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But what is SEBI? Who is helping you with your matters? Who is updating you on the regulations?
The team of employees working at SEBI. They could give you the best services and meet your expectations only if provided with a peaceful and healthy work environment.
However, as per one of the letters dated August 06, 2024, employees were concerned about being provided with a toxic work culture. That letter addressed to the Finance Ministry brought into light major concerns like:
- Public humiliation and shouting during meetings.
- Use of unprofessional language and name-calling by leaders.
- Unrealistic work targets that increased by 20-50%, raising anxiety and stress.
- Invasive tracking of minute-to-minute activities of employees.
However, the latest press release by SEBI showed the other side of the picture highlighting unrealistic demands of employees regarding promotions and increase in HRA.
Let’s look into the details of concerns raised by employees and what SEBI said about this.
What SEBI Employees Reveal About the Toxic Work Culture?
SEBI employees, after bearing a lot for months, finally raised their voices in a letter titled “Grievances of SEBI Officers – A Call for Respect!”
In that letter, they opened up and highlighted some major concerns like shouting, scolding, and public humiliation by leaders during meetings.
Currently, 1,067+ employees are working in SEBI, and the shocking part is that 500 employees signed the letter. Out of these 75% are above 30 years and around 40% alone are above 40 years.
Hence it seems that these employees have taken an independent decision and didn’t get misinfluence by any of their co-workers trying to build negativity.
Also, after a month of sending a letter, SEBI released a press-release document on September 04, post which around 500 employees gathered outside the SEBI office to protest for the same, and along with other concerns raised in the letter they also demanded the resignation of SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch.
Here are some of the highlighted concerns raised by SEBI’s employees in the letter:
- Shouting, Screaming & Use of Unprofessional Language
In the letter, employees highlighted how senior leaders, and authorities use unprofessional language, call out names, and keep track of minute-to-minute activities of employees. and unrealistic targets provided to the team.
At the same time, they raised concerns about how the senior management had forgotten to adopt best-in-class management, leadership, and motivational practices.
However, raising the concern might have helped. As per emails dated September 3, SEBI representatives mentioned that they had addressed this issue and made certain changes in the format of review meetings.
- Setting Up of Unrealistic Targets
As per the letter, employees raised concern about the increased KRA (Key Research Area) targets by 20-50% and they were asked to achieve them by December. These unrealistic targets have only increased stress and anxiety among employees.
Now these KRAs are set based on employee level, experience, qualifications, and other parameters. Along with that, the targets are set based on the financial year.
However, as per the letter, employees raised the concern that these targets were distributed after a quarter of the financial year and asked to complete it by December instead of March.
This has raised the work pressure, work-life balance, and also the mental health of many employees.
Also, the letter mentioned that the internal mental counseling department which used to receive fewer visits in a month has seen a drastic change in the last few months.
However, how much it is true can’t be judged or commented on.
- Micromanagement and an Eye on Minute-to-Minute Activities
They also pointed toward technological advancements to improve work efficiency in SEBI, which is undoubtedly at its peak. But some of the advancements are done to monitor the activities of employees which is causing trouble for some.
Some of the policies being introduced are not in the favor of employees and have built unrealistic pressure.
One such is the installation of turnstile gates installed to keep check in the intra-day activities of employees and to control day-to-day movements. However, the employees raised the concern mentioning that these gates have posed challenges for visually impaired employees.
The SEBI spokesperson addressed this issue but stated that the gates were recently installed and that the requirements of employees will be reviewed after 6 months.
The above points depict that there are some concerns regarding the unhealthy work culture. Now considering these points it seems that employees have been provided with an unhealthy work culture.
However, in response, SEBI’s press release highlights the other side.
HRA Issue Misguided and Target Credibility of SEBI?
As per the Press Release, SEBI employees organized a 15-minute protest over the grievances regarding a 55% increase in House Rent Allowance & work culture.
But the media presented it in another way highlighting the working conditions which prompted some of the employees to shift their narrative to gain leverage.
Now as per SEBI, the protest was raised to:
- Increase HRA
- Automatic promotions without interviews
- Bring changes in working culture.
SEBI acknowledged the above issues and responded through a press release covering the following details.
- Demand for Unrealistic Hike in HRA & Promotion Without Interview
As per the press release document, SEBI mentioned that employees are demanding a 55% increase in HRA which is unreasonable as SEBI employees are already better paid off, including the entry-level employees who are getting up to ₹34 lakhs per annum
This demand for employees would only add to the cost and is not at all justified. Further, employees demanded automatic promotion at lower performance ratings without interviews.
- Introduction of Certain System Was Done to Increase Efficiency
Further SEBI defended its work culture by mentioning some of the initiatives taken in the last 2-3 years like KRA and the use of Management Information System (MIS) just to enhance accountability, productivity, and transparency.
This is done after considering some of the cases like:
- External Influence & Employee Trust
SEBI also expressed its concern that external elements might be encouraging junior officers to escalate matters to the media.
At the same time, several employee groups criticized the information leaks and expressed their trust in SEBI’s leadership and their commitment to solving internal problems.
SEBI raised concerns that the letter dated August 06, 2024, was not sent by the SEBI employees or their associations. Instead, it was an anonymous email that was circulated.
SEBI officers and associations condemned this act and communicated their disapproval to the HR Department through emails.
Why Was This Issue Brought to the Media Instead of Being Resolved Internally?
The recent conflict between SEBI employees and leadership has exposed significant concerns within the organization.
While employees have raised serious allegations about toxic work culture, public humiliation, and unrealistic performance expectations, SEBI has defended its policies, highlighting measures taken to improve productivity and accountability.
But the question here is why this matter has been brought to the media.
Why do employees have to raise this concern to the Finance Ministry?
SEBI although a regulatory body works like any other company having senior, middle management and employees. Any concern at any level is first raised internally to the senior and on not getting a satisfactory response it is raised to a stakeholder, which is the Finance Ministry in this case.
So the letter to the Finance Ministry indicates that SEBI failed to provide a better solution to its employees.
Well, let’s consider the key aspect, of how the company must work to provide a healthy and motivating work environment to its employees.
- Any company hires a person as per the requirement by looking at their background, qualifications, and past performance. Along with this, an expectation is set right in the beginning from each employee.
- Companies are responsible for training their employees to get the expected results from them.
- The expected KRA is set right at the beginning of the financial year to make sure that the quality of work is not affected.
- Along with this, it is the responsibility of the company’s management to identify people spreading toxicity or negativity in the work culture and take respective initiatives like orientation, counseling, etc.
Now, does SEBI follow all these to provide a better work environment and to prevent negative bubbles among employees?
As per the news, it seems that SEBI failed to address these issues at a smaller level which has led to the protest of employees for the first time in the history of the stock market.
Is SEBI Under-Employed?
Last but not least, in our opinion, SEBI is understaffed with only 1.067 employees as compared to the workload on the firm. This is depicted from the cases raised where solving the case related to registered entities takes around 6-8 months and on the other hand, for complaints raised against unregistered entities, SEBI takes around 6-8 months to give its first response.
And if we consider unreported issues, where SEBI can take action on a suo-moto basis this looks almost impossible.
This directly indicates there are fewer employees than required and the existing employees are facing a workload the issue is not of today but existed in SEBI for decades.
However, SEBI has regularly hired Grade-A officers since March 2024. Now these hiring are related to the current matter or SEBI is considering increasing its employment, which can be disclosed later only.
