My Boss thinks I'm her Slave

Most conversations with a young professionals, beyond a few minutes, lead to the title of this article. Complaints include ‘I have no weekends’, ‘She’s rude to me’, ‘Last night I was on a call till 3 AM. Both my boss & I live in India and this happens 2-3 times a week’, ‘I was told during my appraisal that I delayed a submission by 2 days’…….

How did we get to this point?

With 8301 startups, India is second only to the U.S. Most of these startups are bootstrapped, with every employee doing everything. Someone who’s hired for an analyst’s role is expected to know how to code in Python, a channel manager is expected to be well versed in Performance Marketing. What sounds like an opportunity to grow, while you are sipping the induction Kool-Aid, feels like a nightmare before your drink is over.

These 8301 startups don’t hire freshers from college. They want folks who can hit the ground running. Hence they lure experienced professionals from established firms, by selling them a hierarchy-less organization, an open office with free food, ‘you can bring your dog to work’ culture and ESOPs in addition to double the salary.?

Even if each of these startups hired 50 people on an average, they would have sucked out 40,000 tenured employees from the industry, a number that cannot be replenished in a hurry. The ones who were left behind, had no choice but to take on the load of colleagues who moved on.?

In addition, off-line businesses have to safeguard their customers from on-line poachers and the 3 AM Zoom calls start sounding both, a reality and a necessity. The need to promote workers before they’re ripe, to fill voids left by departing managers, leads to the ‘My Boss is rude’ remark.

Now that we know how we got here, how do we handle it?

Let’s start with what the firm can do.

Even if we were to eliminate commute, humans need 12 hours of downtime every day in addition to 24-48 hours, once a week, to continue to generate fresh ideas. Leadership teams will need to watch-out for signs of overwork and fatigue. Keeping lines of communication open, more informal than formal, helps. Speaking often about a culture that cares and nurtures talent, at public fora will push managers, to behave as they should. Parallelly, the firm needs to plan for talent ingestion, via fresh and lateral hires. Bench strength is crucial, especially in these times.

Express programs to groom worker bees, before they are promoted, could help add a coat of humanity to the managerial layer.

What can an employee do?

There is a price to be paid for the big bucks. A salary that allows you to live independently, invest in stocks, enjoy two foreign and 4 domestic vacations every year, order food online instead of cooking at home……all things that your parents couldn’t afford at your age, despite having gone to the same college as you, come with a price tag of a 70-hour week. Get used to it.

As regards your boss being rude, learn to reason with her, politely. If 3 attempts fail and your dignity can’t take anymore, escalate. If that fails too, move on. However, there is no guarantee that your next boss will be different, and you may have to repeat these steps once again.

Having said that, no pay cheque, howsoever big, is worth indignation and sleepless nights.