DNA Growth "Work Culture" Reviews

Likes

The aspect I liked about the company was the people that I worked with. Except the managers, barring a few, most of the analyst were pretty open minded and inclusive.

Dislikes

Not dislikes but genuine constructive criticism ( Which I hope will not be made fun and brushed off as musings of a disgruntled ex-employee). I will make a list. 1. Work Culture The working culture of the company is noxious to say the least. No open discussions are happening at the regular (I will come back to this later). I raised some issues with the HR regarding the draconian leave policy of the company and in the end she just shrugged and said that it is not in her hands. I can go on and on but several employees at the analyst level (even certain managers) are just not happy with the work culture.Even a representative from Stanford (The company is enrolled in the Stanford Seed program) in one of their training trips in Kasauli directly pointed out to the director of the company the utter lack of transparency that he keeps among his employees among a lot other things. Even the work that you have contributed to is scrapped at the last minute without any heads up and some other analyst's work is sent to the client. I will admit feedback is given and I incorporate it in my work but as soon as I show some agency in my work rather than chalking it up to difference of opinions i am undermined and told i am wrong and no further guidance is provided as the managers think my work is utterly lacking even though I reiterated I can back it up with some research. I did make mistakes along the way, genuine mistakes but claiming everything I did has been utterly lacking because I didn't do it their way is a very bigoted way to perform organisational work. We can have an open conversation about how to reconcile differences of opinion when it comes to work but rather than chalking it up to that they point it out it is a performance issue. 2.The Senior Manager Firstly, I will state to the senior manager's merit that he/she is the most hard working employee in the entire organisation and doer his/her utter best to keep the metaphorical ship tightly running. But in his/her pursuit of corporate excellence she has left behind a lot of qualities that makes an organisation more human-centric. He/She demands the exact standards that she adheres to without realising that every person is different and their priorities might be different than his'/hers'. Now to his/her demerit she is extremely bad at conflict resolution. If he/she has any work related gripe with an employee she just drafts an impersonal email first, without discussing it the employee itself. If the employee goes to him/her with a genuine concern (Like I went when I was put on PIP because of my 'behavioural issues' and other things.) he/she just smiles and says that nothing is to be concerned about without giving a proper explanation and a course of action. His/Her philosophy (and maybe insecurity) is to show no weakness period. Rather than having a collaborative relationship with the client (having weekly calls is not collaborative where we just do what the client says like a machine.) we are just at the beck and call of the client sacrificing a lot more than just time and effort. I implore him/her to create a more human centric organisation where employees don't engage in sycophantic behaviour towards him/her and employees can come to him/her without hesitation regarding genuine issues whether personal or professional. I would also advise him/her to broaden his/her scope of reading because reading about business leaders might make you an efficient leader in a purely business sense but doesn't make you a critical thinker where to make things more equitable for people around you sometimes systems of power and authority needs to criticised. I will make a list at the end of such books because I want the director of the company to read them as well because for a man who encourages everyone to read newspaper and books his scope of genre is extremely narrow limiting himself to just business books. And lastly 3.The Director Ralph Waldo Emerson said 'Every institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. The character of the man will determine the character of the institution.' Nobody exemplifies this quote by the eminent 19th century essayist more than Akshay Jain, the director of the company. He is the epitome of the entrepreneur that is obsessed with growth no matter whatever the cost and consequence. Because of his obsession with his company and the never ending pursuit of its growth he has made himself believe that he is pursuing a higher purpose of greatness. This is a tale as old as time when capitalism came into being, man thinks production of goods and services is good, creating employment is good therefore I am a force of good. This kind of thinking removes certain nuance of what actually is the reality and factually, unfettered capitalism has done more harm than good. I will come to his ask me anything session which he initiated some time ago probably to the criticism of his company's work culture by the Stanford delegate. I think it was a step in the right direction but when it came to answering employees questions no concrete answers were given. Every reply that he gave was just circling around the question rather than giving a direct and crisp answer as if he didn't want to commit to anything. One curious thing he said was that he adhered to the 996 work culture. I just looked it up and found that it is a china centered work philosophy that has actually resulted in employees deaths. It became so extreme that the Chinese supreme court had to ban it though it is not being enforced and is till practiced by a lot of companies in China. Man I really have to question the man who derives his work ethic from a Chinese work culture that really sucks the life out its workers and results in deaths and in his pursuit of 'greatness' implicitly expects his employees to adhere to the same. Further in his ask me anything session he preaches he will provide a platform for employees where they can choose between happiness and greatness.I have a question here - why not happiness in itself can't be greatness? For him greatness is just the superficial pursuit of wealth, power and reputation. His definition of greatness is just one dimensional where he thinks you can only be great by getting recognition by contributing economically to the present society and by creating jobs. Were Martin Luther King, Sardar Vallabhai Patel or Frederick Douglass not great then? Change is not initiated just by opening and running an organisation where the goal is in the end just profit not change. Change is initiated and done by systemic reform and revolution. He also mentions that he sees his two daughters only once a week that too for just a little while. Not only I feel sad for him but I empathise with his daughters too as I don't want them to develop feelings of inadequacy in the future as they are growing up. Is your pursuit of 'greatness' so important that it is contributing to the neglect of your daughters? Why I mention all this is because the director of the company is just as enamoured with the myths of capitalism just like any other not realising that it is done and doing more harm than good both to the people and the environment. To dispel these notions of his thought process that he is actually contributing to society in a meaningful way I will suggest some readings because self-awareness is the first path to becoming a better human being and live a more meaningful life and empathising with people we interact with around us. Even happiness can be greatness. A. Capital in the 21st century. B. Winners take all - The elite charade of changing the world. C. Sophie's World D. Davos Man - How the billionaires devoured the world - Peter Goodman E. Trouble in Paradise - Slavoj Zizek I hope this is taken a little bit seriously from the people still employed in the organisation and want some good change in place and please don't be afraid to speak up. If Akshay Jain really wants to implement change he will be willing to listen and change his ways for the betterment of all....Read More

Work Details

Work policy: Employees are given an option to work from either office or home albeit with a 20% salary cut.

Work days: Monday to Saturday (Strict Timings)

Work related travel: This is a desk job.