Oppressive, petty, disheartening, regressive, stressful, overburdened, vindictive, unprofessional… these are some of the adjectives used by employees in their letter to the Finance Ministry alleging a “toxic” leadership culture at the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Business Today has gained access to the document which alleges the top SEBI leadership of fostering a toxic work culture. Without naming SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, the letter says the SEBI office has become a “furnace of unrealistic KRA point achievement.”
Citing “unrealistic KRA targets” as one of the two root causes, the letter claims the “KRA targets for this year were increased anywhere around 30%-50% for some departments and divisions.” It adds that the unrealistic targets were not resisted by the senior management to avoid rude and unprofessional retorts from people at the highest level. The employees claim that the unrealistic targets have not only hurt the quality of work but also created stress and anxiety among those who bear the brunt of all the work pushed onto them. This, the letter says has led to “panic addition” instead of “value addition”.
The other root cause according to the letter written to the Finance Ministry is the “mistrust and lack of respect shown at the highest level towards employees”. Employees claim that “over the last two-three years fear has become the primary driving force in SEBI”. The letter says that shouting, scolding and public humiliation have become a norm in meetings, adding that even officers in the highest grades are “afraid to attend meetings fearing for the unquestionably bad behaviour of people at the highest level”.
The letter also accused the hierarchy of showing its mistrust towards employees by installing ‘swing barriers’ to monitor intra-day attendance. The document goes on to describe the work atmosphere as “oppressive”. “Time and time again it has been spoken that SEBI is adopting best-in-class technology to improve efficiency of work done,” according to the letter. “However, the senior management seems to conveniently forget to also adopt best-in-class man management, leadership, and motivation methods towards its employees,” it adds.
“In recent times there has been a tectonic shift in the approach of the management in the way it handles its employees and behaves with them”, the letter further claims.
The explosive allegations end with a slice of poetry: “Baat hasraton ki nahi, baat izzat ki hai, Baat kaam ki nahi, par karane ke tareeqe ki hai, Humne nahi chahaa tha ke baat iss mod pe aaye, Par ab baat humse hamara SEBI cheen lene ki hai”. (It’s not about desires, it is about honour. The issue is not about work, it is about the way we work. We did not want the situation to come to this pass, but now our SEBI is being snatched from us)
Meanwhile, two SEBI employee unions – SEBI Employee Association (SEA) and the SEBI Employee Association for Legal Stream (SEALS) – have strongly condemned the= reports of internal discontent as “misinformation” and described the claims against the hierarchy as “misplaced” and the voices of “a few disgruntled persons”. The unions, which account for around 80 per cent of SEBI workforce, say SEBI is committed to transparency, accountability, and consultative processes in its operations and HR policies.
The stark divisions within the capital and commodities markets regulator has only added another angle to the flak its chief Madhabi Puri Buch is taking from all sides. The 58-year old former banker has faced a litany of allegations in the past month.
In a report on Aug 10, Hindenburg Research accused her of conflict of interest in SEBI’s probe against the Adani Group. This was followed by the Congress party alleging that Buch drew a salary and got ESOPs from ICICI Bank and its group companies even after taking on her responsibilities at SEBI. Subhash Chandra, the Zee group founder has also accused her of “corruption” and preventing the Zee-Sony merger from taking shape.
A response from SEBI is awaited and the copy will be updated once it is available.
