After all, what is an organisation but people…

Quiet quitting or hustle culture, onelighting or moonlighting – the boundaries of what one deemed ethical, at one point, now stands at the crossroads of immense scrutiny and subjectivity.

Shocking, not!

9:00 PM, IST, is dinner time. It is also a time which Pearl and I devote to speaking with our friends online. Every week, at least once, we catch up with Joe and Liz who usually get ready for breakfast and work at 8:30 AM PDT. Often, it is the only time we get to catch up on each other’s lives. The morning contraption isn’t as exhausting as it is monotonous for them; warm the bagel, some cream cheese on it, vanilla-infused coffee to go. The conversations are usually aspirational – “let us retire by 40, and see the world”. It remains aspirational.

Today was different. While we uncorked our tolerable miseries, Liz broke the good news of her pregnancy. She seemed happy, and rightly so. What bothered me, was Joe’s response with a muted smile, “I’ll have to work a second job”. And, moonlighting he did.

The story paints a grim picture of the experiences of countless hardworking people, who devote more than half of their daily lives to their work and, yet, do not get rewarded for their services.

Unsurprisingly, a study of 300 top US companies released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) found that the average gap between CEO and median worker pay jumped to 670-to-1 (meaning the average CEO received $670 in compensation for every $1 the worker received). The ratio was up from 604-to-1 in 2020. Forty-nine firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1. At more than a third of the companies surveyed, IPS found that median worker pay did not keep pace with inflation.

Back home, the scenario is not too different. A recent Business Standard analysis revealed that a typical Indian CEO’s salary in FY21 was 184 times the median employee salary. The ratio was up from 174.3x in FY20 and 179x in FY19.

In a sense, there is a justification for this -- leaders do so much; they are indefatigable innovators, wizards of want, number ninjas, chief of chats, and boss of big things. Indeed, they deserve their bits. But, are the leaders of an organisation, THE organisation?

Old wisdom directs -- great organisations have great teams and great teams build great products and services. A new adage goes -- great teams build great culture; great culture fosters great products and services; and great products and services make an organisation great.

For the average Joes, the compensation is just one of the many factors that contribute to disengagement. Culture dictates the direction. And, no, contests on yammer don’t help. If the underlying driver for engagement and “building culture” is fun, then the onus is on the leaders to first build trust, and believe that colleagues will do the right thing – even if they were to moonlight.  

For if moonlighting helps an individual in giving their kids a better future, a question of it being ethically wrong doesn’t arise. What’s unethical here is low-pay for, and exploitation of, the workers who promptly deliver on the vision of their leaders.

One may argue, moonlighting enables quiet quitting. In turn, affecting the quality of work. But, so do quiet promotions (the state of awarding more work, without any change in the remuneration or job title).

Be better. After all, what is an organisation but its people…

#Moonlighting #QuietQuitting #QuietPromotions #HustleCulture