MimansaWhat happened
What was said, and what it meant
The transcript
Lightly edited for clarity. Pauses and repetitions removed. Nothing added.
The question it leaves
Captions and full transcript below
Volume One · 12 stories · 14 questions
The questions work does not ask out loud.
Mimansa publishes two things. Anonymised, filmed accounts of decisions and conflicts inside organisations, and a set of questions about how work is run that most companies would rather not answer.
No names. No companies. No employers identified, ever.
What you will find here
Three ways in
Filmed accounts from inside organisations, questions that are argued rather than summarised, and the short version of each argument.
The Unasked
Questions organisations avoid answering
Each one states a claim, takes a position, and gives you the pieces and films behind it.
Shorts
One argument, under six minutes
The case for each question, made out loud. Opens full screen, then keep swiping.
Watch now
Stories people rarely tell at work
Filmed with the storyteller's identity protected. Watch the film, or read the full account and transcript.
Stories
Filmed accounts from inside organisations.
Interviews with HR leaders, managers and employees about decisions and conflicts at work. Watch the film, or read the full account and transcript.
How we protect people
No storyteller, employer, client or colleague is named. We keep role, years of experience, sector and city. Everything else is removed.
Next
Related stories
Share your story
Share a workplace story.
You do not need to be senior, or certain about what happened. Tell us about a decision or conflict at work, or send us a question you think nobody is asking, and we will follow up.
You decide how you appear.
We agree identity protection before anything is recorded, and you approve the final edit before it is published. You can withdraw at any point up to publication.
Four ways to appear
Pick the one you can live with
On camera
Face and voice as they are. Still no names, employer or client.
Face hidden
Filmed in silhouette or behind a screen, with your voice kept.
Voice only
Audio with illustration, and the option to alter your voice.
Read by someone else
Your words, reconstructed on film by an actor. You approve the script.
Submitted.
In a live version this would reach team@mimansa.work, we would reply within three working days, agree how you appear, then record. You approve the final cut.
The Unasked
The questions work avoids asking.
Fourteen questions about how organisations are actually run. Each one opens with a claim, argues a position, and then gives you the pieces to read and the films to watch. None of them ends in a neutral summary.
Why a question and not a topic
A topic invites a summary. A question forces a position. Every page here states one, so you have something to disagree with rather than something to skim.
Where we stand
Where do you land
Answer it for your own organisation before you read anyone else's view. If your answer is uncomfortable, that is the useful one.
Next
Related questions
Shorts
One argument, under six minutes.
Every question on this site has a short film that makes the case out loud. Pick one and it opens full screen, then keep going with the arrow keys or a swipe.
Made to be watched standing up
Each short takes one claim and one question, gives the argument, and stops. If you want the detail afterwards, the question page is one tap away inside the player.
Contact
Write to us.
A question we should be asking, a story you want to tell, a correction, or something we have got wrong. All of it reaches the same inbox and a person reads it.
What happens to what you send
We reply to everything within about three working days. Nothing you write is published without your agreement, and no employer, client or colleague you name is ever identified.
Send a message
Tell us what it is about
Message sent.
In a live version this would land in the team@mimansa.work inbox and you would get a reply within about three working days.
About Mimansa
What this site is for.
Mimansa is a Sanskrit word for careful inquiry. It describes the practice of taking something everybody accepts and examining whether it holds. That is what this site does with the way organisations manage people.
There are two halves. Filmed, anonymised accounts of real decisions and conflicts at work. And a set of questions that HR conferences tend to skip, each one answered with a position rather than a balanced overview.
Why the stories are filmed
A written summary loses how a person actually described what happened. Film keeps the pauses, the corrections and the detail that a quote and three bullet points remove.
Storytellers can appear on camera, in silhouette, in audio only, or have their account read by an actor. The choice is agreed before recording, and the storyteller approves the final edit.
Why the questions take a side
Most writing about HR ends in a balanced summary that nobody can disagree with, which is why nothing changes after reading it. Every question on this site states where we stand and why, so you have something specific to argue with.
Where research supports a position we say what it shows and what it does not. Where we are arguing from experience rather than evidence, we say that too.
What we will not publish
Anything that identifies an employer, a client or a colleague. Anything the storyteller has not approved. Anything we cannot corroborate where the account makes a factual claim about another named party.
Corrections, questions and disagreement all go to the same address, or use the contact form.
Editorial principles
A position, not a summary
Every question page says where we stand. You are told what the argument is, so you can take it apart.
More than one perspective
Where possible we film the same kind of decision from two sides, without concluding which side was correct.
Identity protection comes first
Identity protection is agreed before filming and held to afterwards, including when it would make a better story to publish more.
Evidence is labelled
Anything marked as evidence states what the research supports, the sample it is based on, and what remains uncertain.
No paid placement
No sponsored stories, no paid listings, and no vendor approval over anything written about their product.
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