Management

A senior of mine got promoted. He was a subject matter expert and he became a team lead. I went to congratulation him and while speaking I asked him when is he going to start with his new responsibilities. He said, "don't be so formal with me. I will still remain your friend. Do not think that I would get spoilt just like those other people from management. I would stay who I am and I am not going to become one of them". My friend was so confident but somewhere I knew it was going to be exactly be opposite. He was going to become one of them - one of the representatives of the management.

That exactly is what happened. We started seing the change in his behaviour within a couple of weeks. The one who used to be associate centric immediately started becoming management centric. Vocabulary started including phrases like circling back, seeing the bigger picture, burden of responsibilities, low hanging fruits, expectations from the management, became very common. Listening to him felt like reading an email or advisory from the management out loud. We knew that our friend was no longer our friend and had become the minion of the management.

This is what happens in the corporate. I would give the credit to the management staff that they really no how to whitewash all the understanding of an associate and mold their mind as per the requirement of Management. It feels like after joining the management the lesson one receives makes them forget their own struggles as an associate and immediately they start to question the very existence of those very struggles that they faced once upon a time. The issues that they used to fight for become the issues that are troublesome which do not require any discussion. Their supporters before joining the management now become their enemies and are labelled as troubled professionals.

When any person gets into the management position I definitely no longer see them as friends. I see them as the informers who are operating as per their supervisor's instructions. I always felt that a newly promoted person when spoke with me they only wanted to gather the information to pass it on to the next level. The discussions never felt genuine but they field more light interrogations.

Now do not think that these were the sour grapes for me. I too had worked in the management position for several years. But I never surrendered myself to the management. They tried to convince me to let go off the struggles that I faced as an associate and asked me to accept that these do not exist. I stood my ground. I kept bringing those issues in front of the management. I kept the contact at the grassroot levels not to gather the malicious information but to understand the real struggles. I decided to become the voice of the doers and not the mouthpiece of the management. This was one of my attribute which made the management uncomfortable and they wanted me out of the management position.

I accepted that because for me understanding the struggle and resolving them was more important than boot licking. Today I work as a freelancer and I have no regrets that I gave up on a management position. When I see myself in the mirror I know that I have stood up for the right cause instead of brushing it under the carpet. It keeps me motivated and strong.

The lesson that I want to share with my readers is that do not trust the management because what ever they do is for the business and never for your benefit.