Corporate Casteism

“Be Indian Buy Indian” popular slogan of yesteryear was contradictory. We always fancied imported objects. Even now in spite of products from around the world, we are suspicious of multinational's products made in India. We feel some of them sell lower quality product than their original, in some cases it is. Indian companies are yet to catch up in terms of their quality.

When a Volvo chief was interviewed by an auto magazine years back, about the service centers for their new trucks, as Indian trucks could be serviced every five kilometers. He told them, that Volvo did not need service centers every five kilometers. A case of how obsessed we are of service centers more than the product. We expect them to break down before we have bought them. We have poor management and manpower producing cheap products.

In Indian setup employers assume the employees are of lower standard, not productive enough and useless. Employees think the employer is amassing wealth by their efforts without any benefit,  so do not have any loyalty and are inefficient. Employers have not done enough to alleviate their lifestyle for which they are not proud to be part of the establishment and have least interest in work.

In daily life we come across many people arrogant and nasty. They neither care for you and nor respect you. We find millions like this. We dread to interact with our own Indian, a shopkeeper, an auto driver, a clerk in any place; a nurse in an hospital and list goes on. Everybody is irritated and arrogant. 

The basic problem for inefficiency and bad attitude boils down to how they feel about themselves. Most of them are not happy with themselves; either because of the job or the way they lead their lives. A person with a positive attitude in his life will have better attitude in his work and quality is better. The standard of living, his views and priorities in life also have an impact on the quality of work.

The management has never invested in improving the standard of living of employees or their attitude. They expect higher quality with training related to the work and without improving the personal status of the individual. Monotonous work, mood swings, family conditions, individual confidence which affect the work are not at all taken in to consideration. Bonus is nothing but an extra pocket money used to enjoy while it lasts. Other than that is there no improvement in the personality or the standard of living.

Taxi drivers abroad as I have seen in TV 'just for laughs gags', are dressed so well and behave so well in spite of the fun being on them. They are so helpful and take the humour without getting angry. How about our humour, people just attack if the fun is on them. Our taxi drivers live a different life. There are so many things why our people are like this.  One thing I will point out is that they are dressed in khaki. Most hideous dress descended from colonial times. We have dress code for everything, invariably it is khaki, in the name of discipline. Lower their status, most lowly their dress including the colour. Everything considered lowly are provided khaki. Drivers, cleaners, housekeeping and many more. Some times they may be brown, dirty gray and ugly. Because it is considered as a dirty job.

Indian corporate management have their brains from their grandparents which is from 1800s. So they insist on the customs and dress code like their good old great culture, which they do not even know. 

The employees are not given anything worthwhile in their work place, no proper seating, toilets, and eating-place. Whatever is provided is of a lower quality. Whenever they do give something, the same people (employees) may bring them to a lower standard by their attitude and actions. Simply put they are treated like lower class and are expected to have an attitude and behavior of higher class.

Most come from lower strata of the society and do not have an access to newer lifestyles  Ignorant about life and confused view of life with many kids in the family, they are least interested in improving their lifestyle  as it needs an effort and cost. You cannot expect them to have balanced moods and dedication to  work. They want to finish work without any trouble for the paycheck at month end. They care less whether their quality is good or not. Their worries, view and attitude are not at all taken into consideration. That is restricted for the educated. So that is what you get from them in the form of shoddy work and careless attitude.

Casteism is not about the caste per se. It is the hierarchy.

Advantaged taking advantage of the disadvantaged to make sure they do not take advantage to get to the advantaged.

This newer trend can be called Corporate Casteism.

Finally the solution for better quality of work of the employees lies in not just training them the work they do but aggressively bringing their standard up in the society. They should be treated better and should be made to feel better in life to get a decent job done. Monetary benefits may only give an opportunity to get into irrational way of life. If only the way to life and better living is taught to them, they will have better view of life and their attitude will change for good. 

If you want quality work from a person, first and foremost he should have his own quality. When a person is least interested in himself, his environment and family, what can he give in terms of quality work? People in our country have different attitudes, different culture, millions of superstitions and some weird unbelievable beliefs. They have to change these perceptions before they get in this new world order. How do you achieve this? We need to educate them. I would always prefer to start from toilet training, which I have talked in my previous write up. Next is to concentrate on personal grooming. There should be clean toilets with shower. Where the employees wash in the campus itself. You should provide hairstylists, the dress code should be liberal and quality of the dress should be good. Lower class should be encouraged  You can think of providing Gym, get together with family and film shows with meaningful values. The list goes on.

Next you have to address the family. The family has to be involved for upbringing the standard. These are the few things I can mention. If only we understood these issues, then only we can appreciate the value of them. They can change their attitude; there will not be hierarchy and better work atmosphere and better quality of life and better work.

Many of the Indian corporates have not contributed anything to the society  They think paying the employees and tax fulfills their obligation to the society  But I feel these are the people who should be working to change the society  and it does not cost much. It may be less than 20% of their annual advertising costs.

PS: All the pictures are copied from Google search for illustration purposes only.