A nation of unhappy, overworked people

The mother of a young chartered accountant, Anna Sebastian Perayil, employed at Ernst & Young, Pune, who recently died, has alleged that her death was due to overwork, exhaustion, and stress.

This follows a protest by over 500 employees of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, who have raised concerns about a toxic and stressful work culture within the organisation. In their letter, SEBI employees cited grievances such as unrealistic key result area (KRA) targets, immense work pressure, long working hours, including weekends, and public humiliation, scolding, and name-calling by seniors.

These complaints will resonate with a large portion of the corporate workforce from the past 10–15 years. Barring some exceptions, private sector organisations in India have whole-heartedly embraced all the elements of toxic work culture. The average employee often works 10–12 hours a day, whether from the office or at home, and even if weekends are official holidays, it is common for executives at every level to work on Saturdays and Sundays.

It is also undeniable that KRA and performance targets are highly stressful, compounded by the rampant and frequent use of foul language and humiliating behaviour by bosses. In fact, such behaviour is one of the most unacknowledged aspects of work life. It is almost as if bosses are expected to be harsh and are given the liberty to be foul-mouthed, if not daily, then at least occasionally. Subordinates, in turn, are expected to accept this behaviour as a part of the game.

Similarly, long hours are considered normal. When Infosys’ Narayan Murthy suggested a 70-hour work week was necessary, he likely echoed the thoughts of many captains of industry. The 70-hour week translates to 14 hours a day if it is a five-day week and 12 hours a day for a six-day week. Whether they admit it or not, this is the belief that chief executive officers, managing directors, and top executives unabashedly hold, and it has gradually become the norm.

This is, in part, an inevitable fallout of the dizzying salaries that corporations have been paying out in the last 10–15 years. It has fostered a mindset where companies feel they ‘own’ their employees because of the fat remunerations and think employees have no business complaining, putting in long hours, facing extreme performance stress, and handling offensive talk from bosses.

Indeed, the era of enlightened human resource policies, which prevailed in the 1990s and the first decade of this century, has quietly been given a burial, and organisations have started believing that all that they owe employees is big packages, perks, and facilities. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this is the prevailing paradigm of corporate employment in most companies.

What has made life worse is the constant accessibility of an employee—by mobile, email, WhatsApp—which makes it possible for any work demand to be made on him/her at any time. After office hours, on weekends, out of town, on holiday, and so on. Can you imagine an employee refusing to respond to a call or a message from a boss, a senior colleague, a client, or a customer?

And while the right to disconnect has gained traction in many European countries, it is a near impossibility that such legislation will be allowed in India by the corporate sector. In fact, even if such legislation were to be passed, it will probably remain on paper because the corporate sector and much of India have bought into the legend that being a careerist slave is life. It’s like a present-day adaptation of the Nazi concentration camp motto, ‘Arbeit Macht’Frei’—work liberates you.

Somewhere along it has also acquired jingoistic features by being linked to national interest, high gross domestic product, and ‘Amrit-kaal’—the underlying message being that the current generation has to slog uncomplainingly like slaves so that we can become a prosperous, developed nation by 2047.

Exactly what it will take to disabuse the corporate world of this toxic culture is difficult to say. The irony is that much of the Indian workforce is employed in the unorganised sector, where people are also terribly overworked but shamefully underpaid. Work conditions are appalling, and harsh treatment, abuse, and unfairness by employers is a reality. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) data from 2023 reveals that Indians work an average of 47.7 hours a week, which is the highest among the top 10 global economies. One suspects the real figure would be far higher. Not to mention commute time.

So, on the one hand, we have highly paid, overworked corporate employees, and on the other, an unorganised sector workforce that is overworked and underpaid. No wonder we rank 126th among 146 countries in the latest World Happiness Report 2024.

(The writer is a crime fiction author and was a management filmmaker and corporate consultant previously)