In another recent interview, a 28-year-old candidate was late to join the video call. When asked why he was late was informed, ‘I was busy with other stuff.’
A senior HR person told me recently, ‘An interview candidate refused to put on his video camera till he felt that it was the right vibe for him as a place to work. When I asked him how we were supposed to hire him without seeing his face, he said his voice was enough for us to figure out whether we wanted him or not. And if it wasn’t, it was our problem, not his.’ Interestingly, he wasn’t the only interviewee to do that.
Young working people are far more concerned about a healthy work environment and a ‘fun atmosphere’ than clinging on to a salary and hoping they don’t get fired — what my generation termed as ‘hard work’. ‘How they feel’ is much more important than what they do. You can tell how old I am because I put ‘how they feel’ in quotes and ‘feel’ in italics, implying sarcasm. But the joke is on me.
I come from a generation when a good day at the office was your boss not shouting at you and an interview had the same gentleness as a CBI interrogation. And we took these as normal, pleasant even.
A banker boss recently told me that he warned a 30-something direct report – in a firm manner without shouting – that he was unhappy with the latter failing to do a task. The employee complained to HR alleging emotional harassment. The banker boss was cautioned. I’m in the early part of my late 40s (ahem), and those my age in corporate India would consider this behavior precious, precocious or even over-confidence. That’s because we grew up in a work environment where employee meant ‘servant’ and work meant whatever the boss wanted whenever they called.
It wasn’t uncommon to stand up when the boss walked by. Or even do personal chores. Very local companies even had physical violence if you’d mess up. Or cut your salary. Today, bosses my age lament that their teams speak to them like they are doing the company a giant favour by showing up. And ‘I don’t feel like it’ is a common response to a task. To the point that bosses are scared to ask them to do anything that ‘isn’t their vibe’.
I’d pay good money to invent a time machine that would take a privileged 2022 startup employee to a pre-liberalisation government job in the mid-1980s where the boss would say ‘I don’t care what it takes, get this done!’ and the employee would say, ‘I’m going to watch a Marvel movie, you do it’. Only one of those two would come out alive at the end of that.
Something has clearly happened to the Indian workplace. Whether propelled by things like Linkedin or Naukri.com or motivational Instagram reels, young people feel they have tonnes of options (even if they don’t), and have decided that the economy will absorb them (even if it won’t), and won’t compromise (even if it means unemployment and no cash). The gamble is: if they are confident enough, my generation will get scared and give them jobs. At no point will performance be a factor.
As a friend who runs a team at a fintech company told me. ‘I employ arrogant young people because everyone wants young people and young things. I want to learn their ‘vibe’.’ And what has he learnt?
‘Nothing. I’m scared to ask,’ he replied.