Are You Made For It?

While so many schools of thought insist upon the limitless nature of man's aptitude, I have been recently questioning my own. Being in a corporate setting has been getting on my nerves lately. I have been having a hard time coping with the way businesses are conducted in our country.

Services are promised but not delivered. Payments are promised but not made on time. Corporations overwork the front line employees while the top level managers just work with numbers and not necessarily in the interest of the organization. Legitimate arguments are not heard and unrealistic expectations are put forward.

I have seriously started questioning myself whether I am cut out for this. I believe in doing things well. I believe in success that can be sustained and not just success that is just an Excel spreadsheet. I'm horrified at the idea of becoming the CEO or Director of a Company that's just working in numbers.

Maybe I just don't have it in me. I read this article that said that most CEOs are good at lying compulsively and show signs of a psychopathy. So probably it's not my cup of tea. And if that's the case, if I don't have what it takes to reach the top, then what's the point of slogging hard in a mid-management job?

I consider myself a fairly ambitious person. But ethics are more important to me than anything else. And in spite of how organizations portray themselves, very few of them are working ethically in India. They pay no heed to their employee's work/life balance. Most salaried professionals are overworked and overburdened.

Companies are just concerned with achievement of numbers, which is fine. But the problem starts when they stop caring about their channel partners and just concentrate on numbers. That's when the fabrication of numbers begins. I believe that unrealistic targets are the root cause of all unethical business practices.

Come to think of it, its a vicious circle that begins with overpopulation. People just settle for jobs in India as there aren't many options for them. Employees are not in a bargaining position as there are hundreds in line angling for each vacancy that comes up. So people agree to being exploited by organizations in India. And, I have noticed that most operations are understaffed in this country, as a way of cutting down costs.

Jobs are constantly outsourced to third party firms who employ unskilled and "cheap" personnel. Costs are reduced but quality of operations are compromised. The end consumer suffers in all this.

I have not studied economics but I always feel like there has to be a better way of doing things. The real problem of the Indian market is that it is being pumped in with merchandise beyond its  consumption capacity. That's happening because we are one of the largest marketplace with naive consumers in the world. And even there, overpopulation is the root.

So are we doomed then? Will the Indian workforce never be free of exploitation? Will the organizations keep working blindly towards numbers without caring for their customers? I am constantly haunted by these questions.

I know I kinda digressed from the initial discussion but its all related. Isn't it?