Unprofessionally yours: India Inc

First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is — you’re fired.” In playwright and screenwriter David Mamet’s acclaimed 1984 corporate play Glengarry Glen Ross, a group of real estate executives are put through the wringer when they are informed by a management-backed trainer that all but the two top salesmen will be laid off within a fortnight. The four desperate men are thus compelled to engage in any number of unethical acts to sell real estate to unwitting prospects.

While inner machinations of the dog-eat-dog world of corporate America was laid bare over four decades ago, office goers in India were exposed to an episode of the ‘boss from hell’ phenomenon early this week through a viral video.

The footage features a senior manager with a reputed bank verbally reprimanding his cowering subordinates over a video call. Reprimanding is a lighter way of putting it. The officer barks orders at juniors, threatens them with demotions, pay cuts and other penalties, while using a language, tone and tenor unbecoming of a senior worker. The footage spread like wildfire and soon enough, the bank suspended the officer.

Such episodes are in no way, few and far between in India, a nation which has the reputation for harbouring some of the most disgruntled workers anywhere in the world. As per a study last year, 59% of the workforce employed here were said to be unhappy with their choice of vocation. The Happiness report had stated that just about 45% of men were happy at the workplace as compared to 37% of women. It’s hard to find one cubicle dweller who has not exhibited borderline homicidal tendencies, when probed about co-workers, or worse, their direct supervisor.

The situation is compounded in industries where performance is directly linked to tangible deliverables involving sales and customer acquisition. The services sector is one of the most affected, where the system is abused as per hierarchies. A few years ago, employees on the payroll of banking, lending, credit, financial services businesses were spared the indignity of dealing with errant customers directly. Low-rung work related to collections of credit card/bill payments were assigned to outsourced contract employees, who were free to use the choicest expletives to ensure that customers repaid their bills out of shame, if nothing else.

Now that banks have been pulled up for such matters, instances of harassment have come down marginally. Until of course, this new video popped up. It’s unfair to pin the entire blame on the abuser, for there is a probability that he might be at the receiving end of such behaviour from his own boss. But here’s the million-dollar question.

How come such abrasive behaviour goes unnoticed or unreported for ages together? Were there any background checks made during the hiring of such professionals? Didn’t such negative character traits show up as a red flag during the formative years of the worker?

In the post-pandemic world, millions of professionals joined the so-called bandwagon of quiet quitting, thanks to inflexible workplaces that did not factor in the need for WFH or strategic time-outs and vacations. What also caused the exodus was a need to move away from the drama and histrionics that entail group work. For those of us who don’t have an option, there’s just one plea: make policies, offices, supervisors, and co-workers humane and professional again.