BANGALORE: Have you ever wondered how you can get off the tyrannical clutches of your boss at work? Now, you have a definitive guide to do just that, thanks to Vijay Nair’s The Boss Is Not Your Friend, which was launched in Reliance Timeout recently.
Published by Hachette India, the book is most likely to deliver on its promises, of resurrecting subjugated managers into corporate freedom. The author, Vijay Nair, who is a proclaimed fiction writer, says that he was inspired to write a book on management, as this genre in India is far away from ground realities. “Working as a management consultant, I travel quite often. While travelling, I chance upon a host of management books that only talk about hard work and success. I wanted to write a book that is closer to ground realities in the Indian management scenario,” he says.
He chose to write about dogmatic bosses due to his personal experiences and those of others. “For the first nine years of my work life, I switched between many organisations and worked under different bosses. Also, as a consultant, I dealt with several CEOs and other heads,” he says, adding that these experiences inspired him to write the book that ‘sees things as is’.
Designed as a handbook for the Indian executives to survive and grow in an increasingly pressure-filled Indian corporate scenario, the book also contains a questionnaire to help readers identify if they are under a feudal boss, or someone nicer. The book, perhaps, is one of its kind, for it tries to address an issue that we grow up hearing and watching about in films. Besides, bosses have never enjoyed a favourable stand among most working members in a family.
Amidst all the talk of a progressive, corporate India, does the traditional dominant boss culture still exist? Yes, thinks Nair. “Companies today are no different than companies two decades earlier. Multinational corporations still function as feudal lords,” said Nair.
Written primarily for managers, Nair hopes that The Boss Is Not Your Friend will act as a self-help book, adding that “It will be different from the others, in that this one will actually help.” The audience members were keen listeners to a post-launch discussion on whether Indian organizations and bosses are still trapped in a feudal world. The discussion involved Abhijit Bhaduri, author of the best-selling Mediocre But Arrogant and Prof Vasanthi Srinivasan, associate professor, IIM Bangalore, who has authored Married But Available.
Vijay Nair holds a postgraduate diploma in personnel management and industrial relations, and works as an organisation coach and consultant, fiction writer, columnist and theatre director.
Nair has just finished authoring his second novel The Colour of Kurinji.
“I primarily write fiction. My second novel is complete, and should be out next year,” he said.
