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By:

Rahul Kulkarni

30 March 2025 at 3:32:54 pm

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is...

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is allowed… but not really. This is boundary collapse… when a leader’s good intentions unintentionally blur the limits that protect autonomy and rest. When care quietly turns into control Founders rarely intend to micromanage.   What looks like control from the outside often starts as care from the inside. “Let me help before something breaks.” “Let me stay involved so we don’t lose time.” “Loop me in… I don’t want you stressed.” Supportive tone.   Good intentions.   But one invisible truth defines workplace psychology: When power says “optional,” it never feels optional.
So when a client requested a revision, Rohit gently pinged:   “If you’re free, could you take a look?” Of course she logged in.   Of course she handled it.   And by Monday, the cultural shift was complete: Leave = location change, not a boundary.   A founder’s instinct had quietly become a system. Pattern 1: The Generous Micromanager Modern micromanagement rarely looks aggressive. It looks thoughtful :   “Let me refine this so you’re not stuck.” “I’ll review it quickly.”   “Share drafts so we stay aligned.”   Leaders believe they’re being helpful. Teams hear:   “You don’t fully trust me.” “I should check with you before finishing anything.”   “My decisions aren’t final.” Gentle micromanagement shrinks ownership faster than harsh micromanagement ever did because people can’t challenge kindness. Pattern 2: Cultural conditioning around availability In many Indian workplaces, “time off” has an unspoken footnote: Be reachable. Just in case. No one says it directly.   No one pushes back openly.   The expectation survives through habit: Leave… but monitor messages. Rest… but don’t disconnect. Recover… but stay alert. Contrast this with a global team we worked with: A designer wrote,   “I’ll be off Friday, but available if needed.” Her manager replied:   “If you’re working on your off-day, we mismanaged the workload… not the boundary.”   One conversation.   Two cultural philosophies.   Two completely different emotional outcomes.   Pattern 3: The override reflex Every founder has a version of this reflex.   Whenever Rohit sensed risk, real or imagined, he stepped in: Rewriting copy.   Adjusting a design.   Rescoping a task.   Reframing an email. Always fast.   Always polite.   Always “just helping.” But each override delivered one message:   “Your autonomy is conditional.” You own decisions…   until the founder feels uneasy.   You take initiative…   until instinct replaces delegation.   No confrontation.   No drama.   Just quiet erosion of confidence.   The family-business amplification Boundary collapse becomes extreme in family-managed companies.   We worked with one firm where four family members… founder, spouse, father, cousin… all had informal authority. Everyone cared.   Everyone meant well.   But for employees, decision-making became a maze: Strategy approved by the founder.   Aesthetics by the spouse.   Finance by the father. Tone by the cousin.   They didn’t need leadership.   They needed clarity.   Good intentions without boundaries create internal anarchy. The global contrast A European product team offered a striking counterexample.   There, the founder rarely intervened mid-stream… not because of distance, but because of design:   “If you own the decision, you own the consequences.” Decision rights were clear.   Escalation paths were explicit.   Authority didn’t shift with mood or urgency. No late-night edits.   No surprise rewrites.   No “quick checks.”   No emotional overrides. As one designer put it:   “If my boss wants to intervene, he has to call a decision review. That friction protects my autonomy.” The result:   Faster execution, higher ownership and zero emotional whiplash. Boundaries weren’t personal.   They were structural .   That difference changes everything. Why boundary collapse is so costly Its damage is not dramatic.   It’s cumulative.   People stop resting → you get presence, not energy.   People stop taking initiative → decisions freeze.   People stop trusting empowerment → autonomy becomes theatre.   People start anticipating the boss → performance becomes emotional labour.   People burn out silently → not from work, but from vigilance.   Boundary collapse doesn’t create chaos.   It creates hyper-alertness, the heaviest tax on any team. The real paradox Leaders think they’re being supportive. Teams experience supervision.   Leaders assume boundaries are obvious. Teams see boundaries as fluid. Leaders think autonomy is granted. Teams act as though autonomy can be revoked at any moment. This is the Boundary Collapse → a misunderstanding born not from intent, but from the invisible weight of power. Micromanagement today rarely looks like anger.   More often,   it looks like kindness without limits. (Rahul Kulkarni is Co-founder at PPS Consulting. He patterns the human mechanics of scaling where workplace behavior quietly shapes business outcomes. Views personal.)

Boon To Working Middle Class

Updated: Feb 3

Working Middle Class

Year after year the union budget continues to be a very popular event in the country, especially for the working middle class, more importantly for the salaried and the MSME business class. The budget speech is generally divided into two parts. The First part mainly covers various budget allocations to different sectors of the economy of the country. The second part generally deals with the provisions of personal and corporate income tax which affects the entire middle class of the country. It also deals with indirect taxes i.e the customs duty and GST. However, in the recent past, it has been noticed that the GST provisions are amended almost throughout the year. Hence the main focus as far as the working middle class is concerned is on the provisions of the personal income tax.


New income tax Bill to be introduced

This year’s budget speech was no exception as the first part dealt with budget allocations to several key sectors like promoting skillful indigenous manufacturing, Education, Health Care, urban development and financial sector. Right at the beginning of the second part, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a new Income Tax Bill will be introduced in a week’s time. So, the nation can expect a completely new income tax act that can come into force very soon. The objective of the new Income Tax bill is to simplify the Act. The present Income Tax Act, 1961 is considered by many as an ambiguously worded complex text which has led to a lot of litigations on its interpretational aspect in the past. The new bill is expected to be worded in a very simple manner.


Amendments to personal income tax

The Finance Minister proposed some very beneficial income tax provisions right towards the end of her budget speech. For several years now, the middle class which has been the major contributor to the personal income tax collection in the country has been demanding a lower rate of income tax. This demand has mainly triggered from the high inflation rate, the higher cost of living and the reduced spending capacity of the middle class owing to the fact that a substantial portion of their salaries is used up in payment of high taxes. A lower personal income tax rate would result into a sizable disposable income in the hands of the middle class which would result in higher spending which in turn would trigger the economic growth that the PM Narendra Modi has been envisaging for a very long time.


The amount of income up to which no tax shall be payable was Rs 5 lakhs in 2023. This amount was increased to Rs. 7 lakhs in the Finance Act. 2024. This amount has further been increased to a whopping 12 lakhs in the current budget. This has come as a big relief to all the middle-class people who have income up to 12 lakhs. Hence a person having total taxable income upto Rs 12 lakhs will not be required to pay any income tax. In fact, a salaried taxpayer will not be required to pay any tax where his income before standard deduction is less than or equal to Rs.12,75,000. The new tax slabs are also expected to reduce the tax burden of persons having income in excess of Rs.12 lakhs. The basic exemption limit has also been increased from 2.5 lakhs to 4 lakhs. This means that a person having total taxable income up to ₹4,00,000 need not file an income tax return at all. However, it is worth noting that persons having income between 4 lakhs to 12 lakhs must file a return of income and claim a rebate. They will not be required to pay any tax though.


In case of senior citizens, the threshold above which TDS is required to be deducted on interest on fixed deposits has been raised from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1,00,000. The provision to claim two house properties as self-occupied properties without any condition is also a welcome amendment. Also, In the previous budget a new provision to file an updated return was introduced wherein a taxpayer could file his or her return of income upon payment of the taxes up to two years from the end of the year. After having received a positive response with over 90 lakhs updated returns being filed in the past year. The period of filing such updated returns has been extended from 2 to 4 years.


Rationalisation of TDS limits

Businesses are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the compliance by rationalization of TDS limits on payment of rent, professional fees, commission etc. Small charitable trusts should also benefit from lesser compliance by the extension of the validity of their registration from 5 years to 10 years. On one hand the working middle class will be happy with the reduction in their tax burden and on the other they will also be hoping that the huge spending will result in employment, good infrastructure and better living conditions.

(The author is a Chartered Accountant based in Mumbai.)

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