Corporate Nuts

Year 1999

Met this simple old man, a small-time entrepreneur from down south. He ran a Cashew Nuts Production setup in a T2 location. The top-quality Cashew Nuts got exported and the remaining lesser quality ones were sold in the domestic market. No prize for guessing which markets gave better yield. The simple man had 100+ women working with him whose job was to manually break the shell of the cashew-nuts to take the kernel out as wholes, pieces, splits, butts etc. It was a highly labour-intensive operation & the way someone hit the shell would result in the Cashew-Nuts becoming Top quality or Low quality. The blow couldn’t be too hard nor too soft. The Entrepreneur made some interventions

A)????He continued treating the people with utmost care and respect. The man said that everyone would be addressed as Sister or Daughter

B)????He introduced Pick-up & Drop facility for all the employees

C)????He provided subsidized good quality Breakfast, Lunch and snacks for all

D)????Education of the kids of working mothers got taken care of by the company

E)????If there were domestic problems like jobless husbands, drunkards in the family, any family members with special needs or any other trouble, his firm would help resolve it

The employees in the firm became less strained & a generally happy crowd which resulted in a gentler treatment for the cashew shell paving way for more Top quality Cashew Kernels. The simple man said happily- “The quality of my cashew-nuts is dependent on the mindset of the lady breaking the shell. So, I want them to be happy always, it’s a win-win.”

Year 2022

Met this Client rep over a video call. After I left the call, he shouted at a Senior Manager in my team due to a small gap observed. This resulted in a Chain reaction which came back to bite me in 3 hours or so.

A.????The Senior Manager went and shouted at the TL for the deck shared.

B.?????The TL got bugged and wrecked havoc over a small issue involving another TL.

C.?????The other TL took it out on her Recruiters and her Manager.

D.????The Manager rung me up and cribbed for 20 mins.

A small incident stirred-up by a hot-headed professional eventually wasted precious time of random souls. This Ripple effect created by angry people holding key roles in an organization set-up is sizable. It can be positive or negative. World of work has evolved and given the new normal, work has reached our bedrooms. Guess firms are providing a lot of flexibility & convenience to the workforce but zero peace of mind. The Market share push, New Product Launches, New Tech, Tight Deadlines, Demanding Clients, PE throwing money, Unicorn dreams, IPO, Valuation push etc take a huge toll on employees. I see most of them stretching like crazy & clocking long work hours just to be shouted at for 1 thing that went wrong ignoring the 99 other things that went well. Between all this expansion run is the rise of the number of New Age Managers who are really confused about what to manage in people & how to do it. As a result most of them resort to the most obvious method- Use of Brute Force & creation of existential threat to get the work done. Every angry member out there who resorts to barking before talking is responsible for the bad Organization Culture in various setups. This will eventually reflect in the Customer Experience, Member Performance, Employee Retention & Overall Growth. I feel it will be nice if members of the workforce collectively decide to listen more & reduce decibel levels while conveying anything to the team, clients, vendors, colleagues & bosses. The calmness that can be maintained is mostly underrated in many set-ups and is even considered a timid model at times. When people listen, understand & start making calm conversations it helps faster solutioning, better bonding, limit room for ego trips & reduce gripe feeling. This change like many other can only get driven Top Down and it’s important that Leaders spearhead this.

I always remember that the quality of the Cashew-Nuts is dependent on the mindset of the people breaking the shell. Please see whether small initiatives to improve your member’s experience will help you get better quality NUTS instead of calling me NUTS.