Loyalty as a Trap: The Human Cost of Corporate Conditioning
In modern Indian IT companies, loyalty is not just a professional value—it is a currency, a performance metric, and often, a silent expectation embedded in every policy and culture-building initiative. Employees are encouraged to treat their companies as families, to place organizational goals above personal health, time, and even ethics. Through onboarding speeches, motivational campaigns, and internal rituals, this loyalty is cultivated not as a mutual bond, but as a mechanism of control. While corporate loyalty might seem virtuous on the surface, it often becomes a psychological trap—one that exploits emotion, distorts identity, and leads to severe personal and professional costs for the employees entrapped within. 1. The Employee Engagement Illusion At 26, Nidhi, an HR Executive based in Pune, was proud of her role in the Internal Engagement & Culture team of a top-tier Indian IT services firm. Fresh out of B-school and full of optimism, she believed HR had the powe...