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In this special episode of Cost to Company, the tables turn. Snigdha interviews CTC hosts Sneha and Shreevar about how work and workplaces have changed in the last thirty weeks. The short version: they’ve changed dramatically. This episode is the long version of that answer. Sneha takes us into the evolving relationship between the employee and employer, into how power has shifted in response to larger shifts in the economy, just in the past seven months. And how that has changed the way we work.  Shreevar talks about how careers have changed in response; and what a resilient, enduring career now looks like.  If there’s one episode of CTC you listen to, this is it. 

Everybody is cutting costs.  Not because they want to. But because they have to.  A few months ago, edtech giant Unacademy announced that they were making frugality as one of their ‘core values’ to focus on profitability.  But can you really be a frugal company if it’s not in your DNA from the very beginning? In this episode, I speak to Somnath Mukherjee (AVP Business, Zerodha), Rahul Deorah (Finance Lead, Dezerv), and Kavya Jain (Product Manager, FreeUp) to find out what its like working in a frugal company.  And why every company can’t be frugal, even if they want to.  Subscribe to The Ken: https://the-ken.com/ Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

Internships are booming.  Internshala has been reporting jumps of between 30 and 80 percent jumps in internships listed by businesses year on year, depending on which year you look at. The same data says that more and more businesses are offering paid internships. Demand for interns is going up. And if you ask recruiters, they’ll say that the number of internship applicants is also going up. Supply of interns is meeting its demand. Both sides of the market are growing. And because of this, workplaces and careers are changing. The fundamental lines we’ve always known and understood between education and career, university then job, those lines are blurring. In many cases, interns are almost indistinguishable from entry level employees, both to their employers and to themselves.  This is making our workplaces younger, more innovative, and a little bit more prone to bursts of hormones, than ever before.

Gone are the days when unions were something that only caught the fancy of the blue collar workforce.  After a slew of unending layoffs, white collar employees in the IT sector are finally waking up to the bells of unionisation.  But it’s not without a myriad of unobvious roadblocks.  The path to collective bargaining wasn’t easy. But no one knew it would be this hard.  In this episode, I speak to Sreyan Chatterjee (Lawyer/Researcher; Ex-Reuters), Harpreet Singh Saluja (Founding Member, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate) and Suman Dasmahapatra (National Convenor, All India IT & ITeS Union) to understand more about the treacherous journey towards white collar unionisation.  This episode was written, hosted, and produced by Shreevar Chhotaria (@shreevz)

There’s a specific idea we have about moonlighting:  a trend that emerged in the pandemic.  Engineers tasked with sitting at home and delivering their product saw that their skills were so valuable, that it was possible to extract more money out of them by working in two places at once. So a person would either consult with multiple organizations on the side, or work in more businesses than one, using the skills they had already, to extract more income out of it. But this episode, what we’re talking about is entirely different.  This is moonlighting not to extract more money for the skills you already have, but moonlighting to demonstrate new skills and new experience. This is moonlighting to stay relevant. And it turns out, even those with most professional experience find that they have to do it. To survive.  

What was once touted as the biggest work trend to emerge from the pandemic, is on its way out. Companies are slowly but surely realising that the 'work from anywhere' model isn't sustainable in the long run. Or even in the short run, in some cases. Meesho, for one, had announced an extravagant WFA policy in February 2022. They scrapped it only a few months later. But it's not just the employers who're putting the final nail in the coffin. It's the employees too.  In this episode, I speak to Joel D'Souza, (Program Manager- Culture and Talent at Headout), Aditi Agrawal (Management Consultant at a Big 4 firm), and Saurabh Deep Singla (CHRO, upGrad) to find out how the golden era of work from anywhere is over. Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

In 2023, amidst the thick of the layoff season, you'd think that 'employee ghosting' (a phenomenon where prospective employees don't end up joining an organisation without any providing any communication) is a thing of the past. But that's quite not true. Although in a reduced state as compared to 2021, ghosting still exists. Companies and their HR professionals are coming up with some ingenious way to jump the 'invisible gap' that exists between offer acceptance and joining date, where most of this ghosting occurs. In this episode of Cost to Company, I speak to Mohammed Sufiyan Sait (Director - People Success, Toplyne; Co-founder, The Talent Deck), Sanam Rawal (Founding Partner, MetaMorph), and Sairam Krishnan (Founding Team, Atomicwork; Ex-Accel, Ex-Freshworks) to find out how. Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

A good executive coach with many years of experience, working in an Indian metro city, typically costs between 20 thousand rupees to a lakh a session. There are multiple reasons for this. First, training to be a certified coach is expensive. Second, executive coaches work with such a niche, small, group of clients, so they get to and need to charge to the world. But this, the steep price tag, informs so much about executive coaching. The price tag shapes who gets to go to an executive coach. It informs the kinds of problems executive coaching tends to solve. That price tag is also why we understand so little about executive coaching. If you’d like to participate in Cost to Company, please fill in the typeform here.

The winds of appraisal season seem all too familiar.  HRs deciding the budget for the cycle.  Employees frantically trying to put their best tasks forward on a scrappy Google document at the last minute.  Managers bracing themselves to negotiate pay hikes with their reportees. And HR.  But this year, things are looking slightly different. With the current economic situation, some companies have ‘indefinitely postponed’ appraisals. Some aren’t increasing base pay and thinking of unique ways to reward and retain their best talent, while some are using appraisals as a precursor to future layoffs.  But, as you’ll find out through the course of this episode, it’s not all dark and gloomy.  In this episode I speak to Vibin Baburajan (Ex-Freshworks), Bhavya Arora (Talent and Culture Partner @ Outplay) and Kanika Singal (Ex-McKinsey; Ex-Levi Strauss & Co.) to understand how appraisals this year might be different than usual.  And what the appraisal season is trying to tell you.  Tap here if you want to become a part of the show.  Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria 

This episode is about a group of Indians, who worked in food delivery and ecommerce startups in India. Now they work in food delivery and ecommerce businesses around the world. Starting with Jakarta and Singapore, but now also Seoul, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires, and Riyadh. We’re going to interview three such people, and ask them how and why they moved. What they found there. And what is that aspirational thing they’ve been chasing. And spoiler alert: it's not for the money. And to be clear, we are talking about this because it is happening, not randomly, or sporadically, but systematically. And it is going to happen a whole lot more, in other industries and in other forms, that we haven’t yet seen. To participate in the Cost to Company podcast, fill the form here.

For the past 19 episodes, we at CTC have spoken about hiring in many shapes and forms. But what do the numbers tell us? And more importantly, what do the numbers hide? To kick things off this year, we spoke to Ruchee Anand, Senior Director of Talent Solutions at LinkedIn, who shared some data-driven insights around hiring in 2023. Why are some women leaders going the self-hiring way? What is 'The Great Mismatch'? Talent pools are getting bigger, but is that really a good thing? Listen in to find out. Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria 

Tasked with keeping us together and happy, the advocates for employees in most organizations are usually in the HR department. The people we complain to when management systems break, when there's a sexual harassment complaint, when we aren't receiving the recognition and reward we deserve, they're usually in HR. But the universe of HR is experiencing a moment of transition. Inventive SAAS products are being built to solve HR functions. HR tech is reducing human intervention, or removing it altogether.  This is changing the nature of HR itself. Which, in turn, has the additional consequence of changing how we work.  If you have episode ideas or interesting new changes in the workplace, or hacks people are using to navigate it, fill in the typeform here, and feature in an episode with us!

Unlike its dubious cousin 'the layoffs', there's not much brouhaha around the hiring freeze. And with good reason. Most hiring freezes are unofficial. They're never really revealed to the world. But that's not to say that the freeze hasn't gripped Indian companies. What if the hiring freeze is an opportunity for the employees? Is it a faster way to grow within the ranks since the jobs outside have dried up? Or is it just a race to the bottom? Are employers taking notice too? Read Vanita's story by tapping here: https://the-ken.com/the-employee-employer-paradox-layoffs-everywhere-but-hiring-still-a-problem/ Fill in the Typeform to become a part of the show: https://theken.typeform.com/costtocompany Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria 

A group  of men set out to build a Brave New World. A world with new ideals. A world where the old structures of power are destroyed, and newer ones, more fair, more transparent, rise from the ashes. A brighter world, a better world. They dream of community and belonging. Eventually they live long enough to watch the new world become so much like the old. They watch their heroes fall from grace. They see the weaknesses in the system, they see their brothers exploit them. They watch innocent people suffer. They watch the powerful cause that suffering. That world is crypto, and this is an episode where we talk to three believers who have left the industry. And we ask them, what do they still believe in? If you have episode ideas, a trend in businesses that nobody else has heard of, or something new and inventive happening in your workplace, write to us on this form here. If you have any other thoughts and feelings, write in to us at podcasts@the-ken.com.

Breaks always seem tempting.  But in a job market that is as brittle as it is in late 2022, does a career break even make sense? Even if the times were better, what happens after you take a career break? Does your career ‘rise from the ashes’ once you’re back? Or does the pause affect your growth in the long run? In this episode, I speak to Vatsal Sanghvi (Consultant, Omidyar Network India*; former Category Manager, Flipkart) and Issac John (former Head of Marketing, Discovery India; former Marketing Head, Puma India) on how they bounced back from their sabbaticals. Two people with starkly different experiences, but oddly similar outlooks.  *Omidyar Network India is an investor in The Ken.  Tell us what you'd like to hear in the next episode of CTC? Please fill this form, it won't take more than a minute. If we like your idea, you may get invited to the show! Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria. 

The CEO of Better.com fired hundreds on a Zoom call. The CEO of HyperSocial posted a selfie of himself crying while he did it. Byju Raveendran wrote to his employees saying that he would be laying off 5 percent of them but that he was losing 5 percent of Byju, meaning himself. This was so poorly received that it became a moment in pop culture of its own. Unacademy laid off 125 people in April. In July they committed to no further layoffs. And then they laid off 350 more in November. And then Amazon laid off 10,000 employees last week. The communication was faceless, private, and clinical. It has been called inhumane. Which brings us to the question, is there a good way to lay off employees? Does such a thing even exist? In this episode of Cost to Company, Shreevar and Sneha interview Karthik Srinivasan, behemoth of corporate communications in India, to ask, are there best practices for communicating a layoff? And if so, what are they? Tell us what you'd like to hear in the next episode of CTC! Please fill this form, it won't take more than a minute. If we like your idea, you may get invited to the show too! 

In a world where your to-do list doesn't seem to ever end, should you create task lists or block 'chunks' of time? More importantly, what does your manager at work want? We speak to Arpitha Desai (Legal & Public Policy professional, ex-Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas), Tara Khandelwal (Founder at Bound, ex-Penguin Random House) and Sachin Jaiswal (Director of Product Management at Swiggy) to find out. Tell us what you'd like to hear in the next episode of CTC! Please fill this form, it won't take more than a minute. If we like your idea, you may get invited to the show too!  Hosted, Written, and Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

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. 

The roots of the founder’s office may lie in bureaucracy, but the allure of it has managed to seep into the world of business.  Almost suddenly, the smartest and brightest minds from some of the country’s top B-schools are embracing a whole new kind of an obscure yet attractive career track. ‘Thoroughbred Generalists’ (as one of our guests describes himself), are quickly picking up roles at the Founder’s Office.  What do people at the founder’s office even do? What are the problems that they solve? What are the problems that they go through? And fundamentally, what really goes on at the founder’s office? We speak to Ramya S, former Chief of Staff at Ola and Founder’s Office at Myntra; Adwate Kumar, former Founder’s Office at CoinDCX and Klub; Jayesh Bhatia, Founder’s Office at Ditto Insurance, and Avichal Pugalia, Chief of Staff at Foxtale, to go to the depths of this little-known function of the org. As it turns out, it’s a little bit of everything. And a whole lot of nothing. Tell us what you'd like to hear in the next episode of CTC! Please fill this form, it won't take more than a couple of minutes.  Hosted, Written, & Produced by Shreevar Chhotaria

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, co-founder of the InMobi Group, about how therapy helped him and other business leaders “unlock” their ambitions, and build better teams. We also talk to Veena Sethuraman, VP, Learning & Organisational Development at InMobi on how this journey transpired. And we talk to Aakriti Joanna, founder and CEO of Kaha Mind, and Esha Pahuja Verma of Trijog, about how demand for these services have skyrocketed in the last two years. 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 The Ken’s diwali gifting options here.