Employees first, customers second

It’s not important to be called the boss in the work place. What is needed today, especially with a younger workforce, is a sound participative culture

Two years back at the Frankfurt airport, I struck up a conversation with a German gentleman who looked a bit ruffled at the flight delay announcement. He told me how critical it was for him to reach his company headquarters in Berlin to precipitate an “employee impasse.” As I probed further, I realised much to my shock that the “impasse” had to do with a group of young campus hires, who had decided to protest against their manager’s lack of respect for “their space”.

This was getting interesting, so I asked him to tell me about what they meant by “space.” I remember he took a full minute and two to describe the situation, which looked to me an issue of micro-management.

We live in strange times, I thought to myself. When these same youngsters demand “space” at home, we bend over...