Job Seeker CXOs Seeking a Toxic Work Culture

Bengaluru: Senior professionals and CXOs contemplating their next career move are increasingly alert to toxic work cultures. A senior executive who was slated to join a Bengaluru-based company turned down a lucrative offer at the last minute when a background investigation revealed a lack of autonomy and the fact that almost no CXO had lasted more than 12 years. 18 years old. months.

An expatriate candidate in conversations with an e-commerce specialist approached the person he would replace to learn about the company culture.

Another potential senior employee with an offer from a real estate company changed his mind after discovering his developer’s controlling approach and lack of boundaries between work and personal life.

Such examples are on the rise as more stories about toxic workplaces, pressure cooker environments and the consequent health impacts emerge from India’s corporate closets.

Senior professionals who are being chosen to join senior management are doing their background checks on potential organizations with much greater rigor than before. And a significant number are saying no to lucrative offers if they detect a toxic work culture, search firms, candidates and human resources experts said. “Work culture is increasingly becoming a deciding factor,” said Navnit Singh, President and Regional CEO of Korn Ferry. “Money is important but not the main driving force. “You don’t want to hate going to work every morning.” Sunit Mehra, a partner at Hunt Partners, said people are now much more concerned about which company they are joining.

“On the one hand, the pressures (on senior executives) are increasing; On the other hand, its consequences are more visible. “This raises alarm levels,” he stated. “Candidates are asking more and more questions about work culture; we see it with every term.”

Candidates are actively leveraging their networks and conducting due diligence on the potential company, bosses, and colleagues they will work closely with.

Red flags include command and control structures, lack of autonomy, lack of respect for personal-professional boundaries, frequent changes in roles/reports and departures at the top level, experts said.

Prabir Jha, CEO of Prabir Jha People Advisory, cited the case of a Singapore-based professional who decided not to move to India after receiving negative feedback about a company.

“That many Indian companies are plagued by toxic leadership and behavior is a fact,” Jha said. “It is one of the most important filters that candidates are using now. “Many career transitions fail due to cultural misalignments.”

With more and more cases of mental health problems and other health and heart problems arising from stressful situations, candidates say it is better to be safe than sorry. And in many cases peace of mind is winning.

A professional from a multinational company who was in talks with an Indian financial institution was warned by a colleague that his future boss did not respect time and space. “He (the boss) used to expect people to be on call 24 hours a day, invade their personal space, disrespect them publicly if they spoke… I don’t consciously want to subscribe to that,” she told ET.

“People who are moving from other countries are even more cautious,” said Ashish Sanganeria, senior partner at Transearch.

Longevity and work culture are an even bigger challenge in startups that operate on short runways and are under a lot of pressure from investors to become profitable, he said. “There are multiple cases of people rejecting offers for cultural reasons; or use culture as a reference to choose one offer over another,” Sanganeria said.

According to R Suresh, CEO of Insist Consulting, excessive office politics, veterans briefing promoters on every move and lack of role clarity are some of the situations that candidates look to avoid.

A candidate who moved from another country to join an Indian company now regrets his decision, he said. “He arrives at 9 in the morning, but the CEO arrives at noon. After the latter leaves at night, there is a fight among the rest who were waiting for him to leave,” Suresh said. “Working on weekends is considered a sign of pride (in this company).”