Acquiring The Hot Seat

One of our young HR managers came to me some weeks ago with agony written all

over her face. She wanted to confess. She said, “I took a call from a

headhunter the other day and since I was upset with something that had happened

at the office, even went for an interview with a competitor.” As I waited with

nervous anticipation for the bombshell, she shocked me even more by saying,

“They have offered me nearly double of what I am getting here with a better

designation. But you tell me what I should do?”

This was a situation when a very young competent person was getting a big

break that would catapult her into a different sphere. So, the logical choice

should be to tell her to take it! But to take a second opinion, I consulted

Zensar's HR head turned West and South Asia regional head, Yogesh Patgaonkar.

He came up with a gem of wisdom that is worth repeating here. He advised, “Too

many young people take a permanent setback in their career by accepting salaries

that they are not ready for or they do not deserve. It gives them an adrenalin

boost and a sudden lifestyle spurt! Then the industry cycle changes, the salary

stops coming and they are back accepting lower salary jobs and the trauma that

goes with it. It happened in the dot com days and now it is happening in all

outsourcing companies. He finally advises, “Tell her to think again to see

whether she really deserves what they are offering her!”

This is one of the most interesting dilemmas in the industry today, where the

percentage rise in salaries is itself rising every year and even 30% salary

increases are seen as inadequate by many youngsters as they scan the appointment

pages every day desperately seeking new routes for instant gratification.

While a trained clinical psychologist may be the best answer, it may make

sense for young people to revisit the fundamentals of life and work. A job is no

longer taken up as an economic necessity but a medium for enhancing one's

recognition in society and winning the respect of peers and even the family

members. And in the IT industry where 70-hour work weeks and additional time

spent on e-mails and text messages are not uncommon, the quality of work is much

more important than the filthy lucre that has become one measure of success of

an individual in the rat race! And work quality can be maximized only by

treating a car like a glass of fine wine-to be sipped and savoured slowly

rather than gulped down to assuage some great thirst!

The paucity of leadership in the industry, particularly at the lower echelons

of management is symptomatic of the mad haste in which people are attempting to

climb up the organizational ladder. Project managers, who are responsible for

large teams are finding themselves incapable of handling conflict resolution,

team building, motivation and many other aspects of general management. And,

they were comfortable, when they worked as smaller team leaders. But later their

job was given to technically competent persons and they suddenly got management

tasks, thrust on them for which they are unprepared. A ghastly script written

around the concept of the Peter Principle, which had predicted that every

employee would rise to his level of incompetence, amusing as an isolated

incident but scary when entire organization pyramids are built with people in

roles beyond their capabilities.

The scenario would change when organizations will spend time to prepare

people for taking responsibilities. And importantly, when young people realise

and accept that a career spans thirty or forty years and there is no tearing

need to attempt to be at seven figure salaries or CXO designations while they

are still in their thirties. And yes! My young HR friend never came back to me

for my advice, but sent a mail three days later saying she had called up the

other firm, apologized but had politely turned down their offer. Maybe human

values still exist and shine through the fog of economic greed, at least with

some people. Long may it last!

Ganesh Natarajan



The author is deputy chairman & MD of Zensar and is chairman of the

Nasscom Innovation Forum for 2005—07. He can be reached at ganesh@cybermedia.co.in