"Slave Mentality" vs Celebrations – Indian Bank Turns 119 Amid Staff Strain

Indian Bank will mark its 119th anniversary on August 15, 2025. But in the run-up to Foundation Day, internal messages and office orders show a different picture. Among the messages some are dominated by fixed numeric targets, strict monitoring, and warnings of action in case of shortfall.

As part of the ongoing HNI CASA campaign, messages instructed some branches to categorise themselves based on account-opening goals, “Excellent” for 20 or more, “Achievers” for 16 or more, and “Laggard” for under 16 and to report these figures in group chats. Guardian officers were told to calculate averages across branches, with 3 marks for “A”, 2 for “B”, and 1 for “C”.

In a separate zonal group message, senior managers directed, “Do not allow any branches to leave before reaching the figure. The matter is very serious and strict measures will be taken if there is any default.” Another message to zonal managers said, “Please follow up vigorously and ensure that all targets are reached for HNI accounts, please ensure funding in all the accounts.”

Image: Message from the heads to not leave for home before completing the targets.

Individual Office Orders
One letter issued from Solapur Main branch, dated August 12, 2025,  assigned a Customer Service Associate (CSA), who is also visually impaired,  a target of opening 30 new savings accounts by August 30 “without fail.” In a follow-up message to the union, the same employee alleged that no such target had been given to other clerical staff and questioned why they were singled out. The letter also mentioned a warning from the branch manager that failure to meet the target could lead to a transfer to another zone.
Image: Branch-issued order assigning a visually impaired CASA a target of 30 new savings accounts.


Image: A viral message from an employee alleging high-pressure targets.

Employee Accounts of Pressure
Some employees described a wider culture of irregular hours and inflexible demands in their branches to Kanal. One said, “Here everything is like a slave mentality. Top management feels like they own us, keeping video calls always after 7 pm, they keep VCs after 7 pm on Friday so we can’t go home for the weekend. Campaigns are like early morning recovery where we have to go to customer houses around 7 am.”

Another employee shared, “We are asked to cancel our leaves when MDs or any head of ours are visiting the branch. Even when there are festivals and we plan to visit our families, the leaves are not available. Even when the festivals are on weekends, we are given targets to complete. They call us on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays and Sundays. No one wants to come as already a lot of holidays have been ruined without compensation.”

One employee told Kanal that Foundation Day-linked targets this year required opening 10 new savings accounts with an initial balance of ₹25,000 each, and 3 current accounts with a ₹1 lakh balance. “I opened four accounts and the BM opened four, all in the names of our relatives. We transferred the funds from our own accounts and will reverse them on Monday,” the employee said. The staff member added that this reflected the kind of pressure where meeting numbers sometimes takes precedence over genuine business generation.

Campaigns Beyond CASA
Alongside CASA, branches were also given targets under the “Each One Login One” Life Insurance campaign for Jaipur Zone on August 12, with minimum set premium targets of ₹1 lakh for metro/urban branches and ₹50,000 for semi-urban/rural branches. Branches were told, “100% branch activation is the only mantra to accomplish the envisaged targets.”