Knowledge Sharing Blog

I am back after a long tearing off work load at job and finally got few hours to complete my unfinished article on Exploit or get exploited!!

In previous part, I discussed how an employee tends to get disadvantage of the company. In this part I would like to share an example how an employee gets exploited by his/her employer.

Many times an employee faces 100 types of problems which we can put into the category of exploitation. Mr. B was facing terrible issues from his leader. Mr. B never received any feedback from his superior and did not get any rating either. The fact was that Mr. B had won the confidence of entire team on his ability to tackle the issues. He was the first to be contacted when any issue arose. In this way he was a ranker but on performance appraisal meeting he did not get any rating. This resulted into less amount of salary raise. This was a straight financial loss to him despite of the fact that he performed very well.

We can interpret it in the way our understanding is. Some would say, he may not be performing as he has portrayed. Some would say he was a victim of his leader’s jealousy and employer may not be involved in it, Someone would also say that he seem to have failed in establishing the harmony with his leader and some other would say he was a fellow with hard luck because in spite of his best efforts he was not appraised satisfactorily.

Whatsoever our interpretation is, the fact is that Mr. B is a victim of corporate politics and has a strong feeling of getting exploited by his company.

Summary: Considering thousands of real life examples, I am convinced that exploitation does exist, but it is stemming from need theory. The need may be either side. This is applicable not only to employer and employee relationship but in every sphere of life.

Whose need is more intense has to make some compromise and tolerate something which he would not have otherwise. This tolerance could be recognize as exploitation or any similar thing.

If one wishes to protect himself he should continuously evaluate the situation he is in, and explore the scope of continuous improvement in whatever tasks he has on hand. If he thinks he is doing well and if he feels that people around him also admire his ability to do certain task then he should believe that whatever problems are being faced, are purely temporary. On the other side, if some employer has had a bad experienced from his employee he should evaluate his procedures thoroughly and if he finds it appropriate then he should continue following the same practice with due refinements. For one or two misuse of the system, he should not punish everyone existing on his team.

Matter of striking balance and being judicious.

Pankaj Trivedi

Many events, diverse in nature, take place in our professional and personal lives. Our mind processes and interprets them according to our belief, education, past experience, knowledge on subject-matter, maturity level, understanding, and many more similar factors. We eventually react to each event based upon how we have interpreted it. Since each individual is unique so is their reaction.

It is our common experience to see people either getting exploited or exploiting others. This certainly raises many questions to us such as, why do people use someone in an unjust manner? Why do we appreciate people who have managed to take advantage (disadvantage) of a situation? Is it really a smart doing to take unjust advantage of a situation? What implications does this tendency have on the social psyche? Etc.

One day, a man working with an IT unit, received an interview call from a company named abc through an recruitment agency. He appeared for the interview and received an offer of 50% hike to his present package. He requested the company management to issue an offer letter so that he could resign from his existing company. He also said that he would require one month’s notice period before he could join. The Company did not see anything wrong in issuing the offer letter and issued it in a good faith.

During that one month’s time, that fellow received another call from another recruitment agency for an interview with xyz Company. He went for an interview with them too. He openly showed the offer letter and negotiated the salary. He could manage to secure another 50% raise from the offer he had received from abc company. Thus in less than one month’s time he could secure 100% rise to his salary.

People will react differently. Someone will say it was a smart work where as someone would say it was unethical to take disadvantage of the offer letter issued by the company called abc. Someone still say it was a blunder committed by the HR Manager of abc company and someone would say it was an act of breaching the faith the abc company had shown in him by issuing him the offer letter. And there may be many more reactions to this incident by different people.

Whatever interpretation we make, we can not change the implications of it on the society. Such incidents invariably prompt people to start with distrust. May be it is the only way to tackle such situation. But many genuine people might have to suffer because of someone else took the disadvantage of the situation.

It is not only individuals who take disadvantage of the situation, many organizations also do the same. We may discuss it in my next blog.

To be cont’d…

Pankaj Trivedi