My Monthly Salary
June 13, 2012 in Uncategorized
I think an individual’s monthly salary is what is ruling the world today. In my journey of making LUCIA I have understood how much importance an individual gives to the words – ‘My Monthly Salary’. I haven’t till date had the opportunity to fully enjoy the luxury of a monthly salary. I had it for a very brief period, for 5 months in 2006 and I honestly feel that those 5 months were my lazy days and time that was wasted, I made no progress in life in those 5 months. But that is just me, I have had a weird lifestyle and a career. I honestly wonder how it works for everyone. A monthly salary is a duvet. You for sure know that whether the work you are doing fails or succeeds, you are going to get the monthly salary. Isn’t it right? Yes I agree that if the performance of an individual is not good or progressive, they get fired. But in today’s times I think getting fired is not so scary anymore. Job hopping seems to be part of the game.
My reason to write this or even think about it is because with LUCIA I am ending up having a whole lot of meetings with people in corporate offices and I am seeing a different work culture in there. In the last 10 years I had to move my ass and work pretty hard to afford to pay my monthly bills. I mean every month was and still is a war. I don’t know how I will pay my bills next month and that makes me think and helps me do new stuff, thankfully I enjoy the process, I am not complaining about it. The whole uncertainty of my life gives me an opportunity to come up with new work, which I must do and succced to pay my bills. I am quite lucky that I am stubborn, and that my mind doesn’t let me do something else or something easy to get the money. I only think and work in the areas of my interest, which in the last 7 years has been FILMS.
Anyway, in the process of trying to get sponsorships I am having lots of meetings with the employees of big MNC’s. The blunt truth is that all these people are just enjoying their salaries. I am wondering if this article will come across as my ramblings because of some rejections I am facing on the sponsorship front. That is not my intention, I am only making an honest disassociated observation. I guess an example from Lifeu Ishtene would make you understand what I am trying to say.
A BIG Brand (not taking name to avoid being sued) was part of in-film branding for Lifeu Ishtene, I am sure many of you didn’t even notice that brand, thanks to the agency and the people in the agency. My producer got some money from the deal, but what did BIG Brand get? NOTHING. If I was the owner of BIG Brand I’d be pretty pissed off with this investment. As a director and the writer who knew every detail of the script, I had offered multiple branding ideas to the representatives of the BIG Brand, this whole deal was happening through an agency. So some salaried guy at the agency takes my proposal, puts his master mind into it and says X is wrong and Y is good. I try to tell him that X is good for the brand but the agency guy wants to throw his power around and says that it is either Y or no deal at all. Now, I am the kind of guy who would not like to take the money from BIG Brand and give them no branding at all. I want the guy who owns the BIG Brand to be happy with me for what I did for his brand in return for the money he invested in my project. But I am never given an opportunity to meet that BIG guy, it is always the salaried employees in an agency who inturn are discussing with the salaried employes of the BIG Brand. The BIG guy from the BIG brand (who is responsible for the money) and Me (the director of the film) never get to meet. A few weeks passed by and my producer came in with a signed contract, I looked into it and wanted to laugh. BIG Brand was giving us money for 5 things that I had to incorporate in the movie. And just by reading those pointers I knew that BIG Brand was losing money. I tried to tell this to the agency but they said a contract is a contract and I have to simply follow it. We followed it. Did the brand make anything out of it, I don’t think so. Was there an opportunity to make something good out of it – YES, BIG TIME! These guys who were representing the brand and who had spoken to me as though they are concerned about the brand, left the agency and moved to better paying jobs in some other agency even before the movie released. They didn’t have any personal responsibility on what had happen to the money the brand had invested in. I got the money for the producer and yet I felt bad for the Brand. There was so much more I could have given them, if not for those salaried employes.
I feel that a job shouldn’t be just about salaries. It should be more than that, right? I am facing something similar with LUCIA as well. The salaried employee has nothing to lose, they will get their salary irrespective of what happens, and if they are blamed, they will simply move to another job. I was discussing about this with some of the guys in senior positions in the management and they said that this was the growing trend. Simply do the job by the book, file the results, take the salary. No one takes the risk of trying out something new, to fight with the people in the higher positions. Everyone is trying to impress the person above them, even if they know that it is wrong.
I guess there is another side to this, no matter how hard the guy works he is only given his monthly salary, no perks no recognition, so he eventually loses interest and doesn’t feel responsible for the growth or the progress of the company or the brand.
Its a strange world. Not everyone can work for passion and not everyone can work for salaries. The guy who takes a salary and feels protected, doesn’t show much interest in the growth of the company (I am not saying everyone is like this, but I met many in the last 4 months, and they all came across as people with this attitude). On the other hand, my team in LUCIA is purely in for the passion and the madness, there is no salary, I mean there is no money at all. All of us are somehow surviving and putting in all the time and the money into the movie, and yet everyone’s thought is so progressive.
Want to end this article with an example. My associate director – Mahesh, told me about some costumes that had to be sent for washing. I told him to let the costume department know about it and they would get it washed, saying that I left from the office and was wondering if I should just take them home and put it in the machine myself, but didn’t act on that thought. Later in the evening Mahesh and I met again and I asked him if he got the costume dept to come in and take care of the washing. And the answer was shocking! Mahesh called the guy but he was going to charge 400 bucks to do the job. Mahesh on his own decided to save that 400 bucks from the little fund that we have to make this film, so he buys a sachet of washing powder and washes the costumes. He didn’t even consult me about this, it was his own decision. I was willing to pay the 400 bucks for washing if I was asked but I really respect his initiative because it is progressive. we have 51lakh and 400rs is a small amount, and yet he valued that. My team knows that we are making a BIG movie with very little funds and I am glad that they have taken the situation so seriously that they make decisions like these on their own. This is the kind of the involvement that I found lacking in the people I am meeting in well paying jobs.
Is a monthly salary making people lazy and depriving them of the need to work towards progress and innovation? Many a times I miss the comfort of a monthly salary, but the kick I derive in resolving the challenges seem more comforting. This is what I am saying now, I hope I say the same thing a year or a decade later 
Interesting ! I agree with you!!! Some great guy said this in my college days. “Real Innovation happens at slums where people have to earn there bread everyday”.
I follow every post of urs and every move that u do in LUCIA.. i came across the same feeling about monthly salary thing.. i felt we are working like machines(No life). I always wanted to be a good film maker… i look forward for ur reply
This is something you realise as you move up in the career. Particularly in corporate culture this is done by people who are not appreciated at the right time. A few others do intentionally as they love being lazy. Most of the cases I think people never wanted to do that job and are doing because they have to earn bread hook or crook. Well nothing is as perfect as we want to be as the requirement of each person differs. Never place the bone so high that the dog can never get it, reward for each jump and that’s only when people don’t get bored and always show a target+reward for achieving it. I know this whole comment is so scattered but that’s how complicated the topic is. At the end any person would perform their best if they have a real necessity of that job.
Passion + Concern
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind-Aristotle
this is one of my fav quote!
Pawan, I would like to make one point here, The people who are getting salary are the people, like in you example the person who cleans the costumes(If in case the costumes were given to the dry cleaners). He will not be interested in depth or interest of saving your money or working out things which can be done in a better way. because he is not a part of Lucia. the same holds here , agents/people/workers wont be having the sense or feeling of its “their own company” will be only bothered about salary and would be least interested in the growth of the company. Mahesh here is a part of Lucia so he works for the betterment of his project. What I’m trying to tell, does it makes sense?
Anyways good writing bro. Everyone are not so lucky to work in the field of passion.
This is at the core of what we are losing as a country. From a very dedicated, loyal and ethical work culture to make-something-up, show-something-off and move on work culture.
As a startup it is critical for us to build a great culture. I had my share of hair pulling frustrations with few people we hired – mostly not about their capabilities but how much they put it into use. As a nation we are probably losing more from not putting in our skills to use and wasting it out sitting in plush chairs & AC rooms.
I have been extremely lucky that the current team we have is super motivated. People come up with great ideas. There are many washing-clothes instances everyday with people taking ownership in getting a whiteboard up on the wall to notifying our clients of a technology problem they noticed when our buck could have stopped at marketing services.
I think the problem is scaling. I have worked in a company with a cult like culture of ownership, innovation & excellence. The culture broke down with lateral hires. Company hired college freshers – they were mostly influenced by the seniors in the company who were all the cult followers. Once there was a rotten apple – slowly things disintegrated and broke down. Guess it is a hard thing to do for people in this age when ethics and moral obligation are hitting rock bottom.
Pawan,
You hit the bull’s eye! Unless something arrives to a state of need, we don’t act. By working on our own (not being salaried by someone else) we carry the responsibility to drive things end to end and that is what keeps the fire in us alive! We don’t get paid unless we complete something on “the day”. I have been on my own, been salaried, worked as a free lancer as well in the last 10 years. In my experience, the joy of earning the money from the client is great! I have enjoyed doing it every time.
But there is a flip side to it (just like everything else on this world). Some businesses have this nature of not paying right and someone who is on his own in those fields should be God’s best friend to survive..
Nice article Pawan..
Corporate world is tooo big to compare with your unit and judge about passion towards work and progress/innovation..
Your unit feels it is their movie and hence the excellent team work – thanks to you for being able to bring that feel in them.. That is the thing lacking in the corporate world. The way employers care for their employees over the years has changed to a great extent..
And as you rightly pointed out – even people who are bringing value are not given anything except monthly salary. Wish everyone were creative or had options to make their own ways to lead a content life.
Corporates are living in the world of PROCESSES, WORKFLOWS and POLICIES and might be losing on some things but without these, it is hard to manage such a huge number of people… assume your team growing 10 fold in the next 2-3 years – you will not be able to say the same thing about passion.
Having said these, the answer is no for – “Is monthly salary making people lazy and depriving them of the need to work towards progress and innovation?”
.. When you look at individual teams at the granular level there is hard work, there is progress and there is innovation.
It is more like people are not able to do what they would like to do but no job pays to be lazy.
All I can say is that, we need to learn to own what we do and take responsibility for it. Our generation is impatient and wants everything without any effort and responsibility. Each of us should take out an hour every week and think of how we are adding value to our lives and to the lives of people we know. If we do not do this the world will never become a livable place.
I agree with you Pawan, A person will try to save his company money only when authority will able to make him feel that it is his company too…
Usually when a fresher out from any college, will have that feeling and tries to save his company money. But his higher official will make a move to disappoint them. And that leads to work for salary attitude.
take your own example, when Mr. Mahesh said you about his decision of washing by him self, instead of appreciation if you said ‘why you did that, i would have paid for that right? you do your job.’ then never in life he will try to save your money. he will work for his salary.
My opinion is work for salary culture is usually initiate by authority not by employees.
I love your movies. Egeega kannadadalli olle cinema thumba aproopa aagbitide. Batru shuru maadidna neev continue madtha idira. all the best. neev olle cinema kotre naav kanditha nodtheve. bari kathi long hidkondre nodoke manase baralla. haage olle songs na kooda kodi..
inti Kannada cinema abhimaani,
KrishnaPrasad Bhat
Nice article pawan…
You have revealed the truth which is hidden under the Ash..
I realized this fact very soon after joining an IT company.
The monthly salaried people settle themselves into a comfort zone where they can easily spend time without being hard working and being less creative. The impatience is one of the factors which makes people to pull themselves down from being innovative.
Innovation needs lot of patience, time and support from people. Money doesn’t matter as long as you are confident on your abilities. People who have patience and time does not get support from the people and will be forced to join the monthly salaried group. People who get support from people lose patience over time and in turn confidence on themselves. May be it is due to lack of good guidance also.
As per my opinion, If you are taking a different route to achieve you passion, you have to be financially strong and your family should be less dependent on you since there is always a risk in finding a treasure.
Dear pavan,
while i agree to some of your points, I think you have got your basic premise wrong. The point is more about passion and morality rather than about Salaries. Your assistant did the job because he was passionate about the end result. He would have done the same with or without a 5-digit salary only because he was passionate about what he was doing. Unlike the “salaried guy” from the big company. Even though he doesn’t like his job, he was supposed to do a moral thing which he did not(Unless he had issues of his own/ read as pressures from his boss). Its not because he was paid a very good salary that he did a bad job, its only because he was not passionate about it.. Being secure in life is not a crime. So your idea of salary inversely proportional to interest in the company is wrong according to me
Was the brand MTR ? just curious
Nice article Pawan…
Right now i am in that position only