This is one of the trigger for initiating the hierarchical environments at the workplace. This continuously reminds us that the hierarchy is not dead, but it has merely changed its form. Whenever I hear employees call their bosses(managers/leads) "sir" or see the employee being subservient while addressing seniors in the company, I see barriers in the communication, indirectly is a barrier to the growth of an organization. This is just one of the many hierarchical practices that are holding back the attitude growth. It is bold given that in India this represents the culture in nearly 90 percent of the companies, despite many IT companies having dropped this formality for years.
Hierarchical work environments are now outdated in IT industry. If an organization wants to grow their business rapidly, they need to create such an environment where everyone is respected and treated equally, rather than just letting people boasting themselves or their seniors instead of the core business. They need to work for themselves not for anyone, ie, work for yourself and work with everyone. This has been discussed enough in the previous post already, so moving on.
This SIR-ing continued despite of me requesting them not to do so. This continued from a car driver to a colleague in the office. Some listened to my request and tried to implement, but that effort lasted only like a minority government of a democratic country, since they were demanded to SIR in the other areas of the organization. It is one of the practice which should be avoided when the teams are built in India, considering the demands of the traditional social environment.
Why SIR? What is the reason behind SIR? thinking about it, it was mostly used to respect people. People's designation, job, money, financial status or age. Saying so, the respect for a person should be based on their values, not by anything else. Very importantly, this respect should be earned, and not demanded.
How to stop this? this habit was tattooed deeply in many minds by the traditional hierarchical structure, this has almost mixed in their blood, hence it is not easy to unplug them from this habit. So, how to stop this? I jokingly started calling my colleagues "sir" as well, in return to their call. Yes, if "sir" was used to respect people, let us respect each other by calling everyone "sir". After all, we should treat everyone equally with respect and obviously we only hire people with good values, so everyone deserves that respect. This counter strike shocked them, but as time went by all got used to it. At one point everyone in the organization called each other "sir". Well, what does SIR mean now?
"By calling everyone as SIR, We all respect each other, we treat everyone as Equal"
or
"If everyone is a SIR, there is no meaning for SIR, the meaning of SIR is negated"
Either way, the goal was achieved by counter striking the SIR (like, shutting down the fire with a counter fire). Calling "sir" and having a flat structure might sound contradictory, but it for sure broke few barriers and the risk of the hierarchical fear. Most importantly, respect for all the employees regardless of the role or title is critical and we could able to promote an environment to challenge anyone's (including the management) views regardless of the title or seniority.
So, Enjoy SIRing with proud (only as a counter fire to shutdown the SIR fire) and without being paranoid about creating a hierarchical environment.
