Cost to Company by The Ken

Should you track tasks or should you track time?

The Metoo movement normalised calling out bad behaviour, but it concerned itself much more with naming and shaming individual harassers. Not the workplaces that emboldened them. Not the cultures that created conditions for it to happen.But sexual harassment isn’t an interpersonal issue. It’s workplace issue. It’s the organisations that must be held responsible for behaviour tolerated by its employees. 25 years after the first Vishakha Guidelines were passed, we discuss the ways in which the laws remain insufficient to create safe workplaces. We probe to uncover where the gaps remain.And then we find solutions.  If you have thoughts, feelings or episode ideas, or want to participate in the podcast, please fill in this typeform. 

CEOs, executives and business leaders have discovered therapy as a weapon to build better products. There are now therapists who are specialised in working with founders and business leaders. There are now therapists stepping into roles that would have been otherwise led by HR.This is therapy not just as a health care benefit. This is therapy to build better businesses. This is therapy as a strategy tool to get more out of their employees. To hit goals faster, better, and with less collateral damage.In this episode of Cost to Company we talk to Piyush Shah, cofounder of Inmobi, about how therapy helped him, and other business leaders “unlock” their ambitions, and build better teams. And we talk to Aakriti Joanna, founder and CEO of Kahamind, and Esha Pahuja Verma of Trijog, about how demand for these services have skyrocketed.If you have thoughts, opinions and episode ideas, become a part of the podcast by writing in to us in the form here.If you’d like to pass on the gift of knowledge this Diwali, check out Ken’s diwali gifting options here.

Titles are a funny thing. In organisations, they’re supposed to denote the work that you do and your position in the hierarchy. But more realistically, they’re a currency. A currency used to trade respect. And when ‘inflation’ strikes, this ‘currency’ is bound to show some side-effects. In the Indian context, startups aren’t the only ones indulging in title inflation. It’s the larger corporations too. So if everybody’s the culprit, who’s the victim?In this episode of Cost to Company, we speak to Nikita, ex-manager at a major mobility startup, Harold D’Souza, Director at WalkWater Talent and Diksha*, an HR professional working at a Big 4 consulting firm, who tell us how ‘title inflation’ may seem trivial at first, but can have lingering effects on your career growth. *Name changed to protect identity. Tell us the things happening at your workplace: new patterns you've observed, changes that nobody's talking about, or even ideas and hacks that revolutionise how we work. The form is linked here: https://theken.typeform.com/costtocompany?typeformListen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or SpotifyHosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria 

Myntra announced unlimited wellness leave. So did Meesho. So did Gojek. Netflix brought its global unlimited leave policy to India. Makemytrip announced uncapped leaves. As did Inmobi.  A number of smaller startups like Nova Benefits, Pega Systems, Zuddl, have all announced unlimited leaves. Even The Ken has an unlimited leave policy.And you would think that in the middle of the Great Resignation, startups that are giving unlimited leave would see the number of leaves taken go up. You would think that in an economy of people starved of rest, employees would take all the opportunities they’re given to take a break.But that’s not what’s happening. Anecdotally and empirically, evidence is telling  us, again and again, that unlimited leaves are leading to fewer leaves taken. Which brings us to the question, why? What’s broken? This week we’re going to talk about the Prisoner’s Dilemma of Unlimited Leaves. Tell us the things happening at your workplace: new patterns you've observed, changes that no-one's talking about, ideas and hacks that revolutionise how we work. The form is linked here: https://theken.typeform.com/costtocompany

Tell us your story ideas around careers & workplaces and become a part of the show: https://theken.typeform.com/costtocompanyGoodbyes are never easy. But they were never this important either.In a market where great talent is scarce, companies are paying top-dollar to ‘offboard’ their employees in the best way possible: ensuring that their exit is as smooth and uplifting as their entry. We speak to the CEO of Springworks and the Head of People Practice at xTo10x. While their methods might be starkly different, they’re essentially chasing the same goal: retaining their current employees and maintaining strong ties with the ones who’ve left the ship. How do they do this? Offboarding may be the answer.In this episode, we'll find out how offboarding is much more than just writing a farewell mail and returning your MacBook Air that you had gotten all too used to. If your culture is scaled, your ‘employee experience’ metrics are measurable and your offboarding process is seamless, you’ll not just have ex-employees. But brand ambassadors. Are other companies finally starting to take notice?Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

Every product manager has their own voice, their own style. In the beginning, it’s all about gut instinct, intuition and understanding why humans do the things they do. From that point on, the paths digress. Some communicate as little as they need, some bring all stakeholders on the table with fullest transparency, some bring them on the table for the What and Why but not the How. Some play good cops and bad cops, some dispense information very sparingly, some play with the information they have to dispense. Like Sardar Patel, and like Narendra Modi, every product manager has a voice, a method of rallying people, of building a narrative, and of finding what makes them tick. Just like every politician. 

“It’s a chicken and egg problem, honestly.” - Abhishek, a management consultant who recently shifted to Bengaluru. As the pandemic slowly begins to recede, many offices are opening up. Employees are (voluntarily and involuntarily) shifting back to cities which house their office spaces. But they’re not coming back to work just yet...because their colleagues aren’t either. There is intent, but little incentive. When work can happen from anywhere, what does Gen Z actually want from the physical office space? Collaboration? Peace of mind? Increased productivity? Beer?The answers might surprise you. Listen to the full episode on Apple or Spotify. Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria 

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcastsBruce Lee says this utterly enjoyable thing. “Showing off, is the fools idea of glory”.But there’s also the core human need to be seen, understood, recognised and thought worthy by those around us. And when it comes to work, there's material benefit, money, promotions and growth, that can be gotten with just the right amount of showing off.So what is the right amount of showing off at work? What is worthy of recognition and what isn’t? And what are some of the best ways to have our achievements, seen, understood, recognised and rewarded? This is an episode about the brag document. 

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts“As middle management, we know for a fact that there's really nothing much in our control.” - Ishaan*, former manager at a prominent e-learning startup.In the 4th episode of Cost to Company, we’ll speak to four middle managers who’ll tell us, no holds barred, about what it feels like to be stretched from both ends in an organisation, during an unforgiving year that has inflicted mass layoffs due to the slowdown. They’ll talk to us about their struggles, their strife, their confusion. And hopefully, some solutions too. How did we get here? Why is the role of a middle manager particularly difficult during a downturn? Do we even need them in the first place?Listen to the episode as we try to navigate these difficult questions with interesting answers. *Name changed on request to protect identity If you like our podcast, or have thoughts, feelings or story ideas, write to us at [email protected]. Or share, retweet, and follow @thekenwebHosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcastsGoogle docs has satisfied customers. Evernote has happy users. Jira has grateful managers. But Notion has Notion Nation. It has evangelists, Notion certified Ambassadors, Notion certified badges and Notion certified Champions. It has a subreddit with 220 thousand subscribers, groups in 32 different counties, on Telegram, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Discord. The India chapter of notion has its own logo. Which is the N of Notion with the Ashoka Chakra behind it.We welcome you to the Cult of Notion. You can find Ibrahim’s Notion document about the Cult of Notion here. You can check out Notion India’s Telegram page here. You can see minutes of India’s first Notion meetup in Hyderabad here. You can see Neerja’s Notion page here and Shashwat’s Notion page here. If you like our podcast, or have thoughts, feelings or story ideas, write to us at [email protected]. Or share, retweet, and follow @thekenweb.

Full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcastsIt was the day of Wasim’s engagement. He was wearing his favourite kurta for the big occasion. It was the first time, in many days, that he was genuinely happy. Just then, he gets a call from Byju’s HR team:“We regret to inform you that your employment with Byju’s has been terminated.” If 2021 saw the high of the VC influx, Bored Ape NFT projects, and salary hikes; 2022 is going through a slowdown, a crypto winter, and thousands of job losses. Who bears the brunt of a global meltdown? Who will survive this winter that’s been around for far too long now? Why do layoffs even happen in the first place? Which companies have to let their valuations slip and let their employees go? And within these companies, who gets laid off first?In episode 2 of Cost to Company, we explore these questions as we speak to founders, HR mavericks, career counsellors, and most importantly: people who’ve been laid off. The answers aren’t easy, but the perspectives are worth listening to. If you like our podcast, or have thoughts, feelings or story ideas, write to us at [email protected]. Or share, retweet, and follow @thekenweb. 

On Feb 11th of this year Subhash Chaudhury, CTO and founder of Dukaan, posted the salaries of nine new hires. That tweet went viral. The very next day, the CTO of Chingari, also posted salaries of six new hires. This tweet also went viral. Salaries are the one part of our jobs shrouded in secrecy. We know, without anyone specifically ever telling us, that they are not to be ordinarily shared with our colleagues. We don’t want to be impolite. And businesses like paying as little as they need to.And here you have two businessmen, breaking that cardinal rule.In this, our pilot episode of Cost to Company, we will explore why these tweets were posted, and what happens when you break this cardinal rule of business. We will see what this experiment - the publishing of a salary - does to a business. Does it make salaries more fair and equitable? And is the relationship between employee and employer — bound by goodwill and a confidential fiduciary contract — changed for good?If you like our podcast, or have thoughts, feelings or story ideas, write to us at [email protected]. Or share, retweet, and follow @thekenweb.