises you do, these groups will remain a part of workplaces. This is a reason why I am so outspoken about the enormously inefficient, indifferent and spineless gang of the office space called “the HR”. They are supposed to police this but they don’t. Again exceptions exist.

Being a domain expert is not enough if one aspires to scale the corporate hierarchy. One needs thick skin, tremendous mental resolve and just enough greed to pave way. If you don’t have that, be happy with where you are and with the single digit salary raise that you have been lucky to earn so far. Be efficient and find happiness and satisfaction in completing tasks. Don’t assign to much importance to appraisals or to the meaningless surveys. I am not suggesting to not be aspirational but remain truthful, don’t just flow.

Find happiness outside your office space, in hobbies and friends and family. Work place can be rewarding if you understand that it is a small part of your life, an important tool of livelihood, but not everything.