Imagine a space where all people involved could say everything on top of their minds. A paradise. But when it became groupings among staff, the manipulation of emotions between bosses and subordinates, finger-pointing, fabrication of stories to damage the reputations of the others and accusations without reasons, it was the workplace one got to learn how to walk away from troubles.

Kian battled the culture shock every day. He hasn’t ever worked at an organization that small talks were allowed over the past 15 years. He was trained to stay ethical with the mouth sealed because no one wanted their careers to be ruined by tittle-tattle. This one was an exception, though. It was a result from the bottom-up model.

Those good old days were ingrained in his memories. A fast-learner, smart and agile, he always detached himself from unnecessary hearsay and delivered 101% of work. An apparent darling of many bosses that attracted jealousy of colleagues. He could manage to maintain a dear group of close friends everywhere he worked. With good relationships between him and some experienced mentors, he acquired a set of solid know-hows that drove him up to reach a few peaks of his career.

His life came to a switch as he entered his late 30s. After being a frontline reporter for more than a decade, he decided to get out of the comfort zone at a time when journalism was shrinking. However, he regretted the brave move every time when he had to get over the tougher-than-expected adaptation.

Now, he had to spend at least 360 minutes per week doing regular catch-ups with his line managees. So that they were given enough time to update work, let the line managers know how to support their team members and hear all kinds of grumbles. Even though Kian tried to limit every meet-up on just work matter updates, some people were pure complainants.

As the so-called bottom level was given abundant rights to express themselves, supervisors sandwiched in between were supposed to play the role of listener. If the management responded in a negative way, the quickest way was to bring the grievance up to the boss of the boss. Therefore, it was a culture of circumventing problems because no one liked to include the top executives or other third-party investigations in every nitty-gritty.

With the door wide open for protestations, it was important to strengthen one’s skill of risk-aversion and mental muscles. This scenario wasn’t usual at other professional companies because troublemakers must be sent away.

Talking about letting go of staff, Kian had his first-time experience as he was approaching the 20th year of his work life: The structure was designed to have easy hires but difficult removals. Given a person-in-charge had an intention to sack a worker, they got to have the back-up of panorama evaluations that would be launched every year. There were incidents in the past that the employee had no reviews due to bad implementations.

Even if all procedures went smooth, it took at least one year to pave the way of replacement. The entire process didn’t stop there. After that, the middle managers had to discuss with the top management. If the latter was reasonable and took personnel issues with a simple manner, then they would back the former to take the action. However, there were also cases that the CEO needed to keep a healthy turnover rate that led to calling off firing efforts.

Such a situation built a dilemma. A substandard team was maintained whereas directors at the top continued demanding good quality outputs. Nevertheless, the challenge to Kian was beyond the human balance sheet. His direct boss, an emotion-centric person who must react to people’s tears, could turn the layoff decision upside down if some shaped themselves the sufferers with a falsified narrative that targeted the one who initiated the dismissal decision.

When the weak spot of a top executive was under constant attack because officers had more power than they thought, the cooperation between Kian and his supervisor was left with a chasm. It was impossible to talk about teamwork at the management level, which had a smaller voice under such a setting. If the ousting was failed, however, it could paralyze daily operations.

In the end, he held off every sack-off decision and wrestled with a low-grade team. How wouldn’t he overwork himself but ensure his unit could meet certain standards became the gist. Going forward, Kian kept trying to sort out a doable relationship with his superintendent but his trust to the organization has collapsed, as core values like integrity, fairness and objectivity went awry.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4 Apathy