Angela Ahrendts, Senior VP at Apple, once said — Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first. The very bottom of the pyramid, the labour force, is often the most inconspicuous of the whole workforce. Vivek Patwardhan is giving attention to their life and issues through his writings, work and books.
The former head of HR of Asian Paints and industrial relations expert, Patwardhan is an executive coach and HR consultant. As a writer, he has written extensive articles and blogs on psychology, and HR and IR issues. His books are wok related or based on his observations. His current offering People at Work: The Untold Story of Labour Management Relations, translated from his Marathi book, is an insight into labour management. Patwardhan speaks about the book, his experiences, writings and more.
Excerpts from the interview:
How much of your industry experience has gone into this book?
I have read W. Somerset Maugham’s literary biography, in which he talks about his work. When I retired, I was inspired by it. Why not write something like it? So I started writing ‘Swanta Sukhayan’. It means it was for my pleasure only. So, I am a blogger but never put the topics on my blogs. But simultaneously, I was meeting people and workers. I was seeing their pain. So, I blogged about how the workers on one side of the society were suffering because of the government policies, and their conflicts with employers. I showed it to a friend. He said it was excellent material. We combined the two. And this book is an outcome.
What does the book focus on?
Book is divided into four basic parts with chapters. The first part is about how my sensitivity grew to people’s issues. I was a fresh Chemistry graduate. People’s issues were a new thing for me. A young graduate does not know the society and its nitty-gritty at the lower level.
I was born and brought up in Tata Power’s Khopoli colony. The highway divides the colony. On one side, there was the managers’ colony called Staff Colony. On the other side, they used to call it ‘Labour Camp’. Even for a seven-year-old boy, the divide becomes clear. I would not have been able to articulate it but could see the different sides. So, my initiation into labour relations began at that age. Part two is about conflicts. Because the conflict hurts and divides us. I have seen the suffering. And it is what happens to workers at the ground level. Tyanna kuni vaali nahi (they have no mentor or guardian).
Tell us about your other books.
My first book was for Asian Paints called Kunchale an Kalam. Kunchale means brush and Kalam means pen. So, the brush means Asian Paints and the pen comes because I have edited the articles. We had a unique house magazine called Tutari exclusively for workers’ education. We published it for 40 years. So, I picked up the good articles and edited it.
Another is called The Lulu Duologues. So, a duologue is a dialogue between only two. Lulu is a parrot to which I keep on talking. It is very intelligent and looks down upon me. So the idea comes from Mundaka Upanishad, where it is written that your life is like a tree on which two birds sit. One is eating the fruits of experience and is unhappy. And the other bird is looking at it and making commentary. So, in a way, these are the two minds which we have. Vishram Bedekar, a Marathi author, wrote his autobiography Ek Zhaad Ani Don Pakshi (One Tree and Two Birds). And it is written from the second bird’s perspective. It is a fantastic way of writing an autobiography. I was inspired by it. I have written about 200 blogs. I picked up around 60-70 and made a book out of it.
What are the emerging trends and practices you want to explore through your writings?
The gap between people has increased beyond our imagination. So, today, a managing director of say a Rs 1000-crore company draws about Rs 10 crores as his remuneration. And the permanent worker draws around Rs 35,000. It is more than 700 times. This kind of divide is cruel because you are not paying your workers well. Another development which has happened since 1990 or globalisation, is that companies are employing around 100 people on permanent roll and 1000-3000 through contractors. Now, the latter get paid minimum wages. In my book, I talk about one PSU’s workers. For 35 years, they worked as contract workers and were paid only minimum wages. Do you know what that means? It means your purchasing power remains the same throughout. It is not correct because anybody who understands minimum wages will tell you that the purchasing power goes down. But I went there and covered. I met those people. I photographed them.
What advice would you give to authors writing about Industrial Relations and HR? Or even HRs?
My advice is to first go down and experience what is happening. That is good enough. The experience will shake you. Words will flow thereafter. I met a group of workers. And perhaps it has come there. I went to one worker’s home. His house was ten feet by ten feet or even less. For years together, he worked as a welder through a contractor. No leaves facility, no nothing. He had two sons. So, I casually asked his sons to divert their attention to what they wanted to be when they grew up. One fellow wanted to go into the army. The other wanted to grow up and be an engineer. We had tea and then went back to my car. That worker asked me – ‘Sir, I do not know how to fulfil their ambition because of the kind of milieu we live in which is a slum area. The children don’t study at all and I want them to come out of this place. But I cannot afford this. I have taken a beating on the work front and am also taking a beating on the home front.’ So, there is a sense of having lost everything in life. What can be a bigger killer than that?
Tell us more.
You must have heard of Dr Anil Awchat. He wrote a book called Manasa (humans in Marathi). In that, he talks about workers who were his wife’s patients. They were railway wagon workers. So, these workers loaded and unloaded Shahabadi tiles. If these tiles fall on their feet, their toes get chopped off. More than that, they are also employed to unload gunny bags full of red mirchis. So they don't wear any shirts. The powder falls on their bodies. So when their bodies start burning because of the powder, even their sex life gets destroyed. And there were lots of broken marriages as a result. When I read this, I said, 'This is it'. We have got to focus on this. But at that time, I was working and did not have that much time to work on this. But I would say it was my inspiration.
Subsequently, I met Dr Awchat. We became good friends. He can become good friends with anybody who meets him. Unfortunately, he is no more. But I told him I was inspired by his work. This book is partly inspired by him. If you read my Marathi book, you can see that I have written it in the reportage style of Dr Awchat. And I don’t feel ashamed to say that I have copied his style. But not everything is in reportage style.
What are you working on next?
There are a lot of ideas buzzing in my head. Of late, I am experimenting with photography with my phone camera. I am interested in street photography and have experimented a lot with this. And some of my work has been well-appreciated. So, I intend to publish a coffee table book for me and my relatives. It is expensive to publish a coffee table book. The second thought is I am thinking of writing another book. I have seen people who have risen in life. They were nobody and became somebody. An example is that of Sushilkumar Shinde. Now, I want to pick up the life stories of such people. These are the real stories of inspiration for the common man. It will be in English and Marathi. Blogging is a great tool. I don’t need a publisher. I publish my own thing.
