As a child my grandmother used to tell me fairy tales. These
tales were etched in memory and as we grew up we started narrating those same
tales to our children. We grew up believing a lot of these stories and treating
them as gospel. As we matured, we realized that they are not true,
but are an effective way of keeping children engaged and scaring them, so that
they behave or eat their food. It was a convenient way of bringing discipline.
As I began my career, I was told that the most important
thing is the quality of work you do. Money can come later. So early in my
career, I grew up working for a pittance gaining valuable experience. After
doing a good job for a few years, I got promoted. My designation got better but
the pay hike just about defeated the interest rate on fixed deposits by a
whisker. A few years later, when I had done well and it seemed apparent that I
would definitely get promoted, I again missed out. Once again my pay hike
competed fiercely with the interest rate on fixed deposits. I don’t remember
who won.
After waiting for an eternity, I finally decided to change
my job. I was under pressure from my family to buy a new house, get married,
settle down. Some recruiter tracked me down, offered me a position in a good
company, with a decent salary hike. It was decent by my standards, but
astronomical by the increment standards set by my own company. I went with my
resignation letter to my manager. He was angry, disappointed and made me feel
ashamed that I am changing jobs only for money. I felt as if I was stealing
some national treasure and nearly took back my resignation.
But the women in my life prevailed. My mom was very clear,
“I don’t understand your career, shareer… I only know the size of the pay cheque
you get home.” My would be wife threatened to break the alliance. Finally
between, two marriages, I knew which one to choose.
As I grew in the organization, I also started telling the same fairy tales to my juniors while doling out increments. I knew they
were not true, but my job was to ensure that crumbs which are handed out are
made to feel like cookies.
Once I took a job in Saudi Arabia, and on the day of joining
the HR manager asked me, what made you take this role? Unabashedly, I said
money. I mean one goes to Saudi Arabia for only two reasons – Pilgrimage or Money.
I was then asked, ok other than money what interests you in the role? I wanted
to say ‘nothing’ , but cooked up some story. I quickly realized that whenever I
am planning to change jobs for money, I need to talk about the excitement in
the new role, the challenges etc. and relegate money to just a by-product.
But last week has changed everything. Infosys founder
Narayana Murthy criticized the Infosys board for hiking the COO’s salary by 60%.
He called it bad governance. His contention was how would somebody who gets a
60% hike, justify the measly 6% to 10% increment for the juniors or the worker
ants, the ones who collect the honey. His contention is right.
The current CEO of Infosys disagreed with Narayana Murthy’s
view. He quoted numbers that the cash component had gone down, while the
variable component was up – basically a lot of mumbo jumbo to confuse
everyone. What is more important is that he said, that this was required to retain
talent.
Really? So what does this do to the fairy tale that
motivation, culture, job role, job satisfaction are more important? Ask 95% of
the HR managers and they will tell you that money is not the only motivator for
the employee. They will use this fairy tale to ensure pay hikes are restricted
and in turn splurge money on parties, offsites
etc. And if money is a motivator
for someone who earns in crores annually, why should it not be for the juniors?
The HR managers are going to have a lot of answering to do. Temptation is sin.
But if someone offers me a 30% jump in my salary, I will be more than willing to
give in to temptation.
One thing is now very clear. From today onwards, if I am
changing a job for money, I am not going to be apologetic about it. After all
as a colleague once said, “Aashirwaad se pet nahin bharta”; “Blessings do not
feed a person.”
From now on, fairy tales have to be questioned. After all,
Sikka bolta hain.
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