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Thursday, February 05, 2009

Why didn't any Satyam staff resign in anger or shame?

I have not bothered to blog on Satyam fiasco. Corporate India is the favourite child of our media, when the favourite child misbehaves our media can celebrate that too. Corporate Ethics and Governance issues have been forever written about ever since this news broke in the last week of December. 


For a moment forgetting the one person being fraud, why haven't any of the 40,000 odd employees quit in anger or disgust. How can they continue to work for a company whose faith has been destroyed beyond repair? Does the ethics of a company mean anything to the employees at all? 


I know it must be difficult to quit if you have post dated cheques with different agencies and if there is no immediate chances of employment, but, can people working for this company absolve themselves of the fraud? I don't know whether there were reports on this that I have missed out on. Everyone from the state government to the new directors are asking the employees to not lose heart, but, has anyone done so and actually made a statement by quitting the firm?


Would these people, 40 years from now be proud to tell their grand children that they actually worked for Satyam when this fiasco happened and continued to work despite knowing they have been cheated.


Some Andhra based employees actually see in Raju's admission a silver lining, we read that some of them held placards to greet him on Sankaranthi outside the jail where he is lodged. Their feudal  loyalty is very sincere and needs to be appreciated. 


But, what about the rest of their employees? Tried google with 'i am ashamed to work for Satyam' or 'I quit satyam' and all you get is the quitting of Independent directors at the early stages of this fiasco. Many employees have been applying elsewhere due to the insecurity they feel in this company now, that too has become difficult after rival companies denied to take them, we read. Our society consists of youth who commit suicide for failure of love affair every other day, a youth immolated himself recently in Chennai to show solidarity with the Sri Lankan tamils, we have people inflicting different forms of physical and mental pains on themselves for various causes all over the country, how come none of the 40,000+ was willing to cause the pain of joblessness than continue working for such a corporate? or are they willing inflicting the pain of working there as living out their shame? 


Doesn't our sense of being wronged against any longer evince any action from us? Do we as a society accept fraud so much that even when it is committed in our name, we do not want to stand up and say we will not accept it? 


I am sure Satyam employees are wonderful human beings with high ethical and moral lives, but, the fact that 40,000 of them can subsume it for the sake of continued monetary security / gains does show our society in a very poor light.  

1 comment:

Siddharth said...

Nice line of thought. If I were an employee, I think I would have quit by now.
Check me at sidinvest.blogspot.com

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