The Need to Know

A professional life such as mine has many benefits. It has not yet started to sap all my energies, provides enough for a bohemian living and the reason for this post, puts me into contact with people and situations I wouldn't be involved with otherwise.

In the land of desktops, 4 day formals and free coffee, I have observed a certain pattern of trust. If there's a major reorganisation (or even in the worst case retrenchment) in the corp, the word is kept tight. The seniors are called in for a meeting, and the news is let out discreetly. The seniors are instructed to keep it tight, and not to worry, every one's going to know it all in due time. The seniors, armed with the knowledge, either act as instructed or flaunt it, by dropping some hints to drooling subordinates.

The rationale is simple. Or so they say. Seniors have earned the right to hear bad (or good, depending on the point of view) news earlier than the plebeians because they have able to exhibit the right level of prudence, commitment and responsibility in all situations, especially during change. Their work speaks for them and they are secure in their positions. A little change does not bring out the worst in them.

The plebeians are of course different. They are first rate gossip mongers, impulsive and prone to panic. Information cannot be presented in the raw form to them- that will only lead to chaos. Information needs to be filtered, sweetened and then let out in the appropriate hour. It's obvious: they still haven't earned the trust of the golf club.

Is this imagined chaos reason enough for such levels of trust? Maybe not. Maybe this trickle down of information is part of the compensation. The tip gets to know it early. The high ones a little later and then a palatable form is presented to the base.

It is this that riles into my nature. Why is it that we are so afraid of this imagined chaos? Why is that minimum level of trust not there? Why do we keep on justifying protecting and prohibiting flow of information so that there is order?

If it is a form of compensation, then say it as it is. Do not hide under the camouflage of order. The plebeians put in as many hours as does the golf club and if they undertake less responsibility they get a lesser pay too. As being more prudent and reliable, let's be honest: the headlines are made by the golf club, not the Goregaon dweller. The problem is far rooted in the nature of crassness. There is an addiction to holding onto knowledge that should be public. The irony is that it is also our nature to be interested in information that ought not be public by any social norm- who's sleeping with whom, which color of knickers that chick wears and so on.

Trust begets trust. If the tip cannot trust the base, it ought to be time the base stop trusting the tip.