The Digit World E-Commerce was one of the most talked about
company among young organizations. A typical e-commerce but focusing on a niche
segment, the company surely has made it’s followers and patrons within three
years of it’s existence. Very recently, Anurag joined them as their first head
for human resource function. Impressed by the young breed of entrepreneurial
people at the organization, including the founder and CEO, Anurag made this
career movement. The organization received some fresh funding from major VCs
and was also in process of generating another couple of rounds of fund raising.
This further consolidated the move of the the new HR head for the company.
Barring couple of people, most of the people were in late
twenties or early thirties. Hence most of the leaders believed a lot in open
culture, flexible work timing, working as a team, no boss and subordinate
culture and a non-hierarchical approach. Anurag, being a young HR leader himself,
propelled the culture after he joined the organization a couple of months of ago.
Contrary to most of the organization, the finance team was
still believing in classical old world organizational culture which was largely
driven by the leader of the team. Ramesh was heading the team for last couple
of years- almost two third of the time since the company came into existence. Father
of two teenaged daughters, he had a rich experience of almost 14
years before joining the company. Starting his career with few years in a CA
audit firm followed by couple of years in paints industry, he worked for nine
years in an automobile plant before joining the company. He was surely one of
the best person to understand managing of funds, vendor payments, compliances
and other financial issues. His ‘above his age’ approach and a religious south
Indian family background made him appear a bit older than he actually was.
He was a conservative accountant like any other accountant but sometimes much more than
required. Couple of times Anurag also wondered about him as he questioned
couple of costs regarding employee benefit programs. In any modern day
organizations, those programs were a minimum basic but as per Ramesh, they were
frills and cost.
Ramesh was a strong believer of clocking 9.5 hours or more in
office. Reaching office on time, having minimal breaks, being there on time and
being available even late in the night if he wants the team to be were some of his major expectations. Hence most of the team members hired by him were commerce
graduates with couple of years of experience. This helped him in stating his
authority over the team. Despite being a Vice President himself, he did not have any
intermediate managers and entire team used to report to him directly. However,
there were couple of young and fresh chartered accountants also in the team.
They soon became restless because of the old world approach. Khushi, a young hot headed Punjabi girl was one of the two outliers in the team
who were qualified and not willing to accept the authority unless satisfied with proper logic and answer. Ever since Anurag
joined, he found both Khushi and Ramesh at the loggers head. Both of them took turns to
come to Anurag and complain about the other person.
Khushi’s complaints were typically about Ramesh not being a
good guide, being biased towards graduates as they are under awe of him and do
not confront, being a micro-manager etc. On the other hand Ramesh had a
complaint box which mentioned about Khushi’s attitude during early stage of her
career, challenging his decisions, reaching out to other people in business and
by-passing him.
It was a daily affair for Anurag to listen to their cribs.
One fine day, Khushi sent the mail to the CEO with Anurag in the loop. The mail was
as below
Dear Sir,
It is getting difficult
to work with Ramesh. There are some of his behavior/ incidents below which has
upset me and it is repeated often. Hence I would like to resign. Please accept.
1.
I’m blamed for a mistake committed by anyone in the team
irrespective of whether it was done based on his instructions.
2.
I’ve been insulted in front of the auditors by saying I may
provide wrong information and directing them to someone else.
3.
He has asked my team members to report directly to him and
I’m not being marked in emails but am expected to know everything that is
happening in my team.
4.
Also yesterday he woke up all of a sudden to an apparent
mistake made by me (again by following his instructions) while making the
report for last month. When I asked him to explain how it is to be done he
explained in a way I did not understand. When I told him so he said if you
can’t understand what can I do and that why am I here.
5.
Further he has also on occasions told me that I’m not fit to
be here and that he doubts me being a Chartered Accountant.
6.
In cases where there is any question raised regarding any
work done by me I’m talked to as though I’m always committing errors. And when
there is a question raised regarding anyone else in the team the
most stupidest explanation is given to cover it up.
7.
I’m required to rectify/ reconcile all the mistakes that
happen irrespective of whether or not they were committed by me. These days any
mistake committed in the accounts has to be done by me as the rest
of the team is all knowing.
8.
I’ve spent months together training people in the team and
am give absolutely no credit. Moreover I’m told that I’m always trying to break
the team and that I’m not a team player.
9.
There is no respect he has for anyone in the office. When
the customer service and sales process was to be explained to the auditors he
told me not to expalin as I may do it incorrectly and the I must ask the
respective team to explain. Later when based on the explanation a question was
asked, he said you have asked “some
local person” to explain which is not correct.
10. He has told me may
times that “XYZ is a better worker as he works on Saturdays and Sundays too
without making any noise.”
11. At the time of
the death of my aunt I wanted to go for the last rites to Punjab, I was asked
to first complete the MIS and then leave.
12. There is gender bias
which was evident when the awards were given to only the male members in the
team.
13. There is also a bias
based on the language and region from where the individual comes.
14. There is negativity
towards me as he assumes that I’m complaining about him to people. On various
occasions others have been asked if I were complaining to him although we were
only discussing work.
15. He also spies on me
when I talk to anyone in the office by joining the conversation and passing
comments or just standing there to hear the conversation.
He takes revenge for his personal grudges against me on every
step. Its highly impossible to work with him anymore.
Surely, the written complaint called for some action. Anurag was wondering whether the allegations
are true or bloated out of proportion? Definitely there were some behavioral
issues with Ramesh but the complaint definitely showed them in an enlarged manner.
Also, what shall be his approach now? Get somebody senior to
Ramesh who can drive a younger culture? Look for a younger replacement? Ignore
as it could be a reckless resignation mail? Anurag was wondering what shall be
his approach towards his peer and counterpart from Finance team.
Scene 2
Ramesh meets Anurag and asks him to ask Khushi if she would like to continue in the system. Anurag himself has a mixed feeling about it as he sees it as a temporary solution. What shall be his approach?
