Everything I am about to narrate from here on are incidents that have occurred in the Mumbai office of 22Feet Tribal Worldwide, which provides digital and mobile branding and marketing solutions for various brands in India and internationally. I worked there briefly.
DDB Mudra, the parent group, and 22Feet Tribal Worldwide have offices in other parts of the country and I cannot speak for the culture over there; but harassment, gaslighting, bullying and inappropriate sexual innuendo were a regular sight and experience in my time at this organisation in Mumbai.
With a well connected dude-bro circle, supported and encouraged by the managing director at the time, Brijesh Jacob, 22Feet’s office was a breeding ground for comments about women’s clothing, what made them look sexy and what didn’t, what shapes of their body looked appealing and in which clothing, and of course, rampant bullying in the name of ‘good humour’.
They did this with men too, but that does not make it okay.
Brij, as he is fondly called, was the resident papa bear who would usually arrive at the office after most of the employees. You knew he’d arrived because he strolled around the office passing comments on whoever was in sight. He’d pick on someone and the chosen one had to do a dance, sing a song or do something absolutely ridiculous to humour the rest of the crowd.
He’d call out to someone and ask, “Sex kiya kya?”
He’d give sermons on how he was toughening us up for what the world would throw at us - this was classic gaslighting and there was zero accountability for all the discomfort and trauma masked in nervous laughter.
They would target people , this dude-bro gang. They’d prey around the office, find one vulnerable link and huddle around this person, making comments about their body weight and shape, asking them about their sex lives or making a mockery out of it.
If this was a man, they’d attach a female co-worker’s name and continue the mockery. If this was a woman, the commentary was about clothing, about her style of talking, about who she went out with on the previous night or what would make her more attractive. I have been a witness and victim to this harassment. Brij was there, leading the crew, ‘toughening us’.
There was a trend of sexualising women at 22Feet. It was the perceived norm to tell us that we looked “sexy” on the day we wore form fitting clothing or that clients would give in to something because ‘so and so is cute’.
Our physical appearance was the currency and our attractiveness or the perceived lack of it could decide our value in this company.
I know of women who were asked if they were wearing tight clothing because they had a client meeting. Comments were passed on the ability to have a boyfriend and what can be done on dates to lure potential partners, on who can be a potential partner in the office.
There was an abundance of uncomfortable sexual innuendo in the name of teasing that you had to participate in or get out of immediately so you don’t get cornered by the dude-bro squad.
One of the members of the tech crew would create snake-like gestures to signify his penis, and the whole crew would laugh. Brij included. He’d call out to someone and say ‘Muh mein le’, and the entire stretch would echo with laughter. Brij included. ‘Speak up for yourself. Give it back!’, he’d say.
How is the onus of rectifying harassment placed on the one being harassed? How is it okay for a man to make gestures about his privates in a professional setting? How is it okay for a boss to encourage this and fail to realise that he is propagating harassment?
Men with accusations of assault hold positions of power in this company. They’ve suffered no consequences, they continue to prosper and progress. Men who have misbehaved, groped, stalked and harassed us during the routine offsite have gotten away because ‘they were too drunk and these things happen’.
It took me a while after I quit to realise how desensitised I had become to the rape culture in this company. I was much younger then, and I thought that this was the flamboyance of advertising.
Brijesh Jacob is a powerful man. He continues to lead the company, he is a Cannes Lion judge and a celebrated figure in the field of digital advertising. He also has no regard and respect for women. He does not hesitate to gaslight or mansplain while giving you a false notion of agency. He will mask all the bullying and harassment in the name of affection. It’s not like he hasn’t received any complaints or he hasn’t seen these features in human interaction.
He just did nothing or was a party to it. He wondered why people felt so intimidated around it but never reflected on what he could do differently or how he could have created a safer environment.
I am afraid of publishing this, the backlash I could get and the harassment that could follow. But I stand by everything I have narrated.
It’s important to identify inappropriate acts in a professional setting. Awareness is imperative.
The world we live in is unsafe for women and in order to protect ourselves, we now refuse to trust. These things happened. There is more that’s happened too but those aren’t my stories to tell. This is not what a workplace should look like. The #TimesUp!
(The author is a former employee of the company and has chosen to remain anonymous.)
22 Feet Worldwide Responds
The Quint reached out to 22 Feet Worldwide on Monday, 8 October, to ask if they were aware of the allegations against their employee and if any action was being taken.
The company’s response:
On Sunday, an accusation of behaviors and actions that violate our code of conduct was levied against an individual at our agency, anonymously via a public post on a social media site. The accusation stands in stark contrast to our values and standards at 22feet Tribal Worldwide and at the DDB Mudra Group more broadly, where it is our primary responsibility and commitment to provide our associates with a safe, fair and dignified workplace. Within hours of being notified yesterday, we initiated the process of verifying the allegations and getting them investigated.