‘You owe me one!’ — The Bureaucracy of Corporate Favours

‘You owe me one.’ The remark has been commoditized through overuse. The generosity of people in receiving and lending favours baffles me. But, just like all good things, the arrangement comes at a price.

A year ago, when my boss wanted an app to be tested expediently, he called his colleague. I vaguely heard the voice of the testing lead who simply announced to my boss, ‘The count is 12 now.’ On voicing my confusion, I was apprised of a revelation, one that uncomplicated the ‘generosity of people these days’. Turns out that to get a job done on time, my boss uses his quota of ‘corporate favours’. In return, he simply reciprocates the benevolence with a drink. The monthly membership to this exclusive privilege costs my boss roughly 10,000 bucks. That’s a small price to pay to incentivize people to do their own job, isn’t it? Maybe. But is the amount justified in fuelling the bureaucratic IOUs of corruption? Isn’t it essentially a bribe as viewed by 40% of respondents of EY’s 2018 Global Fraud Survey, India? Well, even the officer that verified my passport documents asked me for some ‘chai-paani’. At least he wasn’t cryptic about it!

Contrary to some utilitarian opinions, I believe that bribe, of any kind, is unethical. Firms must fight the bureaucracy of ‘corporate favours’ by educating their employees on where to draw the line. After all, drinking happily with a colleague and drinking to make a colleague happy are two different things.