Okay let's do some kaam ki baat

Soon as India like the rest of the world was plunging into lockdown mdash that is opposite of work but it meant people turn their homes into offices mdash the one tweet I cant forget is from a desi business tycoon about why this may not be such a bad thingHow So long as his employees kept the camera of their computers on all through pointed to the chair so everybody knew they were on it Eh What kinda highly distrustful douche would say that about colleagues he chose to voluntarily work withThis notion is still in line with face plus deskbased work cultureseconomies that care far more for the numbers of hours you put in Rather than what you eventually accomplish from itThe cover of No Rules Rules Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Erin MeyerNetflix founder Reed Hastings argues in his latest book No Rules Rules that while the working world and its creative demands have changed dramatically most companies are still following paradigms of the Industrial Revolution that have dominated wealth creation for the last 300 yearsWhats Hastings contribution to corporate culture as a worklife solution Pretty much since the turn of the millennium hes been running a company that has no vacation policy mdash employees take one as and when they like and for however long they want no records kept There is no travel and expense policy mdash you spend what you believe is right no questions askedLikewise no pay grades performance improvement plans or bonuses No hierarchical decisionapprovals lower management signs off on major dealscontracts mdash theyre often encouraged to override their superiors opinions based on personal instincthunchexperienceHow does all of this work While it still may have been okay when Netflix had 80 employees in 2003 it has 7000 across the world now In the book Hastings neatly organises his thoughts in the traditional debating style of mdash tell them the reader what you want to tell them tell them tell them what youve told them He drills in his key points again and againThe most telling aspect of it being quite simply that freedom automatically equals responsibility and vice versa As long as youre surrounded by top talents whore therefore selfdriven And nobody takes their job for granted They cant But theyre encouraged to take risks and bet big Theyre also in a feedback loop from across an apparently transparent organisational food chain It is considered disloyal to disagree and not express itThe sense I get is Hastings likens work environment to an individual sport mdash with the rockstar in the middle allowed to swing at highest potential without worries mdash as much as a collectiveteam sport where everybody is equally mindful of their individual positions on the field Cricket seems like the fairest analogy to me Although Im pretty sure he hasnt played itNo Rules Rules Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention coauthored by Erin Meyer mdash who tests all of the founders theories in practice inside the company mdash is in effect an HR handbook Hardly of earthshattering interest to those in the larger mediaentertainment industries which for the most part veer toward independent gig economies anywayBut Netflix is a tech company before an entertainment conglomerate Like Amazon Prime or YouTube why even Facebook They thrive on innovation You can tell that first from the user experience on their apps mdash compared to thirdrate ones by content companies say Sony Liv DisneyHotstar Zee5 etc2020 was probably that year when most companies were forced to work a little like Netflix or at least how Hastings puts it in his book By which I mean slightly away from the usual rules and process approach punch in punch out long committee meetings that has been the primary way of coordinating group behaviour for centuriesWould people for instance take more holidaysleaves just because they could Would they fly shorthaul first class because nobody checks why they did Does Hastings by his own admission frugal with expenses have a strong reed ki haddi spine to trust his lot so muchWell he has what he calls a Keeper Test where employees are regularly checked for whether theyre still the best at what they do mdash if not they can be replaced right away thats it Yet the attrition rate at Netflix according to his book is on par with the industry average So its not even about losingsaving your job by not getting caught napping is itHeres a question that millions of employees even employers working from home WFH which effectively means Work From Anywhere WFA mustve asked in 2020 If there was no one literally breathing down your neck looking over your shoulder all the time would you work the same because you do it for yourself first Surely there will be research on peoples productivity levels when the dust settlesI was just drawn to Hastings and his theories because in a year when the economy couldnt have been hit harder Netflix had around frickin 30 localdesi releases films series specials Hits or not thats like the combined output of a film industry mdash forget a major studios And Im just talking about India mdash alone Coming from a company headquartered half a world away in Silicon Valley Whether anybody checks surely nobody just chills Good to know whyMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news