Verbal Abuse To Unfair Pay: Tackling Workplace Toxicity In India

"My supervisor once told me he wanted to get one of those Cuban cigars that are said to have been rolled on the thighs of virgins. Then he continued to tell me about the many times he would cheat on his wife," Poonam* an academic at a social sciences research institute in Bengaluru, told The Core.

When the thirty-one-year-old lecturer expressed discomfort about the conversation, the supervisor said, "Oh, I thought you were like one of the boys, I thought we were friends." He even scolded her for being a "prude".

Their professional relationship instantly became strained. He would intentionally create roadblocks in her work. "This wasn't the first time where he had said inappropriate things," she said. "He had also asked me if I was pregnant multiple times while I had progressively gained weight," she said.

Poonam is hesitant to approach the committee against sexual harassment at the institute because the supervisor is a member. "There's resistance in the committee itself to take a complaint against a supervisor," she said.

Poonam said her story is an amalgam of several others in the field of academia. "Academics are completely at the mercy of their supervisor. There's a lot of impunity because there is so much power held," she said.

Shruti*, 27, who worked at a non-profit which focuses on education in Pune found herself in a similar situation with her manager. "He'd call after work hours and if I told him I was out, he would ask inappropriate things about dating and sex randomly," Shruti recalled.

Apart from that, whenever she discussed her growth in the organisation, Shruti said they would tell her to revisit her motivation and to see how much she had benefited from working in the organisation. "This is why I quit my job and I'm freelancing," she said.

While the organisation had policies in place, Shruti said that POSH trainings were implemented specifically post the MeToo movement.

Instances of harassment such as these are not isolated. In June this year, the video of an HDFC Bank manager verbally abusing his team went viral on social media. It sparked conversations on toxic workplace behaviour, with many sharing their own bad experiences.

In the same week, June 4, 2023, Vivek Raj, a Dalit and employee of Lifestyle International Pvt. Ltd, in Bengaluru, died by suicide after he accused his employers of caste discrimination at the workplace.

What Do Indian Laws Say?

Aditi*, 24, was the first person hired at a publishing startup in Mumbai founded by two people.

Since it was her first job, she wasn't aware of industry standards and agreed to a salary that was offered to her. She said she was contributing as much as she could "working all day and night, without even realising how much I was overworking".

Six months into the job, one of the founders appointed her as the art director of the company. However, there was no official written communication regarding the appointment.

As the company expanded, the pressure on Aditi built up. "Starting from setting unrealistic deadlines to gaslighting employees for not staying late to complete work, it went on," she said.

The founders were never on the same page and the employees got stuck between their choices. This resulted in timelines getting delayed, and having to overwork to meet their needs.
Aditi did not know who to raise the issues with her workplace as there was no HR team in the company.

At the time of speaking to The Core, Aditi was in the first week of her notice period. "I don't know how I'm going to survive through it," she said.

How can laws help in such a situation?

Workspaces need to ensure the basic documents and policies are in place to further safety and inclusion. This includes mandatory, industry-relevant documentation such as Code of Conduct, service rules, POSH policy, safety or anti-discrimination or grievance redressal policy.

The PoSH Act requires a minimum of 10 employees in an organisation. In Aditi's case, the law could not be implemented because there were fewer than five people in the company. "In such cases, where a company's Internal Committee is not available or is hostile, they can find out and approach the Local Committee of the district where the sexual harassment occurred," said Srinivas, founder and CEO of TrustIn, a Bengaluru-based company that helps businesses implement POSH legislation, told The Core.

The Local Complaints Committee (LCC) is an important body formulated in the POSH Act. It states that the district officer must form the LCC for their respective district.

When it comes to academia, the University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education have issued regulations for universities and technical institutions, respectively, to prevent and address sexual harassment and other forms of misconduct, Pallavi Pareek, founder and CEO of Ungender, a Bengaluru-based legal resource platform for women, told The Core.

However, Pareek said, "Instead of having more regulations, what we need to focus more on as a solution is to introduce/strengthen monitoring mechanisms and act upon non-compliance and non-adherence incidents." She said it's vital to educate beneficiaries and create smoother access to reporting non-compliance incidents. "The rest will take care of itself," she added.

Poor Pay, Ill Defined Job Roles, Overwork

In 2021, after working for almost 12 years in the media industry, Tasha*, who's in her mid-thirties, made a career transition. This time to the culinary industry. She was offered Rs 5000 for three months to intern at a popular restaurant in Assagao, Goa. Tasha's job description was never clearly mentioned or defined, the pay was poor and verbal abuse was part of the ‘culture'.

Initially, Tasha was assigned the task of directly interacting with customers or in culinary parlance - the ‘front of house'. However, she also ended up cleaning the dishes, buying produce from local farmers, managing the restaurant's finances and social media. "Initially, I was even asked to water the plants at the restaurant. One of the pipes had broken and the owners refused to fix it for nearly a month. Hence, I had to reach the restaurant at 7 am because the water pressure was great in the morning and I'd have to fill buckets and water the garden," she recalled.

She said it was a precarious situation because the owners of the restaurant were rarely present and the staff were left on their own.

Moreover, she had to also put up with the restaurant's drinking culture. "There's this big culture of having to hang back and drink after your shift is over. And shifts usually ended at midnight and you had to go for work drinks irrespective of whether you liked it or not," she said.

Tasha further recalled how she went without a decent meal during the three-month period at the restaurant. If you work in a restaurant, you are given lunch and dinner. But the staff had to feed themselves with the cheapest produce. Most times the staff used to make do with instant noodles, she said.

"In some ways, the harassment or the toxicity hits you much later on, because you are still riding the wave of the brand that you have joined," she said. Tasha has stopped working at restaurants entirely and is now a food and beverage consultant.

Pareek said that often employers do not take up the onus for the wellbeing of their employees.
"Recognising and addressing toxic work environments is a crucial aspect of employee well-being", Pareek said.

What Can Employees Do?

Why do employees either fail to recognise, or stay in denial of a toxic work environment? Apart from the lack of awareness of basic employees' rights, extended exposure to toxic behaviours can result in the normalisation of such conduct, making it difficult for employees to recognise the toxicity, explained Pareek.

Further, she said, "Individuals deeply committed to their work or organisation may overlook or downplay toxic behaviours, rationalising them as part of the job or career aspirations."

Both experts stressed on the importance of documenting specific incidents of misconduct - CCTV footage, screenshots of messages, recordings, noting down dates, times, and descriptions of the behaviours. "This documentation can serve as evidence if needed in the future," said Pareek.

Srinivas said that employees can also reach out to informal employee support groups or to colleagues they can trust for guidance.

How Can Employers Help?

"Any company at every stage should definitely have a clear code of conduct and other HR documentation in place," said Srinivas.

But even certain corporate workspaces that seem to have their policies in check are not conducive for employees to raise issues. For instance, Niharika*, a copywriter at a popular fashion and lifestyle company in Bengaluru said that the HR was of little help when she raised a complaint about a case of bullying. "My manager bullied me because of my weight. He asked me to exercise in front of the other employees and add certain food items to my diet," Niharika told The Core.

"Talking to HR was useless," she said. Niharika said her manager knew the HR team well. " I regret not going to the POSH committee directly, I should not have gone to the HR, " she said.

Experts said that it's vital to actively engage in conversations around diversity, inclusion and specifically to address complaints raised by employees.

Workspaces can organise webinars and workshops conducted by that provide valuable knowledge and insights on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion. These initiatives can foster learning and awareness among employees and industry professionals. They can use these platforms to amplify the voices and experiences of marginalised individuals and underrepresented groups, said Pareek.

"If even one of the responsibilities could be undertaken as an accountability, we will see tremendous transformation," Pareek concluded.