When Cutting Corners Becomes the Norm, Good People Leave.
This statement reminds me of one of the companies where I worked earlier in my career. Needless to say, it was by far the most unhappiest of places — It had the worst working culture!!!
“Worst” is a strong word to use, but that’s how bad that place literally was.
I quit without an offer in hand.
But looking back now, retrospectively, everything worked out just fine, somehow:
That experience forced me to consider what I truly wanted in life.
At the time, I wasn’t sure what I’d do, but all I knew was that government consulting was something that I definitely didn’t wanna do.
So, I changed careers.
I moved into digital marketing — probably one of the best decisions I’d ever made.
After that, every other place that I worked at, their working culture felt reasonable.
Maybe they had their own issues but I didn’t have much to complain about.
I’m now in a better place, both personally and professionally. The work I do suits my personality, and I take pride in what I do.
Returning to the topic — the last I checked, my old company was struggling to get any project.
Except for a few toxic ones, everyone else had quit, and they continue to work there even today.
I still vividly remember, the morning the Chartered Accountant put down his papers, that same night I put down mine, not that I knew he had resigned.
There were others like us, too. Many of us had resigned around the same time.
Having worked about 10 years in the corporate, here’s what I’ve observed:
Seeing others cheat and get away with it increases cheating across the board.
Nobody wants to be that sucker who plays by the rules only to realize that nobody else is following the law.
At the end of the day, most people are practical, not moral. They only do things that work and not necessarily what’s right — if you saw people break traffic rules and get away with it, chances are you’d do it, too. After all, do you always follow the traffic rules?
It’s the same everywhere else. If everybody’s cutting corners, chances are you’d do it too.
Can’t really say much about private companies, but corruption in PSUs are rampant.
I still remember this funny incident when I was working with the government:
After every field visit, we had to submit original bills to get our lodging and travel reimbursed.
I’d religiously submit original bills and receipts for what I spent from my pocket.
But sometimes, it was not possible to get the original bills. Obviously, in a tier 3 remote town like Bina in Madhya Pradesh, the auto driver wasn’t going to provide me with any bills.
So, if I didn’t have the originals, I’d not claim it. Somehow, the company’s reimbursement policy wasn’t practical for us — they only reimbursed if you provided the accounts with original bills. No bills, no money!
So our colleagues found other ‘not so right’ means to make up for their losses — if they couldn’t claim their expenses for some reason, they’d inflate their bills elsewhere. And I don’t blame them for it.
For example, they might have traveled from Town A to Town B on a bus and paid Rs. 50 for the bus ticket but when submitting bills to the accounts, they’d not submit the bill for the bus but claim fare for a taxi (we didn’t have to submit bills for taxis in certain towns — I know this sounds strange).
At the end of the day, people are practical. They only do things that are practical and not necessarily what’s right.
And soon enough, this practice became the norm in the entire team.
For people who were paid peanuts, this became a means for them to earn some little extra cash. From whose pockets? … the taxpayers!
Read: It’s okay to make mistakes!
When cutting corners becomes the norm, good people WILL leave.
Look at any underdeveloped place in the world. Chances are the crime rates are high there. Now I am not saying it to be a direct causal-effect relationship, but generally speaking, that’s the pattern I’ve observed.
Bihar, for instance: the crime rates are so high, good people don’t wanna live there. Businesses don’t want to invest in the state.
In his book, Barking up the wrong tree by Eric Barker, the author talks about Moldova, a former Soviet Union country.
The system there was so flawed that people did not even trust their own neighbors, government, or even the police. Criminals could commit crimes and get away with it.
People could even buy their medical degrees, Barker goes on to write.
Then, the good people left.
Any honest, hardworking man or woman who could afford to move out of the country left. Once the good people left, all that was left of that place was a bunch of bad people responsible for creating the toxic system in the first place.
The toxic environment they had created eventually became too toxic for them as well. They now had to deal with other monsters like themselves now that everybody else had left the country.
The same goes for any society or even companies. If cheating or bad behavior becomes the norm, good people will eventually leave.
The quality of the environment is more important than your place in that environment.
The strength of any society lies in the fairness of its institutions, the empathy of its citizens, and the opportunities it provides. Without these qualities, even if one were to be wealthy, they wouldn’t thrive in the long run.
Not being nice may look promising at first. It can even give you an advantage in the beginning but in the long run it can destroy the very environment it needs for its own success.
Simply put, when you start being rude or selfish, people will eventually notice.
If they retaliate before you rise to power, you’re in bad shape. Even if you succeed, you’ve shown others that the only way to succeed is by breaking the rules, so they’ll break them, too, because bad behavior is infectious.
People do what works and not what is necessarily right. You’ll be creating other predators like yourself. Then, the good people will leave. That creates a ripple effect: you can quickly create a place where you don’t want to work anymore, creating an environment of mistrust. And once trust goes, everything goes.
Read: Is social media keeping us from thinking?
If people don’t trust you, it is impossible to get anybody to work even if that benefits the society at large.
It is impossible to get any work done if people don’t trust you, even if it was for the common good of the society.
During our time at TISS, one of our roles involved visiting rural communities to study their society and gain practical knowledge.
My job there was to teach English and Mathematics to class 4 and 5 students.
The NGO that I worked with, was funded by one of the very large MNCs in the world. The sad part was none of their projects ever took off.
The environment was such.
I once asked the Founder why that was the case.
“We made a mistake early on,” he said.
“People don’t trust us.”
For whatever projects they were running, they brought in experts from the outside but failed to involve the community in the decision-making process in their own village.
The villagers felt the MNCs were there to exploit them, worse to take away their land, which was never the case.
Had the NGO involved the community, things could have been different. So the moral of the story is: if people don’t trust you, they will not work with you, no matter how noble the cause.
Read: How to win in life?
Bad behavior is infectious
Very rarely are people diplomatic and see the larger picture. Even if they are diplomatic, they will find means to get back at you.
Bad behavior is like getting influenza from a family member. Moreover, influenza tends to cluster in schools, which can also be observed for unhealthy behaviors. Soon, the disease spreads, if not today, tomorrow. But eventually bad behavior will catch up to you.
As leaders, rudeness should never be tolerated at work or at home. While there may be reason for someone to be in a bad mood or react negatively, it is our responsibility as leaders to demonstrate that even under unpleasant circumstances, it is never okay to be disrespectful or rude!
People, in general, are emotional. If you are rude to them, they will retaliate; if not today, tomorrow.
Summary
To summarize, people often do what is practical, not what is right. If people cheat and get away with it, over time, cheating becomes the norm, and good people will lose faith and eventually leave. Trust becomes scarce and once trust goes, everything goes.
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