The corporate world through the eyes of Alice

Some fixes for the challenges of life amid the tricky thickets of the modern-day office, spotted in a popular literary classic

I was introduced to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by a Catholic nun in Loreto Convent in Sealdah, Kolkata. In fact, I distinctly remember that I was awarded a first prize for an English recitation, when I was in Class II (Incidentally, that happened to be my the first and last prize in academics).

The book, which largely belongs to the genre of ‘literary nonsense’, took me to a surreal world, where, like Alice, I started living in an imaginary world. However, I understood the exact import of the book when I entered the ‘corporate hole’. Unlike the ‘rabbit hole’ into which Alice fell that took her into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures, the fantasy world here was populated by a different species – people often revelled in finding opportunities to put you down and show you your place or in cornering all the praise for your good work. Your colleagues are always on the lookout to find a chink in your armour to be exploited at an opportune time. The corporate climate generally seems to favour the ones that are devious and manipulative. One is always fearful of the people who surround you. After all, as the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass said, “it is better to be feared than loved”!

However, undeterred by what was happening in my surroundings, I decided to put the lessons learnt from the books to proper use. You may wonder how I survived, when the whole corporate world seemed stacked against me. It is here that Alice’s exploits came to my rescue.

To be successful in the corporate world, one of the first lessons to learn is to communicate well. You should always avoid committing yourself, or for that matter, saying things that leave any room for misinterpretation. For instance, always ‘say what you don’t mean’ and ‘mean what you don’t say’. After all, as March Hare told Alice, saying “I see what I see” and “I eat what I see” are not the same! Many of our politicians have successfully followed this to the ‘T’, and can rarely be caught on the wrong foot.

Another vital lesson that I learnt was from the Red Queen: “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” Oh man! Run I did, often finding myself like Alice at the same place. It is better to remain where you are as promotions are directly linked to your seniority. Why exert yourself?

However, one area where I could genuinely contribute was by helping the new hires to help find a purpose and direction in life. Who can forget the sage advice given by the Cheshire cat when Alice asked him which road she should take? “That depends a good deal where you want to go,” replied the cat. “I don’t much care where...”, said Alice. “Then it does not matter which way you go.” The Cheshire cat’s sage advice came in handy to all those who did not have a vision in their lives.

Finally, I decided to bear with all the insane people causing havoc in my life. It is here that the cat’s advice to Alice came in handy: “All of us are mad, or we wouldn’t have come here!” As Alice wisely said, “Our life gets curiouser and curiouser.”