The disconnect is insane
I earn a decent living ~38LPA as a Product Manager at a quick commerce unicorn. I really enjoy the fast pace and it is always a joy working with smart people around you.
I sometimes wonder if the leaders at my org even live in the same reality as us. At work, I come up with realistic delivery estimates and dark store insights which my peers appreciate and support, but there hasn't been one thing that they took seriously and moved ahead with.
The higher-ups constantly push these hilariously out-of-touch metrics, some completely absurd expectations about warehouse packing times, even though the ground staff is already stretched to their absolute limits and more.
The tone deaf suggestions and sarcastic replies in front of other people in my company when we present actual logistical constraints makes me sad beyond belief. It is almost like I give so much of time to this company and although everyone cares about the 10-minute promise but no one cares about the humans doing it.
My leaders constantly try to one-up themselves by promising investors impossible ETAs and laughing in their glass-walled conference walls. Just yesterday they seriously asked why we can't simply deploy drones to bypass Bangalore traffic on a Sunday evening to shave off sixty seconds.
Incidents like these make me want to give up on work. I think the mix of giving all of myself at work(constant weekend war rooms and long hours), endless pressure on my team and the time I spend away from my family and "real" life(not this fake hyper-growth bubble) makes me depressed as fuck.
I am now understanding that you can never be happy in life because you can never have all that you want. You will give up something for the other. You think working at a unicorn will make you feel successful but you will just end up losing your sanity.
My previous manager once said: Do your best and provide the correct things and if the higher-ups don’t support then it is good to give up(haath utha do) coze nothings gonna happen.
And i believe that work is work - better to also focus on other things than just focusing on work.
Everyone tries to solve something to prove that they are working even if the situation is at its best performance.
I know this feeling. The problems that we are trying to solve don't feel like real problems. It feels very superficial. I work in Fintech, a personal lending space. It doesn't feel real when we are optimising for 30% ROI instead of 35% for 5000 loan amount! Earlier I used to think that this problem is with lending space only,but Now I feel it's with most industries.
YOE, are you IC? Exact Team size under you?
The entire existence of these quick commerce companies are not based in reality. I respect that you're trying to give realistic estimates and metrics but the higher ups know that the only way to survive is by making unrealistic promises to customers, investors and employees. So keep doing the good work and stay as long as you're being paid well. But if you're looking for happiness or satisfaction or validation. Find that outside the workplace. Just my honest opinion.
"Decent" living of 38 LPA? 😂😂😂😂
I doubt if one could have financial/time freedom doing a job, business is the only way we could decide what we want to do when we want to do.
I can totally relate to your post, and I'm sad to see the tone deaf way folks react to this post - sir, please refer me. Honestly, Grapevine should give avenues for these folks as well to engage but in different post.
A lot of my work in consulting is about dealing with these solutions and leadership often at best keeps looking for vanity metrics. This helps them to trickle down the larger problems and quantify the larger problems.
In between that our well centered research or insights hardly matter. I used to bring in key insights around operations, delivery, etc and leadership is hardly there with us. It was dismaying for a larger part of my career. And as with everything we also evolve because what I understand is that no one wants well thought out well rounded solutions. Everyone is looking for scale. At scale individual factors don't factor in so much unless you are making a marker like a demographic problem...Applies to politics ..... applies to democracy...just saying.
