Hierarchy and Respect

Tim Harford writes “rogue” economics books, where things are explained in a manner that is “neither too lofty nor dumbed down” using day to day scenarios, and avoiding all that financial/economic gobbledygook. I loved this line from his book, The Logic of Life:

“Not many people lie on their deathbeds wishing that they had spent more time in the office.”

Not many people? You mean there are any such people on the planet?

Jokes aside, the obvious truth of that statement would suggest that people would try and minimize their unhappiness at the workplace. By not taking up roles they don’t like. But is that what people do in real life?

In the IT sector, it is common to find an American or a European staying on as “just” a software developer for 30 years whereas many Indians want to be leads, architects or managers well before they turn 30! Of course, that difference isn’t restricted to IT alone: you’ll find the same contrast between continuing to do what you like v/s seeking that promotion regardless of whether it suits you or not all over India.

When we are westernizing on so many fronts, how come we’ve still not changed much on this front? A big reason is societal pressure. Then there’s corporate pressure (Indian companies tend to push people up regardless of their personal preferences: after a certain age, you have to move into management roles).

Additionally, most Indians both inside and outside the workplace consider hierarchy and respect to be co-related. Higher the designation, more the respect. We could (should?) learn from the West on this count. Take these lines from an interview with Citrix CEO Mark Templeton:

“You have to make sure you never confuse the hierarchy that you need for managing complexity with the respect that people deserve. Because that’s where a lot of organizations go off track, confusing respect and hierarchy, and thinking that low on hierarchy means low respect; high on the hierarchy means high respect. So hierarchy is a necessary evil of managing complexity, but it in no way has anything to do with respect that is owed an individual.”

To paraphrase Templeton: you command respect based on your skills and knowledge, not based on whether you sit in a cubicle or the corner office.

We Indians are not that way…not yet anyway. It would seem logical to change, if not for happiness, then at least to avoid even more workplace misery!