Toxic work culture has India Inc. in its grips.

Admit it.?

When news broke of a young, promising CA at one of the Big Four succumbing to work pressure, you felt inconsolable anger.

Our collective anger was at a fever pitch. Professionals across sectors were on the edge, ready to return in kind any tongue-lashing doled out by toxic seniors.??

From across India, heartfelt posts recounting the horrible details of India’s toxic work spaces poured out, and an enraged white-collar workforce foamed at the mouth seeking justice.?

Whether you are a young hot-shot professional or a seasoned veteran who has done his time in India Inc, you know — for a fact — that India’s office spaces rank as one of the most regressive and toxic work environments.

Some of you might take offence at this. Call it out as a blatant, unfounded generalisation.??

Well, sorry to break it to you. But, they are.

There is documented research to show that India Inc. unfortunately, makes for a hellish (no exaggeration!) workplace, and Indian professionals are worse for the wear.

Consider, for instance, a McKinsey survey of 15,000 workers and 1,000 HRs carried out in over 15 countries, including India. One section of the survey report compares toxic workplace symptoms across India, China, Japan and Australia.

It makes for a chilling read.

Be it burnout, depression, anxiety, distress or expressing an intent to leave — on all these parameters, Indian employees outranked employees from China, Australia and Japan.

We wish we could tell you that, at least, on one count India was ranked lower than the other three countries.

But, that would be a lie. Not only did India rank higher in all the toxic work symptoms vis-a-vis China, Japan and Australia, it also managed to beat the global average.?

Safe to say, India leads the world in workplace toxicity.

But, if you think that wraps up the sorry state of working conditions in India, you are terribly mistaken.

Turn your attention to the Happiness Research Academy, a research institute dedicated to systematically studying happiness across “a wide spectrum of human experiences”.?

These guys undertake deep dives and comprehensive research on well-being and happiness levels across organisations, educational institutions, cities and more.?

And they say that 70% of India’s workforce is unhappy.?

54% of the employees wish to leave their organisations, and Fintech with a 40% happy workforce is the happiest sector to work in, in India.

Let me say that again: Fintech with 40% happy employees is the happiest sector in India. This means that even in the happiest sector, 60% of the people are having a bad time.?

And if you are from the retail/e-commerce, media, advertising or real estate space, it's as if you have won the lottery to a lifetime of work-life imbalance. On top of that, professional bitter pills — like meaningless work, feeling zapped out and demotivated and receiving little to no support from office staff — are all waiting to embrace you heartily!

Who is responsible for this toxic mess?

Now, there is something about scapegoats that humanity has absolutely been in thrall of!

Scapegoats present us with the unique opportunity to thread together a toxic mess into a coherent narrative and allow us to, very conveniently, pin the blame on one person.

It is a reductive mental trick that helps us make sense of complex, multifaceted events with multiple actors and factors in play. It also helps us tie a neat, little bow on top of any messy situation and label it as “Resolved”

Unfortunately, HRs often have to step up and fill in the shoes of the scapegoat.

This is most unfair.

HRs play a critical role in implementing the blueprint of the value manifesto that has been passed on to them by the higher-ups. They can only implement a value system that is embodied by the senior leadership.

The buck then, rightfully, stops at the CEO’s desk. It is the CEO who sets in motion a domino effect, a top-down phenomenon — if you will — where the senior management mirrors the fashion in which they are treated by the CEO. The senior management’s behaviour, in turn, sets the precedent followed by those in the upper to middle echelons.

We often see that when an embarrassing or controversial episode breaks out into the open, the blame is conveniently laid at the foot of the HR department. In an even more ironic twist, it is burdened with the responsibility of turning around the culture overnight.?

This is wishful thinking, at best and dangerous organisational policy, at worst. Building a cultural fibre and healthy work ethos is an endeavour spanning years, if not decades. It involves repeated emphasis and mindful execution of well-meaning principles that are implemented judiciously and fairly.?

It is in the formative years, and not in damage control mode, that the HR department can step in and play a stellar role. An effective HR department should be able to fruitfully balance both sides of the scale, namely, organisational productivity and employee well-being.

How can HR walk the tightrope?

Is there a job profile that is not saddled with stresses, tensions and overbearing deadlines?

While HRs cannot shift one’s exacting deadlines, they can nevertheless help lighten an employee’s load and boost the chances of the employee achieving the elusive work-life balance. Here’s how:

Pulse check

Pulse checks are employee surveys which are far more frequent than annual or bi-annual surveys. Quite popular with HRs across the globe, they are short-term and are not limited to one or a few productivity metrics.?

Employees often wish to communicate their thoughts about the leadership and company policies, more than once a year, and conducting pulse checks allows the HR department to assess and rectify mistakes quickly.

There is a catch, though. The insight should reach the floor managers, and a conducive environment must be enabled for them to implement it. Pulse checks insights should also be implemented on a macro-organisational scale.

According to Anil Jalali,

“Continuous listening tools are a great aid for pulse checks. However, the most important aspect is people managers having access to those pulse insights and being enabled to address them at their level as well as representing broader insights for organisation level action”

Another HR professional opting to stay anonymous said that his or her organisation creates forums for connecting and holds regular awareness sessions on speaking up. The organisation also emphasises “systemic governance through anonymous whistleblower forums, wellness sessions and regular physical health checks.”??

Weeding out toxic work practices

There are tons of underhand and diabolical work practices, which appear innocent and bonafide on the surface. But, it is for the HR to suss them out, and stop managers from pulling these insidious tactics in the workspace.?

• Setting up for failure is one such cunning tactic where managers create distance between themselves and a poor performer. Instead of taking responsibility and helping poor performers upgrade their skill sets, managers often set up employees for failure. They do this by saddling them with no-win tasks. The failure at an impossible task reaffirms the manager’s initial assessment of the employee being a poor performer. This triggers a sorry cycle of employee demoralisation and mistrust, forcing him to resign of his own accord or be shown the exit door after a performance appraisal.

Anil Jalali also added that,

“Managers can build high performance by supporting employees through positive, developmental interventions that are genuinely intended to help them improve their outcomes and not just a target for low-performance exits. Helping employees to feel psychologically safe can prevent burnout and improve motivation.? HR can be a key enabler of this shift.”

• Exclusion from key events: This one is self-explanatory. The manager and the employee don’t get along or the manager feels threatened by the employee's skillset. This escalates to a situation where the boss boots out the employee from key meetings, networking events, off-sites and more. The agenda is to make the employee feel like an outsider, diminish his morale and discreetly push him toward the exit door.
• Hostile environment: This is where it gets messy. Toxic managers can deploy a host of abusive work practices from forcing one to work overtime to hurling abuses and insults to maliciously undercutting one’s confidence with biting remarks.?
• Unhealthy competition: Now, unhealthy competition is a toxic culture trait that a company can truly capitalise on. Two or more fiercely competitive employees can be set against each other in a testosterone-fuelled frat-house environment that prioritises achievement over teamwork and one-upmanship over holistic growth. However, this gambit, for all its noise and fury, has diminishing returns in the long run.?

For one, it is mostly fresh as daisy professionals who fall for such games, not seasoned professionals. Second, it creates unwanted toxicity in the office space repelling talented workforce and pushing them into safer and healthier workspaces. What’s worse, it could end up pushing employees to the brink of burnout.?

Employee-oriented solutions

There are practical solutions that can be woven seamlessly into a company’s ethos and work culture, provided the senior management wants healthier working conditions for the firm.

A toxicity-free work environment that guarantees an equitable work-life balance without compromising on productivity and profitability is achievable for hundreds of firms globally; no reason why the same cannot be replicated here at home.

“Setting strong limits with the managers with regards to the overtime worked by their subordinates is key. Occasional deadlines are fine but preventive steps should be taken to stop any form of exploitation.”

says another HR professional who opted to remain anonymous.?

HRs can also step in by “setting realistic goals, promoting work-life balance, and offering flexibility.”?

“We provide mental health support and foster team autonomy to prevent burnout. Regular feedback and diverse teams help maintain a healthy work environment.”

said another HR professional in our survey.

What is a healthy workspace?

Before we sign off, there is a ready framework that can help you assess if your organisation ticks off the right boxes on psychological safety — a key ingredient in any professional workspace, where employees can hope to learn and ascend higher on their career ladder.

Popularised by Timothy R Clark, in his book, “The Four Stages of Psychological Safety”, this framework marks out that psychological safety is not an “on-off” or binary phenomenon but a graded scale.?

The framework has the following spectrum:

Where does your workspace land on this spectrum?