“Young men need to show women the respect they deserve and recognise sexual assault and to do their part to stop it.” — US President Barack Obama
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Firuza could help Sarla as an individual but the same actions done by her as HR manager could be seen as an interference in an employee’s personal life, writes Viju Parameshwar
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Create platforms at work place that provide opportunities for employees and families to speak up and seek support, writes Anjali Byce
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“...but the airline industry forks over $40 billion — the same amount commercial carriers have lost since 2001 — on in-flight food” — Louise McCready Hart, in The Huffington Post, May 2011By Meera SethRuzbeh Kapadia slapped his head several times and cursed as he read the senseless news item on the front pages that screamed about a pest having been found in a passenger’s food tray. The newspaper had just been brought to him by his team at SwiftAir, the domestic airline that flew to 17 destinations. SwiftAir was four years old in the market with seven carriers. While business was growing, costs always stared them in the face and had to be contained.Looking up at Duleep Sanyal, SwiftAir’s commercial head, Ruzbeh said, “This is really bad. One irresponsible headline and your brand is mud! Lizard in the food tray? Seriously? There is not a paisa’s worth of investigation done. Not one. Not half.Lizards do not get onto planes, for God’s sake! And these jokers have published it as if it is true? When will our governors treat companies like social citizens with respect? I am so mad! Say, you have been in the industry for 28 years, have you encountered pests in the food tray?Duleep: It is always possible for the lizard thing to happen — that is the reality of India. I was reading a letter in one of the neighbouring country newspapers some time ago and a passenger wrote of a rat running around in the plane! But our national carrier does have good food, and all our netas travel on it. So, I would take all this with a bag of salt.The larger problem is that such one-off incidents tend to get blown out of proportion by the media. It’s grist for their mill. Funny thing Ruzbeh, hygiene standards in a five-star hotel kitchen may be worse than on an aircraft, but diners do not get to see the restaurant kitchen.Ruzbeh: We are in the business of carrying people to their destinations, but we are always in the dog house over food. This is the national carrier, if the press is carrying false stories just to stay relevant, it is very sad.Duleep: What are you thinking?Ruzbeh: However much we train people, attitudes cannot be trained. You get what you get. But brand equity has to be protected…they were now looking at each other….Duleep: No, Ruzbeh… don’t do that, I know what you are thinking...Ruzbeh: I have been thinking on these lines ever since that noodle company drama. It takes just a careless match stick to burn down a brand. Stopping food on SwiftAir will prevent costs that we will incur thanks to mindless damage to brand equity. Our media is unrestrained. As it is my brand building costs are going through the roof. One irresponsible news report without giving the brand time to check and respond will wipe us out. If they could put a lizard in an Air India food tray, they will put an elephant into ours!Duleep: Not offering ANY food would be a bigger problem. Passengers will complain. You should not worry about hygiene; Hygiene standards on a flight are very high — we can’t have the pilot suffering from food poisoning, now can we?Ambi Iyer, the chief of accounts and finance, walked in. “Did you read the news? These guys are mad… Oh, you have seen it!”Duleep told him what Ruzbeh was suggesting and what he thought.Ambi: I don’t think passengers will complain. But I will be a happy man, the cost of food per head is very high. Remove the food and we will be posting profits.Ruzbeh: No, Ambi, Duleep is right, passengers will crib. Ask me. I have a few letters here cribbing about the food tray mix; surely they care about being fed on a flight. Let me show you one that came yesterday from my cousin, Dilshad. She says, “Dada, what airline have you joined?” With three exclamation marks. As if we must choose our employers by the food they serve. This letter is worth reading. She goes on, “ On a recent SwiftAir flight (since the family is supposed to patronise your company): there was an unusual combination of vegetarian food served — uttapam with either paneer masala or chole. Seriously dada? Dilshad is the only Parsi in the whole world who is vegetarian, please.“It was a mid-morning flight, 10.30 a.m. or so, so people would have left home after a breakfast. The foil container looked crushed and my neighbour remarked that it looked like somebody had already tasted the food. There was salad, which I think is a bad idea. I have often told you about cut fruit and veggies getting oxidised, and then all that handling, ewww…!”Sorry guys, she is my older cousin sister and she is allowed to say stuff about my work. That’s life.Anyway, I asked Aarti in PR to reply to her and this is what she wrote... Parts of which was news to even me. Ok, so she replies. ‘The inflight catering department decides the different types of meal (breakfast /refreshment / lunch / dinner) then they decide on the catering agency (TajSATS / Oberoi flight kitchen, etc.) The next step involves meal selection out of a huge menu. In your case, the meal selection was done by the inflight department and uplifted from one of the stations … da da da ...was reheated and given to you. The Swift airline oven has 24 slots for reheating….”I wonder why she told her all this. Knowing my Dilshad, she will write and ask: ‘Why 24 and not 25?’ Ok, chaps let us call Larry from F&B if he is around. I am sure he is again tasting some culinary expertise somewhere and wasting my money.so it was. Larry was at a tasting session at Klassica.Ruzbeh: All this is clinical aspects of catering food: who, what, when, which flight kitchen, selecting meal, budget... these are not critical to Dilshad’s real question. The real drama unfolds when the tray reaches the customer’s table and the foil is peeled off. It is here that the real customer experience is felt, whereas all that happened up until now is meant to make this moment a happy one. I am not even saying this moment has to be breathtaking. No, not at all. But food must seem like food!And that is why I am waiting for Larry, once he is done sending me those food pictures on WhatsApp. Yes, I was right. He is at this super premium new flight kitchen Klassica tasting some pointlessly gorgeous food. Why?This Klassica kind of event ends up being more a tasting ceremony than about the end-consumer experience. The accent is on variety, mix of foods, experimental/creative cooking. So, what does young Larry have to say? Hear this message from him: “The Ginger-Pistachio Encrusted Chicken with Tangerine Sauce was served with honey roasted pan seared carrots, and on the side, you have Roasted Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes and a helping of Vegetable Minestrone Soup with Fava Beans and Mint”? You see our MLAs lovin’ it?Duleep: Fusion foods won’t work in air. Nor will mixing northern and southern cuisine. It’s blasphemy. I would be offended too if someone served paneer with uttappam.Ruzbeh: Here I am wanting to do away with food, and Larry wants smoked chicken? Here is another image, spotlight on ‘Slash of basil pesto, drippings of vinaigrette ….! How beautiful and appetising is that smoked chicken going to look when it crawls out of a foil box? Who tests this in the usage situation?Polished cutlery, starched napkins, bright white porcelain.... pistachio gremolata and pomegranate reduction just dotting the borders, a slash of chutney smearing the plate to set off the red of the pomegranate... all very pretty and just right for a media intervention.Devyani Khare (marketing): …But now you take a look at Mr Anshuman Kaviratne, a finance manager rushing to Madurai to examine a broken down ERP system, with three days to audit finalisation.Kaviratne’s wife, who is monitoring his cholestrol, feeds him oats with milk at 7 a.m. and packs him off to the airport. He does not mind, he waits for the airline food tray.It comes, he peels off the foil and presto! What he sees can dampen the appetite of the strongest willed person: uttapam with paneer mush, where the mush (once gravy) has caked up against the paneer and the uttapam, heated to death, but saltless and tough.... You have to experience this sight on an empty stomach to know frustration!But for arguments’ sake, if we agree that the airline is not promising you a home meal but food to see you through, then I can see Kaviratne pulling the foil back upon the uttapam and pressing the bell for the lady to take his plate away.Therefore tell me, all that happens in a Klassica kind of set up, how does the Klassica tasting session help the man who is going to eat that 10 hours and many levels of freezing and reheating later?Larry (having just walked in): You guys talking about me?Duleep: Let us forget Larry’s events. It is part of his job to check out flight kitchens and it is part of their job to impress him. Now...Larry: You guys are not getting it. What I take away is a certain something about their ability. You saw those images? When that smoked chicken and gremolata is placed before me, I get to know what Klassica is capable of and all capability holds the essence of efficiency and skill. Just looking at their chef’s body language I can tell if he can handle our orders placed 48 hours before departure. The food caterer is aware that he needs to cook 10 hours prior to despatch and cooling below 0°C for four hours before despatch. This food has to be foil packed to enable heating on the flight and it must stay moist! This is included in capability.The flight kitchen that can spend time showing off its smoked chicken already knows the act of tossing up 175 meals eight hours in advance and cooking below 15°C. They have mastered the logistics Ruzbeh, and logistics is key to deciding between a smoked chicken and a choley. And… ensuring that the food tray opens moist, not caked up and dead.Ruzbeh: I don’t think the end user cares where you tested the food. You are SpiceJet, Jet Airways, Air India… they have an estimate of your brand name. All that you say is process. She wants the end-product to be to her liking. Let me give you an example:Customer: Coffee is bad. Hostess: I used the best coffee we have … Customer: It has no body, no taste. Hostess: I will tell the chef/ It must be the powdered milk / This is what we serve even the pilot…See? You are giving explanations. Whereas what she wants is good coffee. So, when you say fresh/moist, I say, tasty, good looking!Devyani: This is not entirely about the passenger. It is not about logistics or efficiency. It is about what the hell am I in the business of!Duleep: I am not buying that. Why then do we fuss with Business Class passengers. Isn’t that different? Then again, they use bone china not foil boxes, real cups with silver trimmings, not disposable plastic cups that bend to the touch. Half the selling is in the packaging. In the delivery. You serve that same bad coffee in porcelain and then see…Ruzbeh: So, have we got our act mixed up. We spend on tasting ceremonies but the end-consumer is scowling. I am not wishing to offer a fine dining experience. Klassica is doing that for an audience that is NOT the end-consumer of that food. Two, THAT is not the condition of the food that the end-user experiences when he opens his foil box.Devyani: So, see how apart the supplier and the buyer are. The supplier is addressing only the man who will pay or not pay for his services. That airline official, like Larry, can be pleased if the kofta still retains shape, is hot, fluffy and dancing in the gravy. Whereas that same kofta comes all soaked up and a glop when it climbs out of the foil box to the end-user — Mr Kaviratne’s tray.The important question here is this: do the food tasters at the stage of Klassica marketing taste their offering in the usage situation, 10 hours later? The amount of preparation and planning and ideating that goes on until the food is frozen at below 0 degrees is fabulous. No airline traveller may know the effort that goes into this. But it is heartbreaking that all that effort remains disconnected from giving the end consumer a great food experience.Larry: Completely agree. Food tasters do not taste the same food. There are few places in the world that have facilities to analyse effects of different pressure and atmospheric conditions on food; They employ star chefs to create signature dishes, even accommodate religious and dietary requests and they have better-equipped galleys. Etihad’s economy class also provides surprise popcorn, cappuccino and espresso!These airlines have invested a lot in getting their passenger-food relationship right. These are also airlines that see very high repeat customer rate and people willing to pay a premium, while our home airlines are still fighting costs to attract international passengers.Devyani: The real question is this: Why is food so important on a flight? And I will answer. The air is a surreal experience that is unmatched by any other. On a flight, near the clouds, there is an unusual soundlessness. Food gets served with just one question: Vegetarian or non-vegetarian? None of the, ‘How is the galouti kebab, sir?’ There is a niceness to eating silently on a plane, a tiny uncomfortable table, your chomping neighbour and the cramped tray notwithstanding, the consumer has his personal joy that he will not express, for it is a personal moment of acute hunger and being served and being satisfied. Unless, of course, he orders coffee, which is unilaterally, across every airline the most insufferable experience, because coffee is made with the lowest grade of coffee, badly, and in plastic cups.So, tell me, why do they even bother to serve bad coffee?Duleep: Coffee is as crucial as food on a flight. And good coffee, I agree. Powdered milk should be banned. But on the domestic sector, you must have food because competition has it too. For example, Jet had to return to full-service model and give free catering since the buy-on-board did not work. Air India after the Dholakia committees report had cut back on food but had to reintroduce food to attract more passengers.Larry: So, can an airline do without food? And can airline food be good? Yes, it can be good. I have had some of the best meals in the airline (economy class) and people continue to praise airline meals (Emirates / Lufthansa / Singapore Airlines). On the other hand, some of the worst meals are also on flight. So, it is a function of cost, selection and choice offered.Ruzbeh: Tell me, what per cent of operating costs is food cost? Give me a comparative…Larry: What per cent is very difficult to tell, but roughly the whole meal for a full-service carrier is Rs 750, which includes tea/coffee, salad, dessert and the main course. The complex logistics makes it expensive. If you see the supply chain: Selection ->Actual cooking ->Security Clearance ->Dispatch to airport ->Loading and then, the reverse logistics from aircraft -> Airport security ->Back to flight kitchen ->Segregation/Disposal -> Cleaning / Washing and disposal of trays and other reusable containers.So, let’s see. Air India domestic meal and Jet Airways domestic meal will roughly be Rs 750. It could also be similar for smaller sectors like Delhi-Kathmandu, Kolkata-Dhaka where the flight time is comparable to domestic. Sorry? Yes, sector does determine cost; because the meal to be served is determined based on the sector length. In India, it is on an average 90 minutes; with a time of 22 minutes for climb and 18 minutes for descend, the service time is considerably reduced. This actually makes logistics more tedious. For example, Jet Airways that operates the same narrowbody aircraft (B737) on Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Singapore will have a more elaborate meal to Singapore as Mumbai Singapore is a longer sector; hence it will have two meals and drinks, while Delhi will serve only one meal. Delhi-Kathmandu will have one meal similar to the one served on Delhi-Mumbai.Devyani: Then, it seems, we are spending disproportionate time and attention on food, which ends up occupying so much logistics time, is expensive and worse, is not our business purpose? And at the end of it all, we get brickbats. Ok, forget the brickbats, but this ‘lizard in my food tray’ kind of damaging nonsense?Duleep: Ok, much as I resist the no-food idea, I want to share with you some findings from a study we conducted some years ago at my earlier employers, AirLift. What I would depend on is a key finding that the quality of food was the least important factor among several that influenced how passengers rated an airline. Having better quality food increases costs without a commensurate improvement in customer satisfaction. Yet getting a really good supplier of food for airlines is limited due to the multiple clearances required. This reduces flexibility and adds costs. Even a simple menu is costly (to the passenger) and airlines do not profit a great deal on the sale of food items.Don’t forget, reheating food on an aircraft adds weight (and fuel costs). Keeping more menu items adds space (again a scarce commodity) both of which increase cost. There is also a premium on the serving cabin attendant’s time. Despite all this, airlines do research meal options. Again, my experience at AirLift, there are a miniscule number of complaints related to food. And again, the pilots and cabin crew eat the same food, so their feedback is monitored regularly as well, since they are ‘repeat customers’.The problem with airline food is a global phenomena. In India, it is prominent as we have very diverse food habits, not to mention social norms where serving good food is traditionally a measure of your goodness! But NOT serving food is definitely a dampener. So I feel!casestudymeera@gmail.com Businessworld case studies(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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The way to address the problem is not to remove the problem but to find a sustainable and balanced solutionBy Ameya JoshiThis case beautifully describes the challenges faced by airlines in managing expectations of internal stakeholders for cost and of passengers for service quality. Airlines are a mix of transportation and hospitality industry. While the core business is to take people from one place to another, most of the time passengers take the transportation part for granted and look forward to the hospitality part.The case depicts how the management of SwiftAir tracks good and bad publicity of competition to learn and be prepared for any eventuality at its own airline. The bigger issue is response of media. A booming media industry has led to increased competition and catchy headlines with the buzzword being “narrow escape”. Media is quick to remove the word “suspect” from the headline and thus “Rat suspected on board” could becomes “Rat on board”.Chief of accounts and finance Ambi Iyer’s argument is unreasonable since the food cost is less than Rs 1,000 per passenger and the average losses of airlines exceed this. However, discontinuation of food will also result in fewer passengers.The letter from Ruzbeh’s cousin Dilshad represents the ignorance of family and frequent fliers regarding food in an airline. People, at times, expect a fine-dining experience onboard by paying much lesser than that which also includes the cost of travel from A to B.While fusion foods don’t go down well, as mentioned by Duleep, it is easier in a space-constrained airplane and offers some variety. The choice is to make some people happy, unhappy or to have everybody 50 per cent satisfied. More often than not airlines opt for the latter. The way to address the problem is not to remove the problem but to find a sustainable and balanced solution and that is how the case ends.Passengers hate airline food yet they eagerly wait for the food tray. Seasoned fliers choose seats based on where the food trolley starts service from to get food first! Even when the coffee does not taste good, most want to try it. It is either a sign of eternal hope, genuine desire or an attitude of having everything on offer because it’s free. The airline ought to select its menu that is palatable and presentable. The shift towards low-cost carriers denotes that a sandwich or a small meal is better than the free meal of soggy rice and mush.In the US, the largest aviation market in the world, airlines offer only water and non-alcoholic beverages for free in economy class while the meals available for purchase; but in Asia, especially in India, meal seems to be an integral part of airline travel.Food review websites incentivise people to post photos since people tend to like something more if it looks nice and a possible solution to the food problem could lie in suitably packaging the food.There is a cue for customer services here. When a passenger complains, he wants to know if his complaint matters enough for the airline to improve its services. Whereas, at SwiftAir, the PR ends up giving unwanted explanations.Airlines need in-flight audit team, which travels randomly, speaks to co-passengers, photographs the food and compares what was served on ground and how that tastes in-flight.My experience in the airline industry tells me that Indian customers are cost sensitive and will shift loyalty for cheaper tickets. IndiGo does not offer hot meals yet attracts corporate and VFR (visiting friends & relatives) traffic because of affordable fares, connectivity and on-time performance. SpiceJet offers hot meals onboard but has high loads due to cheaper fares and innovative discount offers. A recent entry in the category, AirAsia India, even after introducing its popular hot meals to India, is struggling to make profits. So does Vistara (the TATA-Singapore Airlines joint venture), which recognised the importance of food and introduced gourmet food onboard. While its food is the best among the competition, the airline has lowest occupancy as the tickets are expensive.While it is true that food remains an important factor, it is clearly not the only factor. People say food is the least important aspect in flight selection yet they talk the most about it post-flight and that’s where the airlines need to find the balance. The writer is a management professional having worked with leading full service and low-cost carriers in the country. He currently works as a solutions consultant in aviation, travel and hospitality industry(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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Airlines should accept and passengers need to understand that there will always be limitations around an in-flight meal experienceBy Rahul DeansThis case study on swiftair goes to the heart of a problem faced by the airline industry — particularly in India. Two sets of stakeholders — the passengers and the press — have a perception about the industry that is significantly different from reality. Airlines only seem to reinforce these perceptions rather than correct them.Passengers often feel that service levels in airlines should be very superior since “we pay so much” and because even now, barely 2 per cent of the Indian population flies. This year’s estimate of nearly 70 million domestic passengers that the industry seems excited about is really 35 million return trips. Assuming just 1.5 trips per person per year, that is just 24 million passengers, or 2 per cent of the Indian population. Thus flying is still seen as something for the elite.Passengers tend to be more demanding and while airlines struggle to please them in an adverse operating environment, they make little effort to communicate proactively with them, despite passengers being more understanding of problems that airlines might face.In the West, by contrast, a two-hour flight is seen as just another form of transport, no different from a train or bus journey and expectations around food that a passenger has during the journey, for all these modes of transport, are the same.Similarly, aviation seems to be a high profile sector for the press to write about — often with a lot of hyperbole. Headlines like ‘Miraculous Escape For (Air) Passengers’ are given for incidents where no one had a chance of getting injured — with more coverage compared to a rail accident with fatalities! The fog season brings stories of air passengers getting stranded, without the media displaying any understanding of how the country’s poor airport infrastructure makes that inevitable. Yet, the media is receptive to transparent communication and would be happy to report from an airline’s point of view if it believes the story is newsworthy.When I worked for a domestic airline, we conducted surveys among passengers which consistently showed that the quality of in-flight food was the least important factor in determining their preference for an airline. Since food is not prepared by the airline but by specialist caterers who cater to multiple airlines, it is also most difficult to differentiate the airline based on the quality of food. The multiple steps and agencies involved, coupled with a high tax structure, make it difficult to make a significant profit on food and beverage sales, while the limitations imposed by the aircraft in flight make serving a tasty meal very difficult. For a domestic airline, trying to differentiate on the basis of superior inflight food (and not for example, convenience, on time performance, or fares), is neither possible nor desirable. Apart from the problems around the food served in an aircraft that the case study mentions, a problem all airlines face is that once in the air, the pressure and humidity in the cabin, along with background noise, diminish one’s sense of taste by around 30 per cent. For example, a meal would have to have 30 per cent more salt to taste as salty as it does on the ground. Food has to be precooked and preheated. Cutlery has to be plastic. Add to this, people eating in close proximity to each other (a non-veg meal would be inches away from someone eating a veg meal), food smell circulating around the cabin, often inadequate time to clean food spills between halts, eating with your elbows tucked in, while the kid behind you kicks the seat, all make for an experience that is far less pleasurable than eating in a restaurant — even if the quality of food is as good and the quality checks arguably more stringent. In this context, SwiftAir should look at reducing passenger expectations around food and the role of food itself. In the past, the food and beverage service on an airline — particularly on long-haul sectors, was considered a substitute to entertainment. Today, with inflight movies and music and passengers having their Kindles, they are entertained by entertainment and not food. A limited, easy to understand menu of non-smelly, non-messy food which the passenger pays for is probably the most efficient option — something Indigo does well. Many airlines including British Airways and American Airlines do not serve meals on short-haul flights.The incident, where a lizard was seen around a meal, is a serious lapse (albeit a seemingly one-off incident) and while the airline should unconditionally apologise, and study the incident to understand why it happened, it would provide a good opportunity for the airline to engage with the media and consumer groups to explain to them how food is prepared and what some of the problems are.Along with the menu, a note on ‘Inflight meal FAQs’ could be made available to passengers, who will then show more understanding of the constraints an airline faces around its inflight food. The media too shows understanding when an organisation facing a problem comes clean, is seen to be transparent and engages in a fact-based discussion. The airline can offer interested passengers and the media a tour of the in-flight caterers’ facilities, or a behind-the-scenes look at how a meal gets on an aircraft and is served.This would be a good opportunity for the airline to discuss broader issues with the media. For example, while there is a lot of praise for the swanky new terminal in Mumbai airport, the larger problem is that the airport is saturated and cannot accommodate more flights (Delhi airport too will soon be in the same position). Building new terminals sharing the same runway does not add capacity. The larger question the media should be asking is how the industry can grow when the two biggest airports (accounting for over 40 per cent of India’s departures) cannot grow and restrictions exist for other major airports. That question will be asked if airlines have a healthy dialogue with the media, rather than react defensively when a problem occurs.Similarly, rather than reporting on ‘near miss’ incidents, about which the media often lacks technical knowledge, airlines could get the media to highlight, for instance, how the slums and garbage outside airports greatly increase the chance of a bird strike, or why airports in India are still unable to operate when there is fog. These are more newsworthy, but are not reported because neither side makes the effort to get the story out. There is more that can be done with food if airlines accept and passengers understand that there will always be limitations around an in-flight meal experience. When pre-booking meals, passengers can be given the option of customising their meal. Customers are always more satisfied with something they have co-created and the complexity is easily managed by a flight kitchen. Why can’t an airline sell food coupons, redeemable in outlets in the food court of an airport, prior to departure. Outlets will be happy to provide discounts, part of which can be shared with the passenger buying a coupon. This would leave the airline with a similar margin to what they might have got selling a meal in-flight. The growth of e-wallets will facilitate this arrangement. The idea could be refined to offer, for example, a great deal on a south Indian breakfast, or a pizza-based meal for a family at lunchtime. Airlines could tie up with nearby hotels, which could offer passengers a discounted meal, while completing their check-in formalities and dropping them to the airport, which would provide the airline flexibility in their choice of hotels.A similar opportunity might exist, for example, for passengers arriving at their destination at breakfast time — too early to begin their business engagements. Such tie-ups between airlines and hotels/ restaurants already exist, with loyalty programmes, catering for off-loaded passengers, etc. This would need a mindset change by airlines, who should move away from maximising in-flight meal revenue to reducing dissatisfaction with in-flight meals. This can be done while ensuring that the sale of food and beverages, in whatever manner they are offered to passengers, is profitable and the quality consistent with the image of the airline.Will Ruzbeh tell his customers that rather than drink a poor quality instant coffee in-flight (which may spill if there is a turbulence), he would offer them a discount on a wide variety of coffee at the airport coffee shop? The writer is CEO of Cocoberry. He has worked in the FMCG, retail and airline sectors(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)
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“Various factors like loss of sleep, disturbed biological clock, etc., make both men and women more prone to cardiovascular diseases” — Dr Nirmal Kumar, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Care Hospital, HyderabadBy Meera SethJAFFER NENZEE HELD HISAudience of seven with his interpretation of health management. It was 3 a.m. and the Indian R&D team was chatting online. John Kramer’s sudden demise had made life surreal for them all. John was one of them even if their senior. People like them did not just crumble and die. Now they were all very ‘suspicious’ of his death. ‘...carelessness, neglect, competitive aggression, greed’ — they ascribed these suspects to the Luxetta management.The story of John had been unfolding a bit every day as those in the US who attended his funeral and then the prayer services each came back with a bit of John.Although John had announced his move to Asia as head of Asian R&D as early as a month ago, it now transpired that his move had been in discussion since as much as a year ago. But there had been so much internal politicking, as Graham (from the European team) called it.It had all begun with the previous head of Asian R&D, Ken William, resigning and John getting deputed to Asia Pacific to take charge as Asia had a number of products in research and diagnostics. This was a deputation to begin with. But Graham detailed the political mess: “It was the first of a series of experiments by Luxetta Europe, (the R&D HQ) in leadership development and training for potential high-performance directors in the group. So, Europe decided John should ‘train’ in Asia overseen by Europe. However, John had his own responsibilities in the US, where he worked under David Fraser, Global Brand Management Team, work that he did not want to give up. And, of course, his young family too.“And so, he got Europe to agree to allow him to position a chap based in Singapore as the leader of the Asian group. That would give him time to tie up loose ends in the US to help David.”It was rumoured that David was on his way out — having nice-guy John with him would help him leave without losing his superannuation.Luxetta, at first, decided that Ken will not be directly replaced. Europe wanted to retain control on APac and tried bringing APac under Europe, “This I have from Harry (global R&D head) directly after two pegs,” said Graham. “But that did not work too well as no one from Europe wished to go to Asia.”Then, Herman Frescher (heading Europe R&D) decided he would appoint an APac team and jointly they would manage Asia — that also failed. Then they added APac to John Kramer’s portfolio and told him to manage it. But John was unable to give up his US portfolio because his CEO had not been able to replace him.... So, John placed a subordinate (Martin Slavski) in Singapore to mind the APac team while he could straddle US more comfortably.So, John was also a victim of the competition and ambition and the pressure to stay on top, a condition that organisations unleash on people. This was Graham’s verdict.“This whole experiment, however, ended up with a team that was dispirited and extremely critical of both Frescher and John,” said Graham.Between John the de jure boss and Martin Slavski the de facto boss who tried very hard to be a friend, the team was very frustrated. India cribbed occasionally when Martin put them on hold to check with John. But for the most part India was ok as John was also in e-mail touch with many of the product teams.Subeer Bhattacharya (R&D India) could now see how John had been moved around and around and around. How John had been finally sent to Singapore, with direct full-time responsibility for the region. As a strong member of the leadership team at the corporate office, and with several key relationships, John was influential and high on innovation, thanks to his product experience.As for John, he was greatly relieved when his appointment was finally announced, for he would no more need to rush between regions and bosses and teams. The last three months of the experiment had taken him very far away from his children and made his life very difficult, to say the least. He was sitting in the US, managing Asia with a strategic responsibility for Europe.Most of the time John did not know whether he was coming or going.After the usual initial few months of conflict, John had settled in, but he was having to run back to Dallas to wrap up and clean up.... add to which he also had to go pay homage to Frescher (Europe) to update him on how well he was salvaging APac...In this midst, he fell sick repeatedly, apparently some regional flu. He delayed his move to Singapore, citing work that still needed to be completed from his previous role.Finally, his move was announced and John started running around chasing school admissions mid term which was tough in Asia that looked down upon such things.Every few weeks, John would find he was back in the US for meetings, etc. India meanwhile was going through the planning cycle and needed John. But he was unable to give them continuous attention. Twice, his visit was cancelled.And now Nalpat said, “With John gone, there is no one who understands the complexity of the markets in this region, all the new direction is extremely US- centric or focused on the developed countries in Europe.”Graham: Why did Ken resign? Anyone knows?Nalpat: Ken left very, very suddenly. No, there is no known story. There was no succession for Ken in place; apparently, John was the fastest solution. But now he too is not available… this is depressing. I heard today that priority areas for APac highlighted by John have been shut down, mostly because the new team of leaders refuse to continue initiatives that John had started.John was clearly under a lot of stress they all saw. The Indian team pontificated opening up the law of karma… tied themselves into knots as fear took over… then rationality prevailed and that is the point when they began to ask, “Didn’t John see it coming? Didn’t Harry see it coming?”The Indian team went into a silent introspection. Had they added to John’s stress? Subeer was very devastated by the very idea that he may have pushed a bit more… The discussion now moved to the lunch room of Luxetta India.Nalpat: Being in three different regions must be so disorienting! Working out of Europe, working out of the US, was supposed to move to Asia, everyone has been in touch with him constantly… didn’t something show up? Some kind of breakdown? Didn’t HR do his medicals?Subeer: What about us? How regular are we about our medical check-ups…?Then they went down that path. HR had annual medical check-ups tied up with five-star hospitals and it was up to the employees to avail of them. Some did; some did not. The latter said they were travelling so much that keeping appointments was the biggest challenge. They talked about how despite knowing everything we do not take our health seriously.Arundhati: Late night working is a daily habit, not an exception. That means going out for a drink, smoking, eating trash from convenient places… We say let’s have a mild snack, and then eat fried kachoris, samosas, pav bhaji. You forget your system cannot deal well with all this. You are leading a bad lifestyle anyway working 20 hours, no exercises, the least you can do is eat healthy!This kind of talk gathered girth.Bhamini Vaidya: Health discipline. That is the key. This body is not a dustbin! There is a lot more to be done by the individual. Even I am a victim of this corporate lethargy. I used to be regular. The entire stress of a project you are working on grips you…. when a project is on you think of nothing else… Subeer: I enrolled for yoga, paid my fees, but I barely go for class once a week. But I fool myself thinking that I am into a fitness discipline. Even the gym, you go once and after that you have a late evening at work, or the IPL and boom. It’s over. If someone asks do you gym? You say, ‘Yeah, I gym…!’ looking so holier than thou, even if you are going only once a month. Food too, you will buy all that is needed like an air fryer, sprouts… but you are not eating anything right. You think you have started eating healthy but you are never home to eat it. So, what is discipline?HR Head Jaggan Mittha came down on them heavily.Jaggan: Laziness is also an addiction. Is there a cure for laziness? So then it is an attitude and if you are attitudinally indisciplined, you will readily blame anyone for your failures.A large part of this is health discipline at school level. Schools that serve chana bhatura for lunch are criminals killing the health attitudes. Those who got their health disciplines at schools are most likely those who continue it at 40. For them there is no battle with the mind. Their body is already in cooperation.Nalpat: You need to have a fitness regime. How healthy are the choices you make? People feel gym is for body building, for developing biceps and six packs. Gym is meant to oil your system into a fitness that everyday life does not bring about.Arundhati: True. One of the things I tell my mom is that given the manner in which we Indians overcook and kill our food, and that osteoporosis is high among Asian-Indian women, she must lift light weights. She says I don’t want muscles, and I tell her no, here you are actually activating the osteosynthesis of your bones which in general will not be activated unless you put some mechanical pressure. There is scientific reason but mom is unbelieving. So, I think it goes beyond discipline — to understanding your body.And so on, each employee gave release to his and her anxiety over John’s absurd demise, talking about his and her correct approach to fitness and health.But back with John Kramer, they asked, given he swam regularly, played squash every morning… his heart should have been strong, so what went wrong?So they said, much to Jaggan’s chagrin, ‘Is HR paying enough attention to health?’. More arguments flew at him – after all, humans are assets, they have to be maintained as well as you maintain your machines. You have an AMC for all of them, we do have an AMC for human assets, but is HR auditing to see what the feedback is or the test results are? I go for a check-up and come back with xyz on my blood, my pathology is showing a pattern in many ways, but are you looking at the trend to see over my last three reports if there is a deterioration? Shouldn’t you be doing that?Jaggan: HR cannot do this. There is a regulatory aspect to it. In the US patient privacy... HR has no right to ask anyone about his medical reports. HR can provide health care. But it cannot enquire into the test results.Divya: Ah, so, who did John belong to? Asia or US? John had a condition which HR could not know because of this privacy nonsense. Then why pay? If you are not going to use the results to keep employees fit, and goad them to fall into a health pattern then why pay at all? I don’t know why we have to follow everything the Americans do? Eating pasta and pizza is harmless, but to imbibe behaviours like this is very bothersome.Jaggan: I don’t understand. Why can’t you take action on your own health report? Your health is owned by you, not the organisation. Why do you want Luxetta to be responsible?There are fat deposits on your liver, or cholesterol build up, the physician at the clinic is analysing your test results for you, he is telling you what to eat, then that is what you have to eat! Who is to be blamed? HR is an enabler, not mom!Jaffer: I buy your argument Jaggan, but I also see merit in Divya’s argument. What happened to Madhav? Did HR analyse? I do think you need to. What led to Madhav’s brain haemorrhage and subsequent paralysis? Cardiac and stress build up is one thing that organisation must take responsibility for.John was being moved around like a pawn on the chess board, because there were two regions that were wanting to hold on to him. This was adding to his stress. He didn’t want to deal with so much, but he was dealing with so much. He internalised a lot. Is that what happened to Madhav?Jaggan: We do not know John’s personal life. To attribute work stress and work load as being the driver of cardiac health is speculative. Need not always be work related, it could be personal in nature.When you come to work, you have to leave your emotions outside.Divya: Now, we are in the realms of the absurd, Jaggan. Man is not a robot. He pushes personal below and brings work to the surface when he gets off the office lift. Both reside in the same mind. Where do you get this nonsense about leave your emotions outside?Subeer: Isn’t goodness an emotion you carry as an underlying substratum of your work persona as well? The organisation wants success and the individual ends up paying for it. What happened to Madhav? What caused his stroke?Jaggan: The individual too has a need for achievement. He has the option to go to HR and saying to them that things are going beyond control, that people are treating me badly…I am being overworked.…Divya: Don’t be silly. Nobody does that!Jaggan: This is exaggeration and pretty primitive. In reality, the whole logic of work-life balance is misunderstood as all play and no work. And let me clarify Madhav’s health. He was hit by Carotid Artery disease.He had plaque build-up that resulted in a stroke. Madhav’s health check had revealed plaque in his carotid artery and he was asked to cut his weight. Overweight and high blood pressure together needed lifestyle changes in diet and exercising. So, yes, Madhav could have prevented the stroke.Divya: And Madhav’s high BP was not a function of stress? You forget that sometimes your boss can be without focus – groping in the dark for an absent black cat… wasting time.Jaggan: And why is that? I will establish my point. You may have heard that women deliver higher productivity. The reason is that women have a greater sense of purpose to get back home at a certain time for a variety of reasons: obligations at home, kids, but I have seen that more than obligations at home it is to do with the safety on the streets, so get back by 7 p.m. Because these are forced upon women; if not, it is a child, or an ailing in-law… or family will wait for dinner… whatever it be, but because of these social barriers, the available time for work is so valued and so well organised that they actually end up being greatly productive, because they do not want to give a social excuse for failure (that my child is unwell or my mother-in-law will freak out). In contrast, men have the greatest need for a coffee break, smoking break, or chatting breaks, want-to-stretch-my legs break…Durgesh: Nice, but it still holds good that if my boss is stretching his legs I pay for it. My boss likes to work till 11 p.m. I don’t. I like getting home in time to play with my kids. Or pray with them. But my boss is usually at a loss for focus. If he wants to sit late and smoke, I have to sit too... and very often we don’t even know what he is searching for. One of the problems here has been the competition we have been facing from China and it almost seems to us that China is getting ahead of us so we have to get ahead of them, spy versus spy. So any product development we do is incompletely done and when the product is launched some small gaffe shows up.Subeer: Your work lifestyle is responsible often, Jaggan, we cannot pretend it is all about individual efficiency. And work lifestyle is set by the organisation. John travelled 70 per cent of a month. Even 80 per cent. It disrupted his life style, his life cycle and whether he knew that or not, is not critical. But HR has to know that people who travel 25 days a month are high risk. Your job is very, very taxing on two counts: being time demanding and two, being very taxing to the mind, where there is a higher level of intellectual complexity involved in your job. This could be interpersonally taxing, or even intellectually taxing. Madhav had a weight problem, no doubt. But a lot of his lifestyle was motivated by his work.Jaggan: It is not nice to discuss an unwell person, but I do feel Madhav needed to have taken his last health check up seriously and changed his diet. We all need a peg to hang our woes. HR is handy. But isn’t one of the serious drawbacks of man his inability to take responsibility? Why do you need to be told to ‘take care’, ‘be good’, ‘don’t overeat’…?Arundhati: Jaggan, we cannot be in denial. HR often drives people to perform at a manic pace in the name of competitive pressures, but it is the human machine that burns out. Very simply, why was John serving 3 masters —Harry the global R&D, Frescher in Europe and Fraser in the US? Didn’t it strike someone that this is unpleasant? The cost of health care of a company lies in its ability to maintain its human assets emotionally and physically. Organisations have a duty to be alert to this.So, then, we come to assuming responsibility. How do we make this audit a core part of organisation habits?To be continued...casestudymeera@gmail.com(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)
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“So there’s no such thing as work-life balance. There’s work, and there’s life, and there’s no balance.” — Sheryl SandbergBy Meera SethJanki Vallabh sat in her car looking devastated. She had been so lost in her world of workshops and training and support and schedules and rearranging and rescheduling and teaching and discussing... even arbitrating... that she had clean missed an SMS that had been coming to her day after day after day. Her batchmate from B-school, Raghu Mani had been struggling with his mother’s ailment and had been messaging her daily in a manner of reaching out. Janki had read them and tried to remember to call but her memory eluded her and she ended up remembering them late. Finally, in two of his recent SMS-es he had mentioned the prayer meeting for his departed mother, asking Janki to be present. “She was your music teacher and she remembered you a lot during her last days...”Janki had not meant for things to come to such a pass. Never, never at all. She was being bounced from wall to wall without a moment to inhale. And being in sessions almost all day she had left her phone with Mercy, her assistant, in case Ma called. And by the end of the day, another 100 SMS-es (of which at least 40-60 would be idiotic offers to lose weight or speak in public fearlessly or buy property at rock bottom prices in Noida or Nellikupam ... these idiotic messages had buried Raghu’s reminders.How was she to face Raghu? Would she tell him, ‘Gosh Raghu, I have been so busy...?’ This was precisely the kind of moment that told her the foolishness of a life like hers. Often, when she dozed off in her car driving interstate, she would surface during her semi-aware state and remember Wilfred Owen ask, ‘Was it for this the clay grew tall?’(‘Futility’)Yet she had been so charged and driven by doing all that her work demanded, work that brought meaning to the lives of so many at Teffer, who wished to get ahead as career people, as functionaries, as managers, as leaders... their needs spurred her into more action, not out of a sense of wanting to glow in their darkness — not at all; but to see them climb out of various states of ‘I cannot’ to ‘Oh, I can do it!’ and in the process, make Teffer a far more efficient place.Someone had once accused her of lacking a life... that maybe there was something missing which she was trying to fill with work... Janki had nodded then and said that it was possible. And it was all right to fill gaps with work you enjoy, and everyone who lacked something should fill the gap with that which fills the gap and not wallow in the empty spot....but Janki was devastated that Raghu’s mother, ‘Music maami’ as she was always known, had been ill and then passed away and then she had missed the prayer meeting.She had met Raghu and his wife just now and they had been very affectionate and understanding. Raghu had quit corporate life six years ago to set up a music studio, and in his words, ‘a pony tail and long beard later, without the artifice of an organisation, I am more free and happy...’ She too was. Except her brand of ‘happy’ was different.... As she started to reach out to her various groups in the UK, Europe, US, China, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and the Middle East, she felt she was building good relationships, and the odd hours of day and night didn’t matter...for performance was improving, people were feeling fuller and happier and line managers were more deeply concerned with the needs of their staff.Janki had a number of self-doubts that rose during moments when she missed a social or family event. She had begun to notice that her day started at 8 a.m. and often ended at 10 p.m., only to resume at 10.30 p.m. again. True, she found no time to connect with friends and family or external networks or even herself... her mother remained her biggest most preoccupation outside work.Yet, she felt aware that she had missed Raghu’s grievance, missed being with her music maami during her last moments. Much as she hurt, she also knew her life pattern was fixed. Ma had chided her lightly for being so immersed in work. But Janki had reacted, “Ma, I don’t want this to have happened; your getting annoyed is not making it any easy, my work has consumed my life, I am almost on auto pilot, what should I do, quit?”Today, she visited Raghu and was embarrassed to see herself fret as her schedules fell like dominoes, as a result. She was telling Ahmedbhai every 10 minutes, jaldi chalte hain, ok? Jaldi wapas aanaa hai, do meeting hain, Ma ka programme hai nau baje, record karna hai... and she was taking calls on the drive, so people wouldn’t get nose out of joint!At work, she was forever caught between the US and the UK, both being different in attitude and organisational needs. At one level, it could be because UK was head office and dominating came naturally to them therefore. But Janki also felt it was because culturally they were very conscious of personal time and therefore unwilling to bend their norms. Her team in India argued that only Indians were happy being transferred left, right and centre. As Abhilash Kannuga, the HR head for the western region, said, “ This is why Indians are so versatile and capable, adaptable, agile, and very easy to accept challenges. In the UK very few have lived and worked outside home country and are perhaps not as culturally diverse or malleable!”But what made being global director worse, was the need to be inclusive, which meant: being available round the clock or late evening India time. And on such days, she ended up being up till early morning.Some days things drained her, some days she felt gung-ho. Teffer was very supportive. Janki’s boss allowed her all the flexibility she needed, saying ‘do what it takes’, but it was easily said than done. Because Asia Pacific was equally important and it had five distinct countries with very distinct cultural needs, which also determined their product mix. So, when she got out of the West, she fell straight into the Eastern time zone; then, when does Janki get thinking time? Her role was also about thought leadership and influence — that meant reading a lot, talking a lot, getting information, and of course answering a barrage of e-mails. How often she would be talking to a team at 2 in the morning and saying, “I will send the stuff to you in the morning,” and she would be crawling into bed at 4 a.m. after a marathon with Australia, promising to remember the promise made, only to wake up at 6 and be buried under another frantic 100 mails.Talking of broken promises, a few days ago Peter Fowler (Succession Academy in Singapore) had called, wanting two 90-minute slots with her. Just as she agreed to 4-5.30 with Peter, for a different day, and sent off the confirmation e-mail with Mercy in the CC, in flew Mercy.Mercy: Oh, Janki! Not that time slot! You have a dentist appointment that day, and we have rescheduled this at least four times, Jan!Janki: Oh, heck. Let us postpone it.Mercy: No Jan, don’t do that! And after that you also have to go to the prayer meeting at 8 p.m. (referring to Music Maami’s prayer meeting, which she ended up forgetting).Janki stared at all the dates that stared back at her. Blinking within each were a zillion time slots cramped with another zillion tasks to be accomplished. She got the feeling her life was unusual. Maybe abnormal too. Some day she must poke her head out the window and see what other lives were like. ...Mercy: Janki, take 3-4.30 IST and meet the dentist at 5.30.Janki: Oh, but you forget there is this Beijing briefing happening at 3 ... how are we to fit all this? Move the dentist appointment ahead, na? Ask Dr Mistry if he will see me at 6.30 p.m.?Mercy: Ok, I will try but let me also keep a plan B. If he says he is occupied at 6.30, then when?dr mistry said 7 p.m., adding, “I hope you have some teeth left for me to work with by then!” Janki cursed him (he was an old friend too) and turned to Mercy, “Ok, 7 p.m.” But Mercy flipped the page right before Janki and tapping the diary (knowing the doctor was on the line), she whispered: 7 p.m. you have a catch up team session. What about that? Shall I cancel it?” And that was how both of them lost sight of the prayer meeting.Janki was devastated. Uncovering the mouthpiece she said, “Pervez, if 7 is good, can 8 p.m. also be good?”But Mercy was already shaking her head briskly to say ‘That won’t work!’ but Dr Mistry was talking ...”You are lucky I am in the same building. Those teeth need care, Janki, what is wrong with you corporate sorts? We have rescheduled you so many times. Please find a convenient slot and call me, I have a patient on the chair,” he said and hung up.But despite all the breakdowns and chaos, it seemed as if what kept her from crumbling was more work. But it also kept her from doing all those things that were necessary on her personal front.Meanwhile elsewhere in the world an unexpected glitch happened. A tech filter in the system resulted in a leadership course invitation going to grade 3 managers as well so that enrolments began to pour in and Janki woke up the next morning to a barrage of 20 e-mails asking her to sort it out before it got out of hand.The whole day was spent sorting this out including answering many angry line managers who were completely bereft of script when their grade 3s announced they were off on a leadership programme.When she got home, it was 8.40 p.m. She was so relieved that the day was over and she has no US call today. As she let herself in, she saw her mother sitting at the head of the table the way she did, solving her Sudoku. The light on in the dining room meant she had not eaten her dinner. Janki was angry. “You know you are not supposed to delay your dinner beyond 6.45 or 7 and I have told you that if I am reaching home by 7, I will call you. So, why did you wait?Mother: But you didn’t call.Janki: Ma! I didn’t call you, but you could see that 7 o’clock came and 7 o’clock was going. You could have started eating!Mother: No, but you always call me and you didn’t call me.Janki was despairing. If Mom did not eat in time, her gastric problem would act up, then her hypertension too could, and then, she would have to take her to the doctor. And all this could well happen at 12 in the night. Ma was getting very old she felt. She really, really wished Ma would not lose her wisdom in this manner. Suddenly, her eyes filled over and she was crying. Was she not seeing her mother growing older everyday? Both of them had been comforting each other since her father died many years ago...Just then her phone beeped an incoming message. It was Hector Norkay from the New Jersey office. “Need to talk to you, will call 10 p.m. IST.” Janki decided not to reply as she was now feeling bad for Mum and sniffing too. Hector was the HRD for one of the businesses and she knew he was grappling with a legal situation on hand. There had been some audit, which team was now saying that as part of your process, you said these people will be trained in security and safety. And I know that you were to do this. But we have found that this never happened. And I have no idea why that programme did not happen.Janki recalled having done all that was needed for the programme and asked them if they were good to go with it and they had mumbled something and she knew they would run with that plan.It was now a crisis and she had to deal with it. Or did she? It bothered her that local teams threw up their hands sometimes rather easily. And did he need to call her? Would not an e-mail been enough? And he had the gall to say he would call at 10 p.m. IST.Teffer was very process driven and there was as an internal audit process around how you are building internal capability. This was part of their performance efficiency audit. Hector had told her yesterday, “Many sessions have not happened despite our committing to it. Against 12, only seven have been done. How do I explain why the remaining is not done yet?”Seeing the message, Janki called up the US and as Hector complained it was too inconvenient for him to take the call, she said, “It will be more inconvenient for me to have an argument with you at my 10 p.m. because my mother is not doing too well. So, I thought I would tell you that the agreement we had between us was this: I would do a handful of sessions —and I did seven, not just a handful. You guys were supposed to run the rest. Why are you now asking me?”A semi-heated discussion broke out. Just then Janki felt she heard her mother groan. Stepping out of her room she went towards mom’s room, pushed the door open and saw her doubled up, holding her chest as she normally did when she had a gastric chest pain. Janki thought, if I hang up now, this guy is going to think I am rude. And it was an important call. Janki was also annoyed with her mother. “She does these things for no reason! This is a critical call, now let her deal with it... I will keep an eye on her and ...ok, let me get her a Pudin Hara...” And as she handled the chest of drawers and dug out the medicine tin box, the lid fell and made a horrific sound. Hector from the other side, already irritated, said, “Why is there so much noise?”Within minutes the watchman was at the door saying, “Woh neechey wale madam keh rehe hain ki awaaz aa raha ahi...”(the lady in the flat below is complaining that your home is noisy.)And Hector was saying, “What’s going on, Jan? We can’t seem to have a conversation in peace!”Janki: At 9.30 p.m. in the night, peace is what I want. So, I suggest you call me at 11 a.m. tomorrow, when I am awake and bright. I have had a very tough day.Hector: Who doesn’t have a tough day?bidding him a Good Night, Janki went to her mother’s room. She had skipped dinner and was eating Threptin biscuits. Janki refused to take note. But she sat by her side and began talking about their holiday next week. As things warmed between them, Mother said, “Bhairavi is getting married in Chennai. I want to attend that wedding.” After a round of ‘Who is Bhairavi’, Janki said, “Ma, you have not met them in years!’ But mom suddenly chose to wear her halo and said, ‘But I have to represent Daddy.’Janki: Daddy? Ma, dad left 25 years ago. It is not making sense.Ma: You have hurt my feelings by being rude.Janki sighed and said, “Sorry, Ma. Ok, we will go. In that case let’s do this, we will leave for our holiday out of Chennai. And she put that into her phone reminder for 8 a.m. next day. The next morning she called Sumati in Chennai and asked her to book two tickets to Chennai-Jaipur on x date.The next five days were a blur of workshops and ‘Meeting my Boss’. This was the funniest because somewhere through all the communication that flew at her was this one that told her she needed to meet her new boss. Ava Norman, the boss was new to the system and she was doing her orientation conferences. Even if Janki only had to meet her virtually, she could not see one sensible gap in her diary. This was overwhelming.Mercy had been yo-yo-ing between Norman’s office in Manila and Janki’s diary for a ‘Get-to-know-you’ video-call. “ I can’t just do this blind,” said Janki, “ I have to prepare for my getting-to-know-you session; I have to think through what I want to tell her. What I think she needs to know about my priorities, needs, focus points; I have had no time to work on this or plan this!”Rushing as she was between events, Mercy told her there were two days left to leave on her holiday to Jaipur and would she like to set up her call while on vacation as Norman’s would be the only ‘work-related’ call?Janki was delighted silly. “But of course! What a grand idea! Please let Norman’s office know ASAP I am embarrassed that I have not been able to meet my own boss!”One day to go and Janki was already feeling good. She popped into Mother’s room when she got back from work, and saw that mother had been packing and almost everything she owned was strewn on the bed. Janki saw a set of three Kanjeevaram sarees waiting to be packed. “Ma, Kanjeevaram sarees to Jaipur?”Ma said, “We have Bhairavi’s wedding...no? Now, you please give me the Mumbai-Chennai tickets, I have taken out the new handbag and I am going to carry the tickets and do the boarding pass and all that myself.”Bombay Chennai? Janki’s heart sank. What Bombay-Chennai? Good Lord... She had not booked it! She had done Chennai-Jaipur through Sumati, she had cancelled Mumbai-Jaipur... but “.... oh, no!”Rushing to her room, she put the “I am on a call” placard on her table so that Ma may not rush in with a bowl of something, and chased every travel agent on her iPad to find tickets for Chennai. Every site returned her a regret. No tickets. It was the wedding season. Janki got on the phone to Mercy: “I have goofed so badly. Please call the head of MakeMyTrip and tell him it is me, that I need two tickets Mumbai-Chennai for day after... for any price, Mercy! casestudymeera@gmail.com(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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It is imperative that a diagnostic be done and shared ownership created across the spectrum of the organisation, writes Debabrata MukherjeeWhen life thorws you lemons, make yourself a glass of lemonade. However, if you feel like being in the crusher yourself, how does one squeeze out any juice at all? The question is: who put Janki in the crusher?Apologies, if I hurt anyone’s feelings, but I have to put Teffer Worldwide in the dock. It has a super resource in Janki and while continuing to load her with responsibilities, it has hijacked her life.Janki, however, is suffering from the classical Stockholm Syndrome and has a high level of empathy towards her hijackers. A dedicated employee, Janki has continued to put her professional chores ahead of her personal ones. This can last a season but not a lifetime.Can the organisation help? It can, both in the short as well as in the long term.First, it must do a thorough evaluation of the role that Janki is performing and assess whether it is too much for her. Multiple stakeholders working across time zones on a diverse set of projects is not unique to an employee but I wonder if Janki has got too much on her plate.After assessment, either re-distribute her role into more manageable verticals and appoint more people or ensure that they help Janki create a set of capable direct reports who can take appropriate business calls. This will require a huge amount of focus and capability building as today Janki is managing a wide span of authority and it won’t be easy to replicate the skill set. It is evident, if for any reason, Janki is unable to attend to her duties for an extended period of time, there is a clear lack of succession planning. It is therefore imperative that the organisation actively creates a succession roadmap so that Janki can further her career.Second, evaluate the current processes in the organisation and look for opportunities to drive further efficiency. Currently, all the meetings, training programmes et al have a tonality of “the organisation will come to a stop if it does not happen’’. This has to change. There has to be a better planning process and higher level of respect for individual time slots. Although stringent audit processes have been put in place to check whether the planned programmes have been carried out or not as borne out by the call that Janki had with Hector at 10 p.m. IST, there is no one auditing how she lives her life. She is up till 4 a.m.speaking with the Australian team and then is expected to check out 100 e-mails after a two-hour nap. My humble question is: Who is in charge of analysing whether there are processes in place to drive people efficiency so that they do not feel like they are being driven up the wall? A case in point is the security and safety training that was aligned with her, that did not happen and there were no checks or alerts until audit raised the issue and all hell broke loose. This is a clear case of process breakdown.Third, commission an engagement survey to test for the level of ownership that exists in the company. It seems the high level of commitment that Janki shows is not shared by the wider organisation. The CIO cannot change his schedule, Hector cannot take a call at an inconvenient hour but Janki continues to put the professional before personal. She misses out on a prayer meeting of someone who was very dear to her, gets annoyed with her Mom who dotes on her selflessly, forgets to book personal air tickets — all for the cause of the company. The facts of the case clearly bear out the fact that most of her colleagues are operating at a much lower level of engagement and lack of a sense of responsibility. It is imperative that a diagnostic be done and shared ownership created across the spectrum of the organisation.As the organisation does the medium to long term diagnostics, for the short term, they need to exhibit a singular trait, which is sorely lacking in the organisation — Empathy.When Hector says, “Who doesn’t have a tough day?” he is exhibiting a huge culture issue that exists in the organisation — lack of empathy. Janki would feel far more enthused despite her punishing schedule if the organisation showed her a caring face. An occasional “How is your mother doing?” or “Are you too stretched, can we help?” can go a long way in re-energising the superstar performer.It is time for some serious soul searching, Teffer Worldwide.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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Pay attention to our own needs and don’t keep putting them on the back burner, writes Kaushik GopalThe sheryl sandberg quote brought back the memory of how her husband, Dave Goldberg, died recently after collapsing on a treadmill. Ms Sandberg said, in an interview, how the secret to being able to manage all the pressures from work and the needs of family life was to equally divide the requirements of home, between the couple. And then, he just died. Time refuses to stand still. Sooner or later, you have to deal with change.I found my own attention racing rapidly as though on ‘speed’. When that happens you know you have to slow down quickly. Most of us need ‘processing time’ to absorb and digest, very much like one of the groups Janki was training in New Zealand, when they requested for more time in the session to absorb and process.Kaushik GopalClearly, there is a huge impact on our personal relationships — family and friends. We begin to be helplessly ‘enslaved’ by calendars and to-dos, leaving precious little time for those that matter. Janki’s diary appointments force attention in multiple directions, across several time zones and cultural-political nuances. And inadequate infrastructure or endemic traffic snarls, only add to the chronic shortening of time.A global role that requires interfaces with others across time zones could invade our lives like some vicious virus that leaves one depleted and spent if not carefully managed. The absence of rest leads quickly to burnout and the inability to manage one’s inner ‘attentional space’. There are western colleagues who are sensitive to this and manage to share the ‘burden’ of taking late night calls. Not everyone thinks this way, though.Consequence: The danger of imminent personal burnout and severe damage to family and other relationships. Janki feels progressively more worn-out and her family (mother) neglected. The fact is this punishing pace of work is unlikely to change. There are very good reasons for organisations to look into this silent epidemic that destroys relationships and takes a huge toll on personal life. Of course, it is also the responsibility of each of us to pay attention to this tornado of expectations and to find ways of slowing it down. Those responsible for attending to the human resource could soon be forced to look at the hidden costs of this phenomena. Not paying attention will only compound the problem and result in a continuing loss of valuable people.What can we do? First, become aware of what is happening. Awareness brings with it the need to drive change. Second, relook one’s role and what it is that one is aiming to achieve. Often times, we may not have the requisite resources to carry out all that is part of one’s role and hence may need to request for resources or appropriately queue things to be able to do justice to them. Sure, resources are always in short supply, but we do need to be realistic unless there is a life and death situation.Teams need to have frank discussions on ways of approaching this quantum of work. We need to move our teams to be adequately prepared and to pay attention to the state of its members and find ways of supporting each other in such challenging environments. The stage needs to be set for frank discussions between colleagues such that it is not taken in unintended ways.Pay attention to our own needs and don’t keep putting them on the back burner: if people in the West can protect their personal time, why aren’t we able to? The continuous sacrificing of one’s own time leads to a progressive erosion of one’s relationships as well as the minds we carry around with us.Organisations and team leaders too need to be mindful of the pressures on its constituents and the consequences they are likely to have. They need to start exploring internal support systems that can assuage impending burnouts. Stress and its consequences cannot be dealt with purely from a personal point of view. It is necessary to have a multi-pronged approach. For one thing, organisations can start paying attention to the 50 hours-plus work weeks and invite personnel to explore ways to be able to deal with it.While the building of resilience in the face of work pressures is a productive thing, we must be sharply aware that the critical relationships around us need attention and sustenance, which, in turn, becomes the source of our very own overall wellbeing. The writer is based in Singapore and looks after the coaching practice for the Center for Creative Leadership in the Asia Pac region (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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