This statement comes at a time when Times of India, NDTV, NewsX have already slashed salaries. Indian Express is unwilling to cut, at least for now. But like my friend in the Express middle-management said, “We are paid three times less than Times. So cutting our salary could be quite difficult.”
Well, in my view both cutting salaries and job cuts have their pitfalls. But job cuts have slightly more. And it is because when it comes to salary cuts, there is a sense of déjà vu because everyone is in the same boat.
Performers, who ideally (should) have a higher salary, get hit more because of more cuts. No-so performers or juniors get hit less because of lower cuts. Yes, if one goes by Rao’s argument ‘everyone is demoralised’. This, in turn, does not help the company because instead of a few discontented people, all are upset. Obviously, output suffers big time.
On the other hand, cutting out the deadwood helps the company in two ways. One, performers believe that the company has faith in them. So they try to do better. Also, there is a fear that they should not become expendable. Again, the result is more hard work and better performance. The company surely stands to benefit from this.
Only a small issue – who is expendable? And more importantly, who decides that X or Y is deadwood? Ideally, there are section or department heads who are given the responsibility to identify bad performers. But everyone knows that prejudices creep in.
Most of us have heard horror stories of employees, both male and female, being harassed by bosses (media is no different). We know of sexual favours being sought for promotions. And we also know how more-than-decent performers have suffered at the hands of bad bosses. Their copies have been blocked or story ideas rejected consistently and finally, hounded out.
Ours is a funny profession. My style of writing can be different from someone else’s. But unless I am making mistakes (both in English and facts), I need not be wrong. Like someone said, “Even Salman Rushdie can be rewritten.”
Given that there is no fool-proof system to judge performance, especially due to the numerous intangibles in our profession, an overall salary cut is preferable over cutting jobs. Is Mr Rao listening?
