Work Stress Kills Young CA: Will It Spur Introspection On Work Culture?

In the job market, fancy salary packages and tags of fancy corporate brands come at a hefty cost to personal life. Both are markers of the status of superiority and achievement in the younger generation – just note how much they discuss the size of salary and the profile of organisations. The parent generation has also tuned in to that mindset. But do we ever realise where is it leading our youngsters?

The idea of trying hard and being better than others is not bad in itself. What’s a person without ambition and spirit of competition? But the point of this article is to highlight whether the organisations do justice to the young, enthusiastic and talented people they hire. Do they treat them as human beings or do they want to reduce them to machines? We have used the word slave in an earlier article. Do they treat them as modern-day slaves?

Not all corporate entities are evil, but discussion with employees in all sectors across the economy suggests many are. Their work ethics and culture are dehumanising. They have created an environment where employees are always viewed with suspicion, and threats, both stated and unstated, are an ever-present instrument of control. The biggest among these is they can damage careers. Young employees, they know, cannot afford to have their career growth prospects blighted.

Anita Augustine, mother of the 26-year-old CA who died due to work stress, makes several points of interest in her letter to the organisation’s chairman. We add a few more to provide a complete picture.

*** Additional tasks are assigned verbally. They are beyond official work, not communicated via office email.

*** Employees have no off days. They must be ready to rush to work at short notice.

*** Work is assigned late in the night, with a deadline for early morning.

*** The boss can call a meeting anytime; the employee must stay prepared..

*** You cannot ignore a call from the boss. If you have missed it, then you must call back immediately.

*** The boss can reschedule a meeting at his pleasure. If they are busy watching a cricket match, team members have to wait.

*** The boss or the team leader owns its members. Demanding sexual favours or something similar is par for the course. Resistance would hurt career prospects.

*** It’s not only the boss but also his henchmen you must be respectful to.

*** Loyalty to the boss, not the organisation, is key to career advancement, not necessarily competence. 

*** The HR team is there to humour the bosses. Employees at lower levels are dispensable.

How many organisations would vouch that they are free of these practices? Young people want to work hard to prove themselves, like Anna, the young CA, did. They are eager to be useful to the organisation. But must they be in a situation of coercion? This is clear blackmail. Of course, labour laws are irrelevant.

Overwork and stressful work conditions, say several reports worldwide, are detrimental to health and life longevity. According to a report on the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, employees working in the IT industry are prone to develop a lot of health problems due to continuous physical and mental stress of their work. Diseases are either induced, sustained or exacerbated by stress.

Health conditions and diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, insomnia, cardiac arrest, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, psychoneurosis and sexual dysfunction set in early in the case of overstressed employees. The mental stress created by the office environment is not easy to handle for many. But the young lot has to plod along. They have their careers at stake. There’s a matter of status involved too.

Will the death of the young CA at least initiate a discussion on work conditions in the corporate sector?

(By Arrangements With Perspective Bytes)