'Tribe' Vibes At Workplace

I have lived long enough in corporate India to see fashions of management come and go. The old days of lifetime loyalty to an employer have faded. The cubicle gave way to open floors, which in turn gave way to hybrid work and home offices. Yet amid all this churn, one ancient pattern has quietly walked back into the modern workplace. The tribe has returned.

I notice this most vividly when I spend time with the younger professionals I mentor. They are smart, impatient, and often restless. Some come from small towns and carry hope and hesitation, intent and insecurities into offices. What I observe is that they instinctively form tribes.

At first, I thought of these as just friendships or casual networks. A few colleagues eating lunch together, a group bonding over a shared love of music, a WhatsApp circle who exchange jokes and survival tips. But over time, I realised these were emotional anchors.

One young woman told me how a small women’s circle at work gave her the courage to speak up in meetings. Another described how his peer group from tier-two towns became his survival mechanism, helping him navigate housing, accents, and the unspoken hierarchies of urban offices. They are tribes.

The return of tribes cannot be understood only in the context of offices. Think of how, in a crowded metro or a bustling café, a familiar face instantly offers a sense of ease. That same instinct plays out inside offices. It is linked to the deeper transformations in Indian society. We are no longer the nation of joint families where three generations lived under one roof, where identity and belonging were taken for granted. Even the nuclear family, once the default unit of urban India, is under strain.

Today many young professionals live as individuals, alone in rented apartments, physically distant from family support systems. They are hyper-connected digitally, yet often lonely in real life. When the social fabric stretches thin, the workplace becomes one of the few spaces where belonging can be rebuilt. It is no wonder that employees form tribes — small, chosen families in the middle of professional life.

Gen Z is entering organisations with very different expectations than those of older generations. They grew up with the internet, with choice, with constant streams of information and distraction. They are comfortable moving across jobs and geographies. Yet for all their mobility, they long for connection. In an economy where relationships are increasingly transactional, tribes offer them intimacy and authenticity.

Workplace disruptions have made this even sharper. Hybrid work has stripped offices of their once-vibrant social role. The pantry chat and corridor banter are less frequent. People log in for tasks and log out quickly. In such a landscape, organic tribes recreate a sense of human warmth. They cushion the alienation that many feel in the flat light of the laptop screen.

Of course, tribes carry a double edge. At their best they spark creativity, energise collaboration, and offer resilience. They can mobilise faster than any leadership directive. At their worst they harden into cliques, deepen silos, and exclude outsiders. For a young employee, the tribe can be a safety net, but for someone left out, it can feel like exile. Leaders and HR who ignore this risk being blindsided by underground discontent or cultural fractures.

I sometimes reflect on my own early years in corporate life. We too had tribes — departmental loyalties, regional circles, or alumni bonds. But organisations often viewed them with suspicion. We were told to put the company first, to dissolve into a uniform culture. Today’s youngsters refuse that trade-off. They want to contribute to the company’s goals, but they also insist on bringing their full selves to work. They want a place that reflects their identity, their quirks, their values. If the company cannot provide that, they create it for themselves.

The broader context cannot be ignored. Indian society itself has become fragmented. The city is more anonymous than the small town. Urban life, for all its opportunities, often comes at the cost of community. Friendships are harder to sustain across distances. For many young professionals, the workplace tribe fills a void that used to be held by family or neighbourhood. It becomes the anchor in an otherwise drifting world.

What does this mean for corporate bosses? The easy mistake is to dismiss tribes as distractions or even threats. Leaders need to listen to what tribes are saying, connect them to each other, and channel their energy towards larger goals. It requires humility, because command-and-control cannot shape tribal energy. It requires imagination, because curating culture is not the same as enforcing it. And it requires courage, because authentic belonging is always messier than corporate slogans.

Leaders who get this right will find themselves building resilient, human-centred organisations. Those who ignore it may discover that their grand strategies fail for want of cultural energy. They have to be told that organisations are not machines, they are living ecosystems. And that in today’s India, where both society and workplaces are fragmented, the rediscovery of the tribe may be more a return to something essential.

The future of Indian work will not be carried by solitary stars or heroic leaders. It will be carried forward by tribes — messy, imperfect, deeply human — the same way humanity has always survived and thrived.

Srinath Sridharan is a corporate adviser & independent director on Corporate Boards. Author of Family and Dhanda.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.