Hotel California, RINL Edition: You Can Check In, But Can You Leave?
Is this really how organisations prevent brain drain and retain talent?
Pleasure is sweetest when it is purchased at the cost of another’s pain, wrote the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid). Few examples illustrate this more starkly than the conduct of the top management of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).
Serious questions are being raised over whether certain senior officials are deliberately obstructing the career progression of their junior colleagues by refusing to grant them even the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere. Instead of encouraging professional growth, the management appears to be placing unnecessary hurdles before employees who wish to apply for better-paying jobs with improved working conditions outside the PSU.
A self explaining order is given below which is quite evident to show how the top management is putting spokes in the wheels of their junior colleagues.
Gist of the RINL Circular (Miscellaneous Circular No. 02/26 dated 21.07.2026):
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) has introduced an additional approval layer for processing employee resignation applications, citing the company’s current manpower situation and the increasing number of experienced employees leaving the organisation.
Under the new procedure:
- Every resignation application must first be routed through the concerned Head of Department (HoD).
- Before it is sent to the HR Establishment Zone for processing, it must receive clearance from the concerned Functional Director.
- HR will process resignation requests only after they have been forwarded through this prescribed channel.
- All HoDs and HR Establishment Zones have been directed to ensure strict compliance with the revised procedure with immediate effect.
In essence, the circular does not prohibit resignations, but it makes the resignation process subject to an additional level of scrutiny and approval before HR can formally process an employee’s application.
Is this really how organisations prevent brain drain and retain talent? Is the answer to an exodus of skilled professionals to erect higher bureaucratic walls instead of creating a workplace where employees actually want to stay? Talent retention has never been about paperwork. It is built on competitive salaries, transparent promotions, professional respect, merit-based growth, and a healthy work culture.
Yet, RINL’s latest circular seems to send a different message. Instead of addressing the reasons why experienced employees are leaving, it adds another layer of approval before a resignation can even be processed. The impression it creates is aptly summed up by the phrase: “RINL’s New HR Mantra: Grow Here… or Nowhere.”
Perhaps the management would do well to remember a timeless lesson. As Ernest Hemingway observed, "No horse named Morbid ever won a race." Organisations do not retain talent by making the exit gate narrower; they retain it by making the workplace better. Fear and procedural hurdles may delay departures, but they rarely inspire commitment.
To be continued—
We Report – You Decide
Disclaimer: The headline’s reference to “Hotel California” is a metaphorical and satirical expression inspired by the iconic song by the Eagles.
