India's garment factories struggle to attract educated workers and rely on authoritarian management, including physical discipline. A former team leader admitted using intimidation at home and resented not being able to do so at work. The speaker argues upskilling workers is the only way to break this cycle and improve productivity.
The garment industry is a very harsh business. At least in India, it is subject to poorly educated people. There's a lot of violence. In the past, I've known places where— and I've had one of our team leaders resign. And when he left, we're like, okay, get out, but tell us why is it that you refuse to work in this manner with certain people? And he very openly told us, he's like, you know, when I go home, I have my wife, my daughter, my sister, my this, my that. When I say something, they do. If they don't do it, I beat them. Here you don't allow me to beat people. You don't even allow me to shout at them with a very high tone of voice, how can I ever achieve any results? How do you find high-quality labor? Finding high-quality labor is not a luxury that we can afford. Most of the people who apply for jobs in this company don't even know the name of the company they're applying to. This is the kind of people that we work with, and understanding that is key to succeeding because upskilling these people is the only thing that will help this industry.
