Noise. Outrage. Culture.

Lately, there’s been a lot of noise around ‘toxic work culture’ at organizations. Curiously, most of it has been originating from new age ‘influencers’ who  rarely have any first-hand connect with any workplace themselves. They’re our armchair commentators who provoke thousands from the convenient clicks of their social media handles & demonize organizations, destroying their brand value created over decades by sincere & hard-working employees.

 I am obviously no influencer. Nor do I like making noise. I am a company-person myself, an author, a student of organizational leadership & a storyteller. Let me tell you a story.

 A youngster joins one of the Top 4 in India. She’s actually a ‘boomerang employee’ as the Gen Zs say – someone who had worked here as an intern & a senior associate, and who then went for her Masters in the UK, and CHOSE to reapply here, simply because of the great experience she had during her first stint.

 She reaches India ( Delhi) on a Sunday. The same day, her department Director, asks her out for coffee, and who then drives her around town, shows her the office & insists on also checking out the co-living place she’s finalized for herself. The girl starts work and is given the comfort that she can choose to flexi-work if she ever feels overwhelmed, or whenever she has late evening meetings.

 A month & half later, the girl has a health scare, something she doesn’t share with her family ( who are based outside India). She calls in sick for a few days. Until one day, when her health really gives in and because she is now admitted overnight at a hospital, she is unable to take incoming calls from her work place.

 Now, her seniors, out of concern, call her dad, who immediate flies in to Delhi. She is still not recovered, but assures him she’ll be fine, and asks him to go back, which he does. Oh yes, her senior colleague invites her for breakfast that weekend, just so as to check on how she’s doing.

 Four days on, her office again calls the dad. What follows is a 3-way-aligned mission, where the girl’s immediate manager, their HR head and a medical team reach the girl’s place. They take her to a hospital, have her referred to a specialist, and get her admitted. All this while, the team is in touch with the parents, assuring them their daughter is being taken care of.

 The next day, the parents reach Delhi. And three days on, they get the girl discharged from the hospital, thanks to some seamless co-ordination by the HR leader & the team handling hospitalization ( insurance, etc.) over the weekend.  Whenever the dad expresses his concern about his daughter (a new employee) taking so much time off, the company folks shut him off & insist that nothing’s more important than her health. They urge him to either stay by her, or she is free to go & work remotely with her parents till she recovers, with no immediate  binding on when she should rejoin for on-site working.

 Yesterday, a week later, the girl has started work. Her health is stabilizing. It’s been a harrowing week for the dad, but he is still awestruck at the organization’s culture, its leadership whom he has interacted with & their humane approach towards an employee who’s just a 90-day old member of their team.

 No friends. This is not one of those fake social media posts to stoke human emotions & garner ‘Likes’ or instigate outrage.

 It’s a true story. The dad is me. And the company ? Hold your breath – is EY, India.

 While my heart goes out to the parents of another girl of the same age who met with a tragedy in July, but my story is a reminder to all Influencer-followers that please do not judge an organization by one incident & by social media noise alone. Most of these noise-makers have no concern about the actual tragedy, nor are they custodians of culture (in society or at organizations). They merely use such tragedies to promote their content & get a few 'Likes'.

 Culture scales, one story at a time. I hope my story helps show a different face of the same org that’s been battling so much bad press in recent months.

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[P.S. – While I am deeply grateful to the team at EY India, for their help, I refrain from naming them in this post so as not to make them feel awkward. But if ay of you is reading this post, please accept my heartfelt thanks!]

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