Lala ki Dukaan (लाला की दुकान). I find myself using this phrase often to classify workplaces and working conditions. The phrase itself has been discussed many times before. Current staff have lamented being a part of one and former staff have called out many Glassdoor as being one. Others have shed some light on the issue of how exactly one compares to a regular aka "professional" organization.

While the phrase has many meanings and sometimes perjorative connotations, it has served many people well in summarizing their furstrations with corporate culture (or lack thereof) at current and former workplaces. In this post, I intend to explore the meaning I personally attach to the phrase and why I feel it captures much of what is wrong in an organization's culture.

Lalas of Antiquity

The origins of the phrase are anything but clear. An oft repeated story, however, goes like this: the lala is a rotund and greedy businessman also engaged in various small/medium enterpises like running a goldsmithy or moneylending/pawn-brokerage or a warehouse etc. Said Lala's sole objective in life is to earn as much money as possible. On this quest to earn $$$, he leaves no stone unturned. He's the desi version Dickens' Scrooge, in a nutshell.

Given Lala's mentaily and his singular aim of running after $$$, any enterprise -- typically a goldsmithy or another labor intensive shop (dukaan in Hindi) -- under his supervision is hell on earth. Employees are treated like sh*t. Double dealing customers is a daily affair and "Shady Business Practices" is an understatement. The phrase Lala ki Dukaan is convenient way to sum up all of this.

Lala, MBA

At the turn of the century, a lot of things changed. Seemingly magical things became common place and "miracle" of outsourcing marked a return of the Lala ki Dukaan. Big Time. With sycophancy and petty politics added on top. While the real lala culture had never left, the outsourcing boom brought more people in contact with it. Only this time, the lala was a tie-wearing, MBA toting sycophant.

tl;dr

Be it the eighties or the naughties, the defining characteristics of a Lala ki Dukaan are more or less the same, viz.:

• Singular focus on Profits - Making money at the expense of everything else is the mantra. Shady practices and borderline illegal tactics are viewed as a necessary means to achieving this goal
• Employee Averse - Late/non-payment of salaries. Short or zero days off. Long work-hours for meagre pay. Near-zero benefits and perks
• Inaccessible Management - Traditionally, run by the Lala himself and a handful of close kin. Decisions are top-down and autocratic. Information is controlled

In the eighties, employees at Lala's shop generally were expolited labour pulled from a disadvantaged pool. There are overtones of bonded labour, an illegal practice.

Meanwhile, Today...

Well educated youth with undergrad degrees or better find themselves stuck in a position similar to the reluctant employees of the Lala ki dukaan at the corner of the market chowk. The lalas too have changed. Gone are the days of the rotund, obscenities yelling business-man in a 30x20 shop. Instead, today we vast have cubicle farms and this...

A Taxonomy

As things settled down in the outsourcing boom town, there seem to be multiple distinct strata of Lala ki Dukaans operating today:

• Tier 1 aka Mass Recruiters with strength of around 2-3L+ bodies
• Tier 2 aka Day-2 Recruiters, strength of around 70k-1.5L bodies
• Tier 3 aka Tail-enders, strength of <70k bodies
• Tier 4 aka The Others with <500 bodies

Within each tier, the "core" culture is more or less the same, there are exceptions and oddities, but more or less the work environment and the way employees are treated remains largely the same. For Tiers 1 through 3, viz. the household names with growing revenues and many long term projects, here is what one might expect, more or less:

• Prompt payment of salary, but expect weird salary structures and variable/performance payout plans
• "meh" yearly hikes, usually barely beating inflation. Expect lesser if there have been big acquisitions or loss of client
• Process in place for almost everthing (this is lesser in Tiers 2 and 3, but a given for all Tier 1s)
• School level time monitoring and a requirement to be in office at xx AM etc (usually project specific)
• The infamous bench -- exists in all three tiers, but Tier 1s have it worst

The Lalas in these strata are line managers or resource managers (if on bench). Employee gripes are often with work hours, assignment to dead-end (no career/technical growth) roles etc. Most places operate like large corporates with lots of lipservice to promoting diversity, employee satisfaction and customer first.

Tier-4s and some of the lesser known and new-to-the-game Tier-3s are a whole another world. These are the Lala ki Dukaans that scare off even the most hardened industry veterans. Incidents such as:

• Intern Fees -- interns are expeceted to pay the company a fee for taking them on. This is enforced by with holding letters of recommendation or the internship experience letter
• Docking of Certifications -- Educational certificates of canadidates are to be deposited with the company on joining for "safekeeping". This is a way to ensure service agreement tenure is completed
• Form16/PF Woes -- Tax deducted but not deposited, getting Form16 requires jumping through hoops etc

are a matter of policy and happen regularly. There are many more isolated issues such as termination of employees on medical leave etc but these are the ones that stand out the most.

Recent Development

As with everything in the "software world", changes are afoot in the taxonomy of LalaCorps too. The lines between tiers are blurring. People that traded "job-security" for career or financial growth are having a rude awakening. All of this leaves one to wonder: Will there ever be a truely Lala free workplace?

Last Updated on 2016-06-14 @ 10:32 IST

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