Sometimes, the M in Mumbai stands for mediocrity. It isn’t always about survival of the fittest. Some below average performers have a clever knack (hack?) of flying under the radar. They are neither great nor terrible at their job. They are content to obediently follow a salary slab that’s designed to keep “talent” in check (Like lines of identical ice cubes in a tray).
Big companies and recruiting managers often tend to view employees as an opportunity cost. That’s why the worker ants play it safe by being frugal about how much of themselves they give to their jobs. They become basic, check in at 10 am, smile and nod at the right times, do only what’s told to them, check out at 7 pm, and wait for the same orders the next day. Why would they bother to think outside the box, feel invested in the company’s Big Hairy Audacious Goal or give a toss about whether the client feels the retainers are justified or not? After the mindless 5 years at the joint, it’ll be time to try on another outfit for size with a better pay anyway. This incestuous game of musical chairs among employees across the top 5 ad agencies should make HRs address this retention issue seriously. Otherwise all they’ll ever keep recruiting will be proverbial coasters.
The CXOs may be dynamic and open minded, but I’ve noticed from my middle-management vantage point, that HR departments aren’t as visionary as their founding fathers. You can try to negotiate hard to have merit be noticed in the value you bring to the table, but it is a doomed dramedy. You’re slotted by the strict salary slab and are asked to ascend the ladder one rung at a time.
Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland says, “The worst part about recruiting is that we employ positions rather than employing people and work things out around them…Recruitment isn’t fair. It can’t apply the same criteria for everyone, because then you’ll end up with everybody who is the same”.
Pulling through an outdated web of poor wages, paying your dues, balancing work with personal life, and dealing with sexism are all tough challenges for women. I attended a “Ladies Who Lead” event with the guest of the day being firebrand lawyer Zia Mody. She has been there, done that many times over and has come out a winner. So in the Q&A round, I asked her —junior to senior, woman to woman, “What to do when the goods you bring to the table far outweigh the rewards given through traditional salary slab structures? If one goes above and beyond the scope of work and delivers exemplary results, but is not respected in return with a fat pay check- how to bargain for a fair pay? One could lay down the bottomline and mentally prepare to walk away if it doesn’t go as planned, but isn’t it better to stay in the system and affect change? How can we make that happen?
Zia’s reply was, “As women, we equate our earnings to self respect. Focus on what you can control i.e the happiness and joy you receive from doing an honest day’s work. (Drum roll for cliche) The money will come”. The parenthesis is mine.
As you may have guessed, I disagreed, like a woman scorned.
To quote Mr. Sutherland again, “Price does not necessarily equate value. It represents perceived value. But that perceived value is incredibly flawed too. People only pay highly for things they feel are rare: Coach travel and frozen food – 2 of the most efficient things are mass marketed and hence ‘down market’ and inferior goods. So the more efficient the product manufacturing becomes, the less appreciative we get as consumers and payers. If a machine can churn out goods for just 1 buck an item, it isn’t seen as a valuable machine”.
So I guess it’s simple demand-supply economics in a way. That’s probably why companies don’t feel the pinch when they pay crap for non-crappy workers who choose to suffer in silence. If this continues, the ‘high quality delivered at low costs’ becomes normalised as an expectation, instead of being called out as exploitation. You get invariably taken for granted just like that “valuable machine” Sutherland speaks of.
So, “prepare to walk away” is a better piece of advice after all. Get a hike or take a hike! Unless you like to work probono and treat your employer like a charity cause.
Rory Sutherland points out, “We also pay more for things we value, but we also value things more because we paid a bigger price”. With an exceptional stroke of luck, at a company that speaks this language and appreciates your worth, not only would it be jackpot time, but you’d ka-ching in a more harmonious and longer lasting partnership. Here, your indispensability will be acknowledged and happily afforded!
So, if you’re a sparkling talent – learn to stand up for your worth and have the courage to stick to your guns, no matter the nay sayers and non-believers…
Don’t settle for anything less, and most importantly, don’t develop a taste for peanuts!
(UPDATE: It took me a few years after writing this post to realise that typical corporate structures by design will never offer a conducive work environment for me to thrive and succeed in. Understanding office politics, getting lost in the red tape and waiting around on protocols to be followed was slowing my express train down. There are many of course who are skilled at side stepping these occupational hazards and manage to emerge victorious and keep earning double promotions. That’s a super hack I’ve never had the talent to crack myself. But rather than play by the rules and further someone else’s brand, I was desperate to further my own cause. Paddle my own canoe.
“Job security” is meant for coasters and risk averse squares. I knew I had to be a free bird to liberate my soul and unshackle myself from bourgeois preoccupations. Since 2021 I have been a freelancer- a word that to me throws up revolutionary images of a freewheeling surfer in a meditative state, riding and gliding a clean wave in an ocean full of life, following God’s whims-and-fancies with gratitude and awe. I no longer am “just a thumbprint on the glass window of a skyscraper” as Rex Pickett claimed Bukowski put it n the movie, ‘Sideways”…
B.M Baruch in his advice to investors said something that you can count as Life advice too- “Never Follow the Crowd”... I’ve been able to live authentically as a gun for hire much better than a corporate slave. Ah Freedom!)