Disney+Hotstar recently released a pre-taped comedy special Working Hard by the Job (sponsored by naukri.com), in which five Indian comedians performed 15-minute sets based on their past work-lives in sales, IT, business management, investment banking, etc. During her set, comedian and former category head Prashasti Singh said that after watching her colleague prepare a 10-point summary of an incomprehensible work meeting, she was convinced that the most unexpected things in life can still happen: for example, they can find romance. “There will be a person in your life who will need you day and night, who will keep calling you and messaging you,” said Singh. “Of course, that person will be your manager.”
Prashasti Singh
Nishant Suri, who worked as an investment banker before taking up comedy full-time, joked that his job satisfaction directly depended on how happy his boss’s marriage was. “Now I have to manage my boss’s marital happiness along with my job!”
It is instructive that for these comedians, the image of the corporate boss – angry, irrational and resentful – has replaced the eccentric (and/or demanding) wife as the comic target-in-chief. The latter was the mainstay of every aspiring Indian comedian, not to mention some established comedians who have been quite happy to tell one ‘meri patni’ joke after another. This shift is indicative of the fact that young Indians, especially professionals working in the corporate space, are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their working lives.
Earlier, workplace jokes were witty comments on the new terms coined by the corporate world from time to time: ‘core competencies’, ‘blue sky thinking’, and so on. Now, even a cursory look at hardly working That tells you what’s going on in the minds of these young professionals: unnecessary meetings, salaries that have barely increased in a decade or more, bosses abusing their juniors in broad daylight, no hope of career growth, hectic work lives that ruin any chance of a social life these people have. The list of complaints is long and reprehensible.
Nishant Suri
Humor is no longer gentle
hardly working This is the latest manifestation, but the case has been cold for several years. OfficeDespite not being particularly well written, it found a place in the hearts of audiences. Mr. Das (2019), Cubicle (2019), pitcher (2015-) and Better Life Foundation (2016-) all used workplace humour – it has to be said that it was light humour, but the tone of these shows has been getting darker over time. And this is a phenomenon that can be seen in other Indian TV shows as well, even in stories where the workplace conflict is not relevant to the plot at all.
One of the most shared scenes the family manThis is from the third episode of the second season of Amazon’s spy thriller, starring Manoj Bajpayee. It features Bajpayee’s spy character, Srikant, now working hard at a regular corporate workplace, albeit with an unpleasant twist – his manager, who is much younger than him, keeps insulting and yelling at him. One day, Srikant feels enough is enough and slaps the horrified manager multiple times in a row in front of the entire office, before he throws his ID card at the now crying manager and announces ‘I quit!’
I can tell you that I have watched this scene anywhere from one to 17 times, and many of my peers (i.e., film critics) have called it an emotional, standout moment for the show. It is worth noting that none of us feel bad for the guy who has just been beaten up in his own office. Such a consensus is rarely reached among any group of critics, especially Indians who come from different languages, cultures, etc.
Evidence of dissatisfaction
When I was laughing at some jokes hardly workingI was conscious of the extent of our discontent. If you think about it, the presence of so many former corporate giants among Indian comedians itself tells you that millions of people in our country are in jobs they have no interest in or commitment to. They are doing so out of dire circumstances, because they know how bad the job market is in India right now.
This in itself should be scary for all those who want us to soon be free from India’s eternal tag of a ‘developing country’.
The author and journalist is working on his first non-fiction book.
