Both in Cards and Career — You’ve got to know when to hold ’em & when to fold ‘em
As the world is crawling back from the shadows of the pandemic, the excruciating pain and intense struggles gave rise to a wishful dream of a “Better “tomorrow. But the CEO of Better.com shattered any such simmering hope when he chose to crush the lives of 900 families just before the onset of the holiday season in a single zoom call. It’s a textbook example of crazy leadership & clumsy communication. Even when his wallet was fatter by 750 $ million a week back, it didn’t dissuade him from inflicting that crushing blow. Assuming he was right in pointing to the poor performance of his employees, did he use those metrics to communicate, improve the performance and strengthen the process? Instead, such metrics were hideously exploited to drive the hidden agenda.
While we can keep ranting on how things could have been managed better, we also need to pause and agree that such unpleasant traits don’t suddenly sprout on a fine morning. With an inefficient leader at the helm, dysfunctional strategy in execution is not the writing on the wall? Keeping this nincompoop CEO aside, as a workforce, are we so blinded in the tactical work that we overlook the toxicity permeating deep in our work environment, or are our tolerance levels so high that we are immune to any level of mindless hegemony? Should only the employer be held accountable, shouldn’t it be employees too? Who, through their subtle silence, are actively fermenting this toxic broth?
A few weeks back, I surveyed for the most critical factor in picking up a job. With all the hemming & hawing around better work culture, we observed that for the workforce below 30, Compensation was primary, secondary & tertiary factors in picking a job. Work culture came to a distant second spot for those in their early ’40s (financially settled group). So if this is the ground reality, what’s the CxO community’s incentive to invest in establishing a “best-in-class” work culture truly? All they need to do is reserve such fancy ideas for flowery rhetoric in a town hall or a once-in-a-year HR conference.
In my early professional career, I had been a victim of such toxic culture. My team & I continuously slogged in night shifts and weekends due to an unreasonable quote by the sales team to undercut the competition. Stressing the health, straining the relationships, we delivered on the commitments just to be transferred to another project in deep Red. In return, all we got was a pizza coupon & a well-calligraphed certificate. Is this worth it? Is this sustainable? Ist essential? I am sure this is not a one-off incident, but most of us would have undergone such unforgettable trauma in our careers. Please make no mistake; I am not advocating against traveling the extra mile as long it remains an exception. But when it becomes the design and a regular expectation, the dilution of culture starts. Delayed recognition, stunted growth, unfulfilled promises are the visible and jarring signals of this melting Chernobyl and our early SOS to initiate a job search.
If we choose to ignore such signals or keep hoping for an improbable & impossible epiphany, then in the future, we need to be ready for more such cringy zoom calls. A wise person is not the one who never commits mistakes but one who learns from others’ mistakes. Better. Com CEO and its ex-employees are waiting with outstretched arms carrying critical lessons on “when to stay and when not to. “To take it or to leave it, the choice is yours !!