Man Calls Out ‘Leaders’ Who Shout At Colleagues, Internet Reacts

The corporate work environment in India is far from ideal. The culture of unquestioned obedience towards one’s boss often perpetuates a toxic work environment where company top-shots get the pass to shout at their teammates. This verbal abuse is often unchallenged even if it comes at the cost of low morale amongst employees. Recently, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur called out corporate ‘leaders’ for resorting to shouting at their workplace instead of communicating calmly. Arindam Paul, who works at a home appliance business Atomberg, argued that bosses who can publicly humiliate their employees should not be tolerated.

He wrote, “Anyone who shouts at colleagues/team members has no business being a leader. And no business being in a corporate set up. Do not normalise shouting in organisations. If you get shouted at, call it out. Just because 20 years back, it was glorified in many orgs by many leaders doesn’t make it right. Be aggressive, not rude. Be aggressive with action, not voice.”

This prompted many people to share stories about their “horrible bosses”. An X user wrote, “I still remember this incident when a discussion with my sourcing head (20 years of experience) over landing price of certain commodities turned into an altercation when he started shouting on me just because he thought I was too young to be a category manager, good that my manager stepped in and saved him from getting fired. People shout when they can’t logically argue or when their ego gets hurt, no place for such behaviour in today’s day and age.”

Another wrote, “The first manager I had, his communication language was shouting and insulting on the department floor. This was a famous financial services co. and went on for 2 years. People would join and quit in a week due to his shouting. A 12 member team always had >60% folks on resignation.”

An X user shared how he changed his behaviour after he was called out by his team for being a “shouter”. He wrote, “I used to be a shouter, just 2 years ago. Got told by my team that they can’t take it anymore and then I changed. The shouting habit came from crazy pressure to perform, which I realised is not worth it for me, so I decided I’m going to grow at a pace that I can.”

Today in many workplaces, shouting at colleagues or team members is deemed as harassment or verbal abuse which is against the company’s code of conduct.