Professional Suicide – II: The Conversation

Part - I

Q: You rightfully written in your article…" And although we know indicators of “Professional Suicide”, yet we cannot do anything to stop people from doing this. Every day we will see people committing this professional sin but cannot help them because only they can help themselves.

My query is "If the HR People could not counsel such people, then is there any likely "Out of the box type of solution "to this problem?

Is it because such professionals may be going through some personal --temporary /Long term problems in their life ,which is not getting pinpointed or coming into open during day to day office environment ,not getting probed enough?

I am a Psycho-Social counselor and trainer for Stress management and Anger management, (behavioral) So I want to ask further, are such employees given the opportunity of going through departmental counseling or by any outside counselor by HR personnel of the company or there is no such policy in many organizations yet? (I read full article on the blog).This aspect is not clear to me from this article. , would like to throw some light on it for me? I believe that the consequences of such behavior (professional suicide) are grave and by some efforts this phenomenon should be avoided for the sake of their families. - Dr. Rekha Deshmukh, Psycho-Social Counselor, Human Geneticist.

A: Let me explain to you the entire process of Selection and Performance Management in companies that have cultivated, developed and promoted “Performance Based Organizational Culture”.

A person is hired for a specific role. He is expected to possess required skills to certain degrees of expertise. He is asked to self-evaluate himself on a given scale. As the person has applied for a job, therefore, he or she is anticipated to have inflated the degree level by certain percentage (For example, rating themselves 8 in a scale of 1-10; whereas his actual level of expertise is 6.5). Therefore, in the interview process they are re-evaluated by a panel of experts for the required skill-sets and measured against benchmarks set by the company. Once they get selected, the company extends an offer and gives a choice to the candidates to accept or reject the same. On the day of their joining, new employees get escorted through the Induction Program to assimilate them with the company culture and give them a preview of the kind of career, growth opportunities, rewards and perks that they should expect. However, one thing goes unspoken and that companies find their new-employees to be matured and intelligent enough to understand that those benefits, perks and growth opportunities will not come free and that they need to earn them. Later on, the company places them in assignments and projects that they have been hired for. The complexity of their given role is based on their demonstrated level of expertise of required skill-sets and past experiences in the similar assignment or project. Some people manage to meet the expected level of timeline, dedication, determination and quality in their work but many are not. Those who fail to meet the expected performance level are counseled in their quarterly performance review and are asked to pull-up their socks. They are taken through performance coaching sessions. Every possible help is extended to make them work to their potential. Many of them show visible signs of improvement but non-performers and people with fake-attitude either begin to confront or start giving excuses for their non-performance. Many of these excuses are external in nature, such as, lack of proper infrastructure, family problems, accusing the manager for being biased and etc. They murmur within and say, “Oh shit, I need to work and perform to get all those perks, rewards and bonuses that they mentioned about in the induction program. Oh Jesus, I thought that was free. This company is also having the same culture and problem as my last company was having. That precisely was the reason for me to resign from my previous job”.

In many companies, the Performance Reviews are done on quarterly basis, and then scores of these reviews are compiled to get the final score for an annual appraisal. However, in many cases, non-performers are the first ones to complain about appraisal scores and they make it sound as if some conspiracy is planned to keep them out. They want their appraisal scores and rewards to be at par with the best-performer. Then, this frustrated lot of people, either begin to look out for new job opportunities or stay in the system and spoil the culture. They begin to write against the company and its policies on public forums and BLOGS, spread rumors and thereby, take their first step towards committing “professional suicide”.

Every day, I get emails from 10’s of people, saying, “We have absconded from our company for X, Y, Z reasons. Will the company take any action”? From the above mentioned, you might have noticed that performance is the only key and parameter to GROW in any company. In big companies with 1000’s of employee, non-performers and people with fake-attitude manage to survive for several months but however, in mid-size and small-size companies, they get exposed. Companies go out of their way to retain their top performers, even during the difficult phases, such as economic recession, mergers and acquisitions etc. It is good to be ambitious and have dreams or have aspirations to improve the life-style and get access to comforts but one needs to work towards it and “earn everything that they think they deserve”.

Part – II

Letter to the Author:

From Manish Jaiswal (<dearmjaiswal@yahoo.com>) with inline response from Sanjeev Himachali

Manish Jaiswal is having more than 15 years of work experience, I have worked both at the developer and managerial levels for the Online Content, Learning, E-learning, Instructional Design, Training, and Knowledge Management divisions of leading global and reputed organizations, such as, Accenture Learning, Reuters Knowledge Management and InfoPro India Learning.

(<Sanjeev Himachali - In spite of all the experience of Manish Jaiswal, through his thoughts and views, he came across as a fresh graduate in the market. This implies that he seems to have reached the level where he assumes to have known and learned everything and have no scope to learn anything new. >)

Well, I pity your understanding about revenue and profit and looking within. It is not my plight; I am much well-off but I know of many excellent performers whose contributions do not get recognized.

As you put baseless allegation about various hard working employees and how their walk-and-talk differs…don’t you think that the BIG-mouth corporate companies need to look within?

(<Sanjeev Himachali - Induction Programs: The perks, benefits, growth plans, career or succession plans and etc, as promised in the Induction Programs are “Performance Linked” and goes to “top-performers” of the company. Everybody in the company is paid a salary to do the job that they have been hired for within a given timeline with more than 90% of quality level. Does any company need to pay “bonuses or rewards” for it? Bonuses, rewards and growth is given to those who go beyond the set target or quality level and repeat their best performances over the period of time and not just bask in the glory of one odd performance or achievement. >)

I said both companies and employees should look within. If one employee sacks a company (companies/employers have coined the term 'resignation' to tone down the reality of their being sacked by an employee), it can be an error in judgment; if ten people sack a company in 2 months saying it does not recognize employee contributions, then my dear friend, it’s time for that company to look within. There are many such BIG-mouth companies that get sacked by at least 10 employees every 2 months.

(Sanjeev Himachali - Sacking / Termination versus Resignation: Sacking and Termination is a right vested to the person with power; the one who invests or buys. You must have read, “Customer is the king”; that’s preciously the reason. The one, who buys or pays, takes the decision to sack or terminate. The other party can only make a request (or resign). In corporate culture you are the seller who has sold his skills, experiences and talents and company is the buyer. >)

(Sanjeev Himachali - Retention and Attrition: Who said that companies are expected to retain their 100% employees? They are not. No company is expected to retain their non-performers, below-par performers and problematic employees. Over a period of time spread over several months, these people, “friends of Manish Jaiswal”, either they leave on their own or they are asked to leave. Many high-performing companies retain their top-performers. During difficult times, such as economic recessions, mergers & acquisitions and etc, “friends of Manish Jaiswal” are the first to be churned out. Companies can go to any extent to keep their top-performers. Sporadic doses of good performances are neither recognized nor rewarded. One must to able to repeat their “best performances” over a period to of time to get growth and rewards. >)

You are mixing charity with business. True professionals also work to generate revenue and profit for themselves and their families. Smart pros first think of themselves and then the company; stupid pros do the other way and keep working for the same company for years and years and see themselves struggling during economic slowdown. Stable employees do personal life suicide because more than money (revenue), they look at their job roles and designations and feel happy about it.

True professionals decide their own growth and have their own revenue, profit and more importantly, SAVING targets. They decide on the CTC they should be getting by the end of 2011 or 12 and so on to lead a particular standard of life. Nothing wrong in such ambitions. They do not wait for the company to provide that CTC to them in 2018 when it is possible to achieve the same in 2012 itself by investing his/her time, skills and energy in some other company.

And to achieve such targets, you do not need to start your own company. There are enough good and SMALL-mouth companies that take care of employees in much better way than most of the BIG-mouth MNCs.

(<Sanjeev Himachali - Ownership and Career Planning: You don’t make the company (unless you own one). And your contribution in the growth of a company is less than 1% (assuming that you are working in a company with at least 1000 people). However, the contribution of the company in your life is more than 100%. If you are out-of-job for several months or for an infinite period, you will not be able to survive or take care of your family for too long. You need the job more than the job needs you. So, don’t you f*** up with your own career. Yes, everybody has right to plan their own future and grow. But they need to sincerely work towards it and not try to be a parasite on something. There is no short-cut to success. One needs to have determination, passion and patience. Those who move around in search of opportunities, growth and rewards, live in the glory of one odd or few sporadic performances to boast about, get stuck in the middle-level of the hierarchy. Those who perform and give their best at all times and in everything that they do, move up the hierarchy. Choice is yours.>)

Please stop taking companies' side all the time; "look at the attrition figures of a company to understand how good or bad it is."

You echo the views of those HR professionals who have no f****** idea about an employee's state of mind when he/she sees the contribution not getting recognized. Most of the times, the supervisors take the credit in most BIG-moth companies even though they just keep doing an FYI mail forwarding.

(<Sanjeev Himachali - Compensation, Rewards and Growth: Compensation, rewards and growth are not given on the basis of your personal needs and fancy dreams and neither it is given on the basis of your past achievements. Your productivity and the quality of your work decide your growth. Sporadic doses of good work will not take you anywhere. At all times and in everything that you do, you must be able to outshine and overshadow your own performance of yesterday. Who will decide if your work is good enough or hold any commercial value? It is but obvious that you will not decide the usability or worth of your productivity. The buyer will decide. In this case, the company is the buyer. There is “NO FREE LUNCH.”>)

[About the Author: Sanjeev Himachali is a HR Professional with over TEN years of experience in various facets of HR and has worked across national and international cultures.]