Exploring The Future of Work

By Neha Tara Mehta in New Delhi

US survey says 37% of office workers believe that having an affair with the boss helps in growth at work. Is it any different in India?

ITS THE most politically incorrect admission to make in the modern workplace, but a US survey has revealed that sleeping with their boss does help women climb several notches up the corporate ladder.

The New York- based Centre for Work- Life Policy has found that 37 per cent office workers said that from their experience those who slept with their superiors were rewarded with a career boost.

Whats more, no matter how high achieving the woman is, she will not reach the very top of her profession unless she finds a sponsor — read a sugar daddy who is almost always married.

In the West, the Indian publishing industrys one- time poster boy, the sacked Penguin Canada CEO and President David Davidar was led by his “ consensual flirtation” to give a $ 10,000 ( ` 4.6 lakh) raise to former colleague Lisa Rundle and the fancy title of director of digital publishing and foreign rights. When the relationship soured, Rundle filed a suit against Davidar — costing him his job.

Cases from India Inc, though, hardly ever come to light, and are discussed only around coffee machines. Says adman Prahlad Kakkar — one of the few who are willing to come on record on how between- the- sheets liaisons can have a bearing on ones raise: “ We all know that when there is some degree of smoke there has to be some fire.

When a woman sleeps with her boss, she is called a whore. When a man sleeps around, he is called a careerist.” Adds Gautam Ghosh, the HR consultant whose blog GautamGhosh.net has been ranked as one of the top 25 HR blogs by HRWorld: “ As a society, we are non- confrontationist. We would rather speak about something in hushed tones or gossip about an affair involving a celebrity.” In the West, politicians are much more flamboyant than their Indian counterparts about their peccadilloes with women who are then rewarded with plum positions.

In 2009, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconis wife Veronica Lario wrote an open letter condemning her husband for his choice of young inexperienced candidates to represent his party.

And in France, young female ministers picked by Nicolas Sarkozy go by the name Sarkozettes. Its not very different back home. Political greenhorns have made it to the Rajya Sabha, become chief ministers and even proxy- chief ministers through their liaisons with powerful men, but remain a subject to be discussed only in hushed tones.

The US survey has further revealed that 34 per cent women in executive positions said they knew of female colleagues who had slept with the boss, and even at the director level, 15 per cent of the women admitted to having had a fling.

Writer and former hotelier Advaita Kala points out that the findings could be explained by the the emergence of the raunch culture, as described by Ariel Levy in her 2005 book Female Chauvinist Pigs . Levy has written about the rejection of feminist principles and the unabashed use of sexuality to get ahead. “ There is some truth to women not being apologetic about being viewed as the fairer sex now. But in many cases, people talking about a female colleague sleeping with the boss is just misogynistic gossip.” The phenomenon has begun to make its way into popular literature and films as well. Soap queen Ektaa Kapoors former scriptwriter Smita Jains first book, Kkrishnaas Konfessions , featured as its protagonist Krrishnaa, an ambitious scriptwriter who isnt opposed to using her sexuality to forge ahead in her career.

“ Sleeping with the boss is an extreme form of tying yourself with the right person to make progress. Men can rely on their alumni and boys clubs, but most women cant. So a lot of women seek mentors in powerful people, sometimes by using sexual favours,” Jain says.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar has in two of his films shown women using sexuality to climb the ladder. In a real life twist, Bhandarkar was accused of running a casting couch in 2004, when Preeti Jain filed a case against him stating that she slept with him in exchange for roles in his movies.

In 2005, actors Aman Verma and Shakti Kapoor were caught in sting operations, where they were shown seeking sexual favours from aspiring starlets.

Giving the example of a beauty queen- turned- Bollywood actress, who skipped sleeping with producers and directors but dived into bed with a top Bollywood actor, Kakkar says, “ Its important to sleep with the right person.” A smart employee, he says, wont actually sleep with the boss – but be permanently on the verge of it. “ Sleeping around is the clincher, but not the meat. You have to be really competent to rise ahead,” Kakkar adds.

Author Anuja Chauhan, vicepresident and executive creative director of J. Walter Thompson, agrees sleeping around alone doesnt help in making it to the top. “ Sex may be the way up to middle management, but not to the top,” she says.

HR expert Anil Sachdev believes people using carnal means to get a career jump points to the larger issue of the lack of ethics in organisations.

“ These cases take place in organisations where leaders pay attention only to the financial aspect of success, and turn a blind eye to other attributes,” says Sachdev. “ Enlightened organisations now base 50 per cent of their performance appraisal on key result areas and the other 50 per cent to the means used to achieve the targets,” he points out.

Sleeping around to get to the top often borders on sexual harassment – something that many organisations arent equipped to deal with. “ Most HR managers arent equipped to have such conversations.They come from generic skills of recruitment and performance management,” point out Ghosh. HR heads, moreover, are often associated with business leaders, making it an intimidating task for a woman to file a complaint in quid pro quo cases.

Offices transforming into hotbeds of intrigue over suspected affairs — even when none exist — make it hard for meritorious employees to function. The US survey showed that 65 per cent of female executives suspect that salary hikes and plum assignments are being traded for sexual favours. Some 48 per cent of the men and 56 per cent of the women feel animosity towards the involved couple, leading to a drastic decline in office productivity.

This, says Sujata K, who works with the HR department of a Mumbai- based MNC, is an unfair assumption. She says, “ Im not denying that certain women do exchange favours with their bosses, but even if a woman does not do that and is successful, she is accused of having slept her way to the top.” Call it the new unwritten workplace code.

( With inputs from Sunaina Kumar in Mumbai)

The railways have deferred the recruitment examinations scheduled across India on June 27 after the CBI’s revelation yesterday of a question-leak racket involving two senior officials and their families.

Railway sources said the affected exams of June 6 and 13 too could be cancelled and fresh tests held since 780 to 1,000 candidates were suspected to have known the questions.

New dates will soon be announced for the June 27 exam, meant to recruit enquiry-and-reservation clerks and goods guards, a Railway Board official said.

Sources said the CBI had found sealed question papers of the June 27 exam at the Railway Recruitment Board office on Calcutta’s R.G. Kar Road during their countrywide raids on Thursday that busted the racket and netted eight people.

Nielsen has formed a new social media consulting company through a partnership with McKinsey & Company. The firm, called NM Incite, includes executives from both Nielsen and McKinsey, and is intended to help brands act on social media research and analysis provided through Nielsen-owned BuzzMetrics offerings.

Over the years, Nielsen has served some of the same clients as McKinsey, a global strategic consulting firm with consultants based in more than 50 countries. The new venture brings the companies together formally in order to serve senior level executives. While Nielsen monitors social media to isolate brand strengths and weaknesses and consumer insights, the combined NM Incite will help clients apply that intelligence on a more strategic business level.

"Our clients have been asking many questions with regard to social media...as to how to use it to their advantage," said NM Incite's president of media products and advertiser solutions, Steve Hasker, who spent 12 years with McKinsey before moving to Nielsen and helping to get the joint venture off the ground.

Hasker said Nielsen's traditional clients in CPG, retail, and media have shown an interest in the new company's services, in addition to pharma and financial services. "The large clients will be a focus here," he added.

"There's a big area around product development," he said. NM Incite will focus on "how brands can leverage social media to harness consumer insights to develop better products and optimize the launch of those products," he said.

Global consultancy firms Accenture, Deloitte, banks StanChart and Barclays and Indian IT giant Infosys all have announced hiring plans that would see the creation of at least 13,000 jobs in India by the end of next year.

Most of human resource outsourcing (HRO) contracts coming up for renewal are likely to witness a significant restructuring .This is likely to see more such work being offshored to India.

Everest Group, in a study ‘Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO): End-of-Term Market in HRO’ said the areas of restructuring range from modifying the number and type of in-scope processes, to enhancing delivery models through global sourcing, to introducing alternative pricing models.

According to the research firm, about 75-85 % of engagements will likely be extended while 15-25 % will be repatriated or transferred to new suppliers.

• Accenture has failed to meet its hiring target in India . The company had said it intended to increase its India headcount to 50,000 this year from 37,000 as of April 2008. However, it fell short of the target by 10,000
  
• India plans to open its higher education sector to foreign investment and some of the world's leading universities next year to help meet the growing skills requirements of -millions of its young people. I hope that will trigger a war for talent in the teaching and educational administration population, and induce many bright Indians to pursue a career in educating tomorrow's India.
• Organizational changes are afoot in the company earlier known as Satyam and now as Mahindra Satyam. The new way will include more disclosure within the company. For example, each division will know the other's pricing, profits and overhead costs, and the company has added a new position of Chief Compliance Officer. Softer parts of the corporate culture also are changing. Mahindra managers are more likely to end work on time and go out for a beer with colleagues -- the former culture was more formal, with colleagues calling each other "sir," Mahindra managers now at Satyam say. In another step to purge Mr. Raju from the culture, the name of Satyam is likely to be dropped from the company in the next year, says Mr. Gurnani, the new CEO.
• In order to protect itself from falling prey to the US protectionist policy, Bangalore-based technology outsourcing major Wipro Technologies has decided to step up local hiring in overseas markets. Chairman Azim Premji said the company is looking to increase the count of local employees on-site. He said, "At present about 30 per cent of the employees are locals, but we would like to see this number increasing."
• IT services firms, which are benching more professionals because of the slowdown, are doubling training period for freshers to better equip them when the good times return. However, this means rise in costs for the firms, which are already facing diminishing revenues.

The combined company, to be called Towers Watson & Co., will have annual sales of about $3.2 billion with 14,000 employees. It will be publicly listed, as is Watson Wyatt. Towers Perrin is closely held.

The merger will create the world's biggest employee-benefits consultancy, displacing the Mercer unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., according to Shlomo Rosenbaum, an analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Before Sunday's announcement, Watson Wyatt held second place, while Towers Perrin ranked fifth among global providers of employee benefits advice, he said.

Watson Wyatt is a strong player in pension consulting, while Towers Perrin is stronger in health-care consulting than Watson Wyatt, Mr. Rosenbaum said. He said it is unclear whether the firms will "be able to cross-sell products that the other one does not sell".

The hype over the recovery notwithstanding, packaged goods companies need to brace up for a tough year ahead, as a recent Boston Consulting Group study says consumers will save more and cut back on discretionary spends during the next 12 months.

1. There are reportedly 12000 -13000 people on the bench in Satyam. While the government controlled board was there they had some job security. However once the acquisition process is complete how will TM decide on their future.
2. Support groups. Tech Mahindra has internal support groups for HR, IT, Marketing, Finance - however it would need to keep a large part of Satyam's team also - because of the diversity of Satyam's business. However there would be some redundancies.
3. Top management. I feel that the group that could see a major churn is the top management - perceived to be close to the former Chairman.
4. Headquarters. The location of the headquarters plays a major part in the identity of the organization. Satyam was always a Hyderabadi origin company - how will it's image change if the headquarters are moved to Mumbai.

With companies keen on maximum utilisation of employees and low tolerance to poor performance in the backdrop of global economic turmoil, nearly 2,100 employees in software firm Infosys have faced the axe.

Industry Analysis: Job Index of Auto, Insurance, Oil and Gas moved up significantly

Job creation improved in industries like Oil and Gas, Auto, Construction, Pharma and Insurance. Hiring in the Oil and Gas industry picked up by 24%, the index moved to 910 as compared to 732 in Jan ’09. The index for Insurance industry moved to 922, up 20% as compared to Jan ’09. The Auto industry cheered up after the slump in the past months, the index moved up by 15% from 501 in Jan ’09 to 577 in Feb ’09

Witnessing a sudden shift, the index for the education industry moved down by 16%, from 1112 in Jan ‘09 to 940 in Feb ‘09.

Functional Area / Department Analysis:

Sales and Business Development professionals continued to see an increase in hiring, the index moved up from 849 in Jan ’09 to 953 in Feb ’09. Banking and Insurance professionals saw an upward trend in hiring, the index moved up by 10% from 665 in Jan ‘09 to 737 in Feb ’09.

The demand for professionals in Hospitality saw a downward trend in Feb ’09. The index moved down from 1046 in Jan ’09 to 925 in Feb ’09

Experience bucket: Senior Management hiring picked up by 10%

The maximum number of jobs continued to be in the 4-7 years category. However it was the senior management category that saw a push in hiring in Feb ’09. Senior Management hiring picked up, with jobs for 16+ years of experience moving up by 10% as compared with Jan ‘09. New jobs for the experience band of 13-16 years picked by 6% as compared with Jan ‘09