'No Company Should Exploit Its Employees'

'A person is supposed to do 40 to 42 hours of work a week.'
'If a person is working more that, it is exploitation.'
'And it is because of this exploitation that employees experience stress which affects their mental health.'
'Sometimes it even leads to ending their lives. It is very unfortunate.'

It took the tragic death of a young professional, Anna Sebastian, for the Indian corporate world to start talking about the unreasonable working hours perpetuated by many companies especially in the IT sector.

In September 2022, Genius Consultants Limited had conducted a survey on 'Workplace Stress And Its Effect On Employee Mental Health', and the survey found out that a startling 100% of participants admitted that workplace stress had an adverse effect on their mental health.

While 77% of the participants confirmed that work related stress induced anxiety and depression, 82% of the participants said, they suffered from health issues like immunodeficiency disorders, gastrointestinal disorders.

"If most of the companies are understanding of what their employee is going through in her/his life, her/him ending her/his life due to stress will not happen," R P Yadav, founder, chairman and CEO, Genius Consultant, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about what needs to be done by both employers and employees so that there is work-life balance.

Last November, we spoke about the effect of workplace stress on the mental health of employees. Soon after the death of Anna Sebastian in Pune, a techie in Chennai took his life unable to bear the stress he experienced at the workplace.
Do you think there is more awareness among Indians towards mental health and work now?

In my opinion, the awareness has to come from both sides: The employer's side and also employee's side.

There is always an objective and a target to achieve at work. People who work in the field have to chase a target. Those who work in operations will have certain objectives to achieve as you get ratings from your client. If the rating is bad from the client's side, it affects the person in charge.

So, the employer has an objective to achieve while the employee has a target to achieve.

But what is important is the awareness that the objective set by the employer should be fair, and it should not be such that the employee becomes depressed to such levels that it results in the death of the person.

If you look back, even as a child, while playing carrom or chess or even Ludo, you play to win. You see a child fighting with the mother to win even while playing Ludo. As human beings, we always try to win.

In certain cases, some employees take this competitiveness to such a level that he or she looks at work to win all the time. This results in depression.

The employee has to understand that after all, it is work.

Both the employers and employees should look at work as work. An employer should not put unnecessary pressure on employees with unachievable targets.

An employee also should understand that what is in front of him or her is just a target to be achieved at work, and not the end of life.

Why is it that in India, we glorify overwork? Don't you think it is high time we end this attitude of glorification of overwork?

Yes, overwork should not be glorified. It is true that 90% of the people are under pressure at work to achieve a certain target.

If a person is ambitious, he or she will be more serious about the target while some people may look at work differently.

I have 650 employees working in my office. I have found that people who are very ambitious are obsessed with the target. Those who are not that ambitious will not be worried too much about such targets. But I must also say that the performance of such employees will always be average.

Not everyone in society is the same. Some are brilliant. Some, above average, some average and some below average..

True. Society is made of all kinds of people. Not all people become CEOs or Presidents or Vice Presidents in companies.

It depends on how you pursue ambitions. But it should not be life threatening.

Work should only be a means of life, and not life itself.

Both the company and the employees should learn to look at work as work.

The company also should identify those who look depressed or suffer from stress at work, listen to their grievances and offer help. It could be some crisis in the family or financial crisis or even an incidental crisis. That's why you have the HR department in a company.

For example, if an employee's mother or father is hospitalised, s/he will be under tremendous stress as s/he might be going through financial and emotional crisis. During such crisis, it is the duty of the company to understand what s/he is going through and offer help.

If most of the companies are understanding of what their employee is going through in her/his life, her/him ending her/his life due to stress will not happen. I will not say, it will put an end to such situations. At least you can reduce.

An ILO report says 51% of Indian employees work 49 hours or more in a week, much more than many other developed countries. Can we exploit employees saying we are still a developing country?

No company should exploit its employees.

A person is supposed to do 40 to 42 hours of work a week. If a person is working more that, it is exploitation. And it is because of this exploitation that employees experience stress which affects their mental health. Sometimes it even leads to ending their lives. It is very unfortunate.

There is a labour department which is supposed to keep an eye on this. I don't know why they are not doing anything about it.

Another ILO report says Indian employees below the age of 30 work almost 58 hours a week! Will this not result in them burning out by the time they enter their 30s?

No doubt about that. If a person is doing more than 40, 42 hours of work a week, it will result in them burning out.

58 hours of work in a week is on the darker side and it will exhaust a human being completely.

If this 58 hours of work is to achieve a target, these employees will go into complete depression due to the stress at work and exhaustion.

This has to be avoided.

What happened to young people like Anna Sebastian should awaken society, make society understand what wrong we are doing to the young people of India.

The labour department also should take incidents like this seriously and punish the guilty.

When do you think a change in the attitude to work will come in India?

Unfortunately, we don't have a regulatory department for white collar workers. There is no union for white collar workers, and it does not come under the eye of the labour department.

But an incident like this is a warning to all employers not to exploit their workers to such an extent that their health and life itself is in danger.

But what we hear is people like N R Narayana Murthy glorifying 70 hours of work, and Jack Ma in China endorsing 996 (9 am-9 pm, 6 days a week) ...

I think people like Narayana Murthy and Jack Ma are referring to how they worked when they began their careers as entrepreneurs. They worked like that to build huge world class companies.

Anyone who starts his independent journey as an entrepreneur has to work like that.

When I was building my company, I worked like that. That is, 10 to 12 hours every day.

You have to understand that only a person who is building a company needs to work like that. An employee who is not building a company need not work like that.

S/he is doing a job and building her/his career while the other person is building a company.

In my opinion, an employer should not make an employee work like that.

There is a distinct difference between an employer and an employee, like there is a difference between building a company and building a career.

The last time when we spoke, you said, it was very important for everyone to have a work-life balance.. What will you tell the young employees who are under stress while trying to build a career?

I will tell all millennials to segment their time.

For example, mornings are for their health. They can exercise, they can run, they can go to the gym.

After that, when you are in office, you concentrate on your work. At the same time, you talk to your colleagues, laugh with them, eat with them in the canteen, etc. You also work diligently for 8 hours.

Once back from office, do what interests you. You may spend time with your friends or family, you may go for a movie, you may watch TV, you may read a book...

For example, it is not healthy to work on your laptop even after you are back from office, and again before going to bed.

This kind of a lifestyle will make you stressed about work.

If you can segment your time judiciously, most of the problems you face at work will be less.

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Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com