Who do I talk to?

The very sad incident of the young CA fresher at one of the Big Five has triggered a churning of the Ocean of Workplace Culture. Among the various things emerging are some voices – brave? or foolhardy? – that point out that these are realities we need to accept. Hard work is a reality, pressure is a reality, stringent deadlines are a reality, high expectations are a reality, aggressive managers (and customers) are a reality. Clearly, these things are not exceptions.

I have heard comments like these so often:

• My manager simply does not listen
• There are so many games and politics playing at work
• I do not feel appreciated, rather every single miss (small and big) is made a mountain of
• My team mates are all fine, but at the end of the day it is every person for herself/ himself
• I believe I am doing a disproportionately high amount of work; others get away doing much less – and nobody notices all this

I ask them What have you done about it?  – typically they absorb all this as a reality to be dealt with, and/ or vent it out with equally helpless teammates.

Others have slightly different experiences with stress and overwork. A coachee recently shared with me, “I face similar pressures as that girl did – work-wise. The big difference is that the culture in my organisation is positive and supportive. That’s a good thing, sure, but I am still overloaded and stressed. Saying ‘no’ is still difficult – not because my manager doesn’t listen, but rather because I feel guilty saying it!”. But the question What have you done about it? Is just as relevant.

Loneliness is everywhere, and expensive

At the end of almost every coaching engagement, I have the client telling me the biggest value was that this was a space where they could talk freely about such things. There is no one else to have such conversations with, they told me.

There’s an old saying It is lonely at the top. Today, in a post-pandemic world, it appears it is lonely everywhere. There is no generation that is feeling loneliness as much as Gen Z – hyperconnected in the virtual world and isolated in the real world of people.

Ignoring this state of loneliness, arguing that these are all things “we went through when we were young, and we figured it out – so they can too”, or glibly quoting Nietzsche What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger to justify doing nothing – these are all extremely expensive options. Employee disengagement is expensive – it results in lower productivity and lower quality of outputs, at the least. There is compelling evidence that this problem needs attention and solutions – from a business point of view, if not just the human.

Paths forward

1. The first and most important action to recommend to anyone with a problem/ concern/ issue/ stress – talk about it. Not venting, but talk to someone who will listen, a shoulder you can cry on. Do not attempt to just absorb it all in the hope that it will go away – it won’t. Find a friend, a mentor, an elder, a sibling, a parent … someone who can listen to you, sit with you while you cry.

The larger question in my mind, however, is – What can and should organisations do (and why) to support individuals who have work-related concerns, issues, problems, questions, troubles?

Here are three paths that organisations can take – and individual managers too:

2. Pay attention to the intangibles

Organisations and managers get hung up on the saying If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it. Often, they take this to mean they should only manage what they can measure. Excellent leaders, though, are known to manage the ‘soft’ stuff as rigorously and with as much business focus as they do the tangibles, the business numbers.

The starting point is to ask How can we consciously and systematically manage employee concerns, issues, problems? There are many solutions out there – from researchers, consultants, practitioners and so on. But to find, you first have to seek.

As an individual manager, you could get your employees together and facilitate a brainstorm asking for solutions. And prepare to be amazed.

3. Weave support into employee experience design

I was involved with a tricky situation few months ago: A young woman – fresher – was inappropriately touched by her manager, making her extremely uncomfortable. At first, she did not know who to speak to … and reached out to a mentor outside the organisation. The mentor was well-connected, and ensured the message reached the office of the CEO. Eventually, the problem was resolved – full enquiry conducted, one erring manager fired, another (less guilty) moved to a different city, and the young woman chose to move to another department and get on with her life.

Some opportunities for the organisation to support the employee (and others) through such a scenario are:

• How do we ensure everyone always knows who to contact in such situations? (Yes, the info was shared during onboarding – but who pays attention at the time?)
• She is going to a different department. How can we help her to re-engage with the job, colleagues, managers and other key stakeholders?
• How can we help the erring manager?
• How can we help the not-so-guilty manager who is now re-starting in a different city?
• How do we help the stakeholders – new peers, new manager(s), new reportees and so on – accept and work with the person (the victim, also the not-so-guilty manager)?

This is one example. There are so many other situations where an employee may have concerns, questions, problems. For organisations – the most effective sustainable solution is to carefully design the employee experience to have such scenarios built in to the process.

For individual managers – just ask them. Be proactive. Get people to sit down, and brainstorm “How can I support you to move forward?”. And follow through by building these solutions into the team’s culture and DNA.

4. Build coaches, coaching competence

Organisations are increasingly realising that coaching is a key competency for managers and leaders, and can make a huge difference to performance and business outcomes. [For example, at Australian company Canva employees have coaches, not managers (and with appropriate job descriptions).] Reach out to someone like Coaching Foundation of India (www.cfi.co.in) for help with building coaching competencies in your leaders and managers.

But leaders and managers need not be the only ones with this competence. There are many individuals at relatively lower levels in organisations who can become effective coaches and mentors to their colleagues – juniors, peers, and maybe seniors too. Organisations and individual managers would do well to build a cadre of internal coaches – people that employees can turn to, talk with, get support from when they have concerns.

Author – Mr. Anand Kasturi, CFI Coach