Age of anxiety

High-pressure jobs, long hours, the fear of layoffs, and dwindling support systems are beginning to get to employees

- SHINE JACOB, AATHIRA VARIER & ISHITA AYAN DUTT

A sense of anxiety is in the air. The flood of layoffs at IT major TCS has rattled the industry, and the jitters are spreading beyond the tech sector. Besides the fear of termination, there is a deeper stress—of everyday work—that each employee tackles, with varying degrees of success. There is the stress of deadlines, of meeting targets, of proving oneself, of living up to expectations, of shouldering multiple responsibilities, of multi-tasking... The list is long.

At times, this stress reaches a tipping point, resulting in tragedy. Last month, a 52-year-old chief manager at a public sector bank in Pune died by suicide, citing workplace pressure in his note. A year ago, Anna Sebastian, a 26-year-old chartered accountant with a Big Four firm's Pune office, died due to heart attack following alleged workplace pressure, triggering outrage and debate over stress and workload in Indian corporates.

Her father, Siby Joseph, marked her first death anniversary on July 20 by launching The Anna Sebastian Initiative.

The initiative aims to prepare students and young professionals for the realities of the corporate world through online mentoring and guidance. "She joined work full of hope," Joseph told Business Standard. "But we lost her to a toxic work culture. This initiative is our way of ensuring others don't suffer the same fate." The death sparked political uproar, prompting the Union government to launch a formal inquiry.

A growing crisis The problem isn't limited to private firms. Sreenath Induchoodan, senior vice-president, All India Bank Officers' Confederation, said the banking sector is grappling with similar issues. He added that in the last couple of years, they have seen multiple suicides—some at the workplace itself.