Mumbai techie shares how annual awards at work exposed harsh reality of corporate life
A Mumbai techie questioned an internal award after a fresher won a team prize. The Reddit post sparked wider discussion on favouritism and the value of workplace recognition.
A Mumbai techie shared how an internal award ceremony at his company left him questioning whether workplace recognition is always based on merit, after a fresher who had joined just months earlier walked away with a prize that he felt more deserving colleagues had missed out on.
The techie shared his experience in a post on Reddit's r/IndianWorkplace forum titled, "Corporate Politics is so much unfair and the worst. Saw it recently first time during an internal award ceremony."
According to the techie, his team recently held its annual awards ceremony, which included a category called "Spark of the Team" with three winners. While he said two of the recipients had rightfully earned the recognition through their contributions, the third winner came as a surprise.
Referring to the employee as "S", the techie explained that she had joined the company in October through a referral from a senior manager and had been hired for a cloud project as a fresher.
He claimed that the employee lacked even some basic networking knowledge when she joined and frequently relied on the same senior manager for help with day-to-day tasks. According to him, the manager patiently guided her through assignments and explained even fundamental concepts, while behaving rudely and dismissively when other team members approached him with doubts.
The techie alleged that the manager had effectively turned the employee into his "personal assistant" and said he was shocked when she was announced as one of the winners of the "Spark of the Team" award.
He clarified that he had nothing against the employee personally and acknowledged that everyone starts somewhere. However, what disappointed him most, he said, was what he perceived to be a disconnect between the award criteria and the actual efforts put in by other colleagues, some of whom he believed had contributed far more throughout the year but received no recognition.
He ended his post by asking whether others had witnessed situations where visibility, connections or favouritism appeared to matter more than performance when it came to awards and recognition.
Take a look at the post here:
The post sparked a wider discussion on workplace politics and the value of internal awards.
Some users argued that such accolades should not be taken too seriously, saying companies often use them as tools to influence employee morale rather than genuinely reward performance.
Others claimed that organisations sometimes hand out what they described as "symbolic" awards to compensate for shortcomings elsewhere, including pay disparities and unequal treatment, suggesting that the most hardworking employees are not always the ones who receive public recognition.
Several commenters also advised professionals not to tie their self-worth to company awards. They suggested focusing instead on building skills, charting a clear career path and choosing roles and companies that align with long-term goals rather than seeking validation through internal recognition programmes.
While opinions differed, many agreed that the techie's experience reflected a reality that employees across industries have encountered at some point, where recognition and visibility do not always appear to go hand in hand with effort and contribution.
A Mumbai techie shared how an internal award ceremony at his company left him questioning whether workplace recognition is always based on merit, after a fresher who had joined just months earlier walked away with a prize that he felt more deserving colleagues had missed out on.
The techie shared his experience in a post on Reddit's r/IndianWorkplace forum titled, "Corporate Politics is so much unfair and the worst. Saw it recently first time during an internal award ceremony."
According to the techie, his team recently held its annual awards ceremony, which included a category called "Spark of the Team" with three winners. While he said two of the recipients had rightfully earned the recognition through their contributions, the third winner came as a surprise.
Referring to the employee as "S", the techie explained that she had joined the company in October through a referral from a senior manager and had been hired for a cloud project as a fresher.
He claimed that the employee lacked even some basic networking knowledge when she joined and frequently relied on the same senior manager for help with day-to-day tasks. According to him, the manager patiently guided her through assignments and explained even fundamental concepts, while behaving rudely and dismissively when other team members approached him with doubts.
The techie alleged that the manager had effectively turned the employee into his "personal assistant" and said he was shocked when she was announced as one of the winners of the "Spark of the Team" award.
He clarified that he had nothing against the employee personally and acknowledged that everyone starts somewhere. However, what disappointed him most, he said, was what he perceived to be a disconnect between the award criteria and the actual efforts put in by other colleagues, some of whom he believed had contributed far more throughout the year but received no recognition.
He ended his post by asking whether others had witnessed situations where visibility, connections or favouritism appeared to matter more than performance when it came to awards and recognition.
Take a look at the post here:
The post sparked a wider discussion on workplace politics and the value of internal awards.
Some users argued that such accolades should not be taken too seriously, saying companies often use them as tools to influence employee morale rather than genuinely reward performance.
Others claimed that organisations sometimes hand out what they described as "symbolic" awards to compensate for shortcomings elsewhere, including pay disparities and unequal treatment, suggesting that the most hardworking employees are not always the ones who receive public recognition.
Several commenters also advised professionals not to tie their self-worth to company awards. They suggested focusing instead on building skills, charting a clear career path and choosing roles and companies that align with long-term goals rather than seeking validation through internal recognition programmes.
While opinions differed, many agreed that the techie's experience reflected a reality that employees across industries have encountered at some point, where recognition and visibility do not always appear to go hand in hand with effort and contribution.
