In my many years of working in the corporate world I have witnessed many shades of the dreaded word called ‘ego’ and ‘false pride’. This misnomer is displayed by people across all hierarchies regardless of industry.
In my many years of working in the corporate world I have witnessed many shades of the dreaded word called ‘ego’ and ‘false pride’. This misnomer is displayed by people across all hierarchies regardless of industry.
Even if they have risen through the ranks, they will still nurture an ego- a rather obnoxious one at times. In fact, it becomes prominent as they advance in their careers. With progress in position, people tend to take more liberties and feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to displaying ego. Of course exceptions are always there however the norm cannot be ignored.
From witnessing managers not wanting to admit that their idea was a failure to remaining in denial that it was their fault, to not apologising because the aggrieved party is much lower in the food chain to something as ridiculous as not saying hello first because you are senior and therefore can’t be caught dead initiating acknowledgement to another person of a junior stature.
We as a society are quite complex as well and part of ego and having the nose up in the air is also a minnow carrying your briefcase or laptop to the office -I wonder what happens overnight to the same person who prior to being promoted was carrying their own laptop. Possibly with the raise comes loss of limbs to carry your own belongings. As a side effect, all photocopying jobs are now insignificant tasks and are to be outsourced because you don’t want to look uncool by hanging out near the printer and having to make small talk with the riffraff or perhaps now there are more important or ‘strategic’ matters to attend to. Surely there must be some heavy ROI to this change of mannerism.
The ego is what pushes people to want the entire mankind hail to the demigod. ‘Yes men’ sound amazing and any disrupters are the first on the list to be weeded out.
If this is not the common trait, then surely it feels good to expect your coffee to be at the ready as you arrive at work -after all you deserve this much of a perk for bringing in so much business. Going and making your own cuppa will be humiliating and unacceptable. I have over the many years heard statements like ‘did you see his guts’, or ‘can you imagine he had the nerve to say that to “me” or ‘it’s my way or the highway’, ‘take it or leave it’. These are signs of a weak person whose reason has failed to hold some substance.
Even today in many organisations, there is an ailment of special elevators, executive dining halls even toilets separate from the ones the common masses use. Then there are different coffee machines, and of course the designated ‘oh-so precious’ undercover parking for the ‘chosen ones’.
What are we trying to establish with this blatant class difference? Will there ever be an end to this corporate VIP culture that constantly massages the ego of the bigwigs. Literally the dining halls where food is catered has a proletarian menu compared to the bourgeois one and then we hang our values and vision on the walls when in reality that’s what goes through the corridors of these companies. What a shameful disregard of humanity.
Is this a sub-continental and Middle Eastern malaise? How come it hasn’t affected the west so badly -oh and before readers jump to the conclusion but in the west there are other vices to raise eyebrows over -let me kill that here and iterate that we are only looking at best practices.
So do the leaders of fortune 500 companies have an extra limb to carry their laptops? And how can they have their meals in the same space as these corporate crawlers? Is their privacy at risk because they use the same restrooms as all the others?
What would the corporate world look like if all the big guns were out on the same floor sharing open plan work spaces? Would the productivity suffer if there were dedicated meeting rooms and pods for private meetings and discreet conversations and you could work anywhere from flexibility point of view -just picking up the laptop and mobile and going where work needs one to be, just not being glued to the oval office and the leather chair. What a massive cost cutting initiative.
Wouldn’t people be more in touch with the ground realities -I wonder how the culture would shape up if the leaders sat amongst the teams instead of holing up in their offices. This is about realising that cultural shift happens when one stops feeding the ego and understands that productivity doesn’t need hollow perks and cheap tactics of an entourage carrying the computer behind the head honcho or a minion opening the car door. As one puts their mind to profitable use, it’s worth employing the limbs and keeping the beastly ego at bay.
For the record, this article is not timed deliberately with the austerity measures the country’s leadership has proposed. It has been long over due that organisations take a deep look at their practices because this is what culture is, not what is displayed on the walls.Now where’s my laptop bag as I resist the temptation to ask for help!
The writer is a freelance columnist
