[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by am1m

I think one more important point to be stressed in Indian IT companies is that not everyone is cut out to be a people manager. .

A manager need not be a leader and vice versa. Shankar's post also did not use the word manager but leader.

• A great leader connects daily work with great goals. A mere manager focuses only on the short-term.
• A great leader thinks of people as people. A mere manager sees only titles or organizational charts.
• A great leader wants to earn respect. A mere manager wants to be liked.
• A real leader is thrilled when team members achieve great things. A mere manager is threatened.
• A great leader empowers people with honesty and transparency. A mere manager parcels out information as if it costs him personally.
• A great leader understands that if the team falls short, he is responsible. A mere manager blames the team.
• A great leader cares mainly about results. A mere manager is more concerned with process.

[d.w.w.]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

1. Don’t create unhealthy rivalries and negative energy based competitions within teams...

I can say in my 15 year carrier across 4 companies(both service and product) I have come across very few managers who does this. I can actually count them with my fingers

Originally Posted by am1m

I meant more that in Indian IT companies we treat things like remote work as 'rewards', something to be 'granted', 'allowed', 'earned', as opposed to a simple matter of policy and enabled by technology.

Managers want their reportees to feel they earned something when WFH is given so that the next time the same employee approaches him for something, he can deny it telling you have been already given WFH, no more perks for you.

Originally Posted by am1m

I think one more important point to be stressed in Indian IT companies is that not everyone is cut out to be a people manager. Far too many people still see this as a natural career progression. Quite often the very personality traits that make a good programmer are the opposite of what make a good people manager. But we end up making the best techies people managers and that's why we have so many ineffective middle managers.

So true. Everyone want career progression and in most companies people management is the easiest route to take. Taking the tech path need strong skills and proven career record which very few possesses. Nobody cares whether they have the skills to become a good people manager, nor do they put efforts to become one.

The other side of this is forced movement to people management especially in service companies. While I was in one of the WITCH companies, my team lead was more of a tech guy and one day the PM comes to him and says - you are not wring code anymore, move to management from today with out even asking his preference. He quietly agreed and made himself a worst manager ruining the entire team in the process. Almost everyone in the team turned rebel and sensing this he put papers and moved to another company in a tech role.

[EV NXT]

Ashneer Grover, BharatPe co-founder, suggested recently that a company with a “toxic culture” is the place where real work is happening !

The former “Shark Tank India” judge, cited an incident when he got a job offer from Ernst & Young to join as a partner.

Recalling his visit to the Ernst & Young office, Ashneer Grover claimed he found that there was complete silence there. “I took one round of the office, pretended that I had chest pain and left.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tr...rtgs9ix2rr6kiq

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by EV NXT

Ashneer Grover, BharatPe co-founder, suggested recently that a company with a “toxic culture” is the place where real work is happening !

I believe he's making a premature statement - in the long run a company with a toxic culture will be the loser.

1) If the culture promotes crazy deadlines - you'll have an office full of either burnt out people or people who are looking for new opportunities. Basically there'll be high attrition. Eg: Amazon. I hear people hardly stay there for 2-3 years due to the workload. How does it affect the company? I recently heard that some teams stopped following coding standards (damn hard to believe though) to promote faster delivery. Any new team member that walks in will waste a lot of time to understand what the hell is happening as there won't be proper documentation or comments. Take the above story with a pinch of salt as I heard it from a friend of a friend.

2) If the company promotes politics and stuff - there'll never be proper collaboration and there'll only be infighting with decisions that are taken which are only beneficial to certain individuals. Needless to say, the company is the loser. Expect high attrition with superficial KTs as a revenge on their sworn enemies.

In a toxic culture, everybody loses in the long run. I honestly don't know what Ashneer is talking about.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by EV NXT

Ashneer Grover, BharatPe co-founder, suggested recently that a company with a “toxic culture” is the place where real work is happening !
..

These are the same folks who say:
- Work-life balance is a lazy artifact by lazy people
- 996 is the perfect way of working
- If the founder can work 15 hours a day why can't a new joiner do the same?
- The deadline for this job is yesterday


PS: 996 refers to working 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week

[AZT]

Originally Posted by am1m

Here's a question, as far as remote work goes and in a professional setup, why are some 'reasons' more acceptable than others?

Why should 'taking care of parents' be considered a better reason to 'allow' remote work than 'I don't want to commute anymore'?

I read an online comment about someone saying is it acceptable to have fake kids so you get more leeway at work. Basically using excuses like gotta pick up my kid from day care or take him to the doctor etc. This was a joke but there's probably a lot of people using these excuses even when not needed.

Completely agree with your point

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by EV NXT

Ashneer Grover, BharatPe co-founder, suggested recently that a company with a “toxic culture” is the place where real work is happening !

Let's remember how this fellow became known to most people. His notorious phone call audio where he abuses a Kotak employee for not getting him Nykaa IPO shares.

He is a toxic person, he will generally have toxic ideas. Take his advice only at your peril.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by EV NXT

The former “Shark Tank India” judge, cited an incident when he got a job offer from Ernst & Young to join as a partner.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

I honestly don't know what Ashneer is talking about.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Let's remember how this fellow became known to most people.

See the last line in the Moneycontrol article- it's a plug for the chap's memoir "released last December". The whole article could easily be a PR release for just that purpose. They know the headline will trigger reactions just like this, people will read the article, and so the book gets some additional publicity.

Unfortunately company heads like these have become just like film celebrities- any publicity is good publicity! Let's not play into their PR firm's hands and give their random statements any more spread.

[EV NXT]

Originally Posted by Samurai

He is a toxic person, he will generally have toxic ideas. Take his advice only at your peril.

That post was to highlight what one shouldn't be doing.

Remember he was also the CFO of Blinkit (earlier Grofers and now part of Zomato) and is credited with making it India’s largest online grocery store. What the media don’t tell you is that when it became the largest its losses increased in direct proportion.

Zomato currently has revenue around 4200 crores while losses increased by 50% to 1223 Crores. Swiggy’s (similar case) revenue increased 2.2 X to 5700 crores while losses went up 2X to 3700 crores. All this while having valuations $6 billion and $10 billion valuations.

You need to be toxic to grow revenue, while increasing losses in direct proportion while at the same attaining $ billion valuations.

And while this may appear as incomprehensible to some (fine line between incoherence and incomprehension) one can’t deny that it challenges conventional thought on the ways of running a business.

That is, until the bubble bursts.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by EV NXT

That post was to highlight what one shouldn't be doing.

Yes, I was aware of that. I was making a general statement.

Originally Posted by EV NXT

You need to be toxic to grow revenue, while increasing losses in direct proportion while at the same attaining $ billion valuations.

While this may serve the VCs, this kind of corporate philosophy traumatizes and often destroys plenty of young workers. And they go on to destroy the next generation of young minds similarly.

Originally Posted by EV NXT

And while this may appear as incomprehensible to some (fine line between treating something as incoherent which would actually be incomprehension) one can’t deny that it challenges conventional thought on the ways of running a business.

It is not incomprehensible at all. It is the oldest way of doing business, by exploiting the weak. The whole slavery business was like this, the robber barons of 19-20th century operated like this. Those business models will also suffer huge losses if exploitation element is removed.

Society in general have evolved beyond this, governments have created labour laws to fix this.

Ashneer Grover thinks he has invented slavery by a new name, let him gloat, but we don't have to agree with his delusion. I rather listen to founders of profitable companies.

[EV NXT]

A little more about him and his BharatPe escapades:

The fintech unicorn filed a civil suit against Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain, and other family members, seeking over Rs 88 crore in damages for alleged misappropriation of funds.

In addition, the company has filed a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing on 17 counts, including embezzlement, forgery, and criminal breach of trust, which could land the Grovers in jail for up to ten years if proven guilty.

Moneycontrol accessed and reviewed a part of the 2,800-page civil suit filed by BharatPe against the Grovers, which alleges an astounding web of fake bills and misappropriation of company funds for personal use.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bu...e-9672411.html

Toxic indeed.

[vredesbyrd]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Ashneer Grover thinks he has invented slavery by a new name, let him gloat, but we don't have to agree with his delusion.

Originally Posted by EV NXT

Toxic indeed.

Influencers are quoting him left and right on linkedin and have put him on a pedestal.
I simply report any appreciation post about him or shark tank as spam.

Him, his followers and shark tank fans are the fintech equivalent of arun panwar, elvish yadav, yagya sharma etc. and their fans on social media.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by Samurai

He is a toxic person, he will generally have toxic ideas. Take his advice only at your peril.

I don't know if others have experienced this, but keeping women employees as a shield in middle management by top executives is practiced to fire employees who are not on good terms with a bad boss.

[speedmiester]

Internship opportunity

One of the venture fund that I know is hiring an intern who will focus on the gaming ecosystem.
- Freshers or folks with 1-3 work experience are welcome to apply for this role.
- Preference for game developers or hardcore gamers.
- Experience in conducting primary and secondary research is preferred
- This is a paid internship program.
- Duration :6 months
- Location will be Bangalore

Please DM, will make appropriate introduction.

[SoumenD]

Meta plans 2nd round of mass layoffs. Probably this time those middle-level managers would be victims who Zuckerberg wanted to start coding.

Link