Experts flag silent costs of overwork culture, urge companies to take action

CHENNAI: The recent death of a 26-year-old corporate employee in Pune, allegedly due to work exhaustion, has triggered concerns about the culture of overwork widely prevalent, and often glorified, in the corporate world.

Even before the pandemic forced us to take our work home, the World Health Organisation had long dubbed stress as the health epidemic of the 21st century. As work dominates every other aspect of normal human life, like relationships and health, experts feel organisations must prioritize the mental well-being of employees.

"Stress caused by working long hours, job atmosphere and relationship issues can create distress in the body. The endocrine system is affected, cortisol levels increase, blood pressure rises, sugar levels fluctuate, immunity is compromised, and headaches become frequent. All of these can increase the risk of myocardial infarction," says Dr R Vasanth, consultant psychiatrist, Fortis Malar Hospital.

Mental health experts feel when companies glorify exhaustive job schedules, employees will initially think they can sustain the pressure. Organisations appreciate employees for sacrificing personal time and unwittingly enables overwork culture. Social media platforms, too, project working long hours as honourable.

"When one constantly works for long hours and does not dedicate time for self-care, all that stress accumulates over time. Constantly checking work emails and messages ends up making corporate employees feel guilty for taking time off. Sitting for long durations and overnight shifts can lead to neurochemical imbalances. Stress can cause distress, which escalates to depression over a long period of time," says Vandhana, a clinical psychologist at V-Cope.

Although productivity is given more importance than mental well-being, medical experts cite overworking has proven to be counterproductive and can lead to burnout, causing emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. Burnout affects productivity, increases the probability of errors, impairs concentration, and also reduces creativity.

"Irregular food habits, prolonged screen time and lack of physical activities, health issues, including cardiovascular diseases, chronic fatigue, and insomnia, are common among overworked people. But they usually neglect these issues due to constant work pressure and, eventually, develop lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension or cardiac problems," says a cardiologist at a city government hospital.

Mental health experts have also noted that overworking and lack of work-life balance can cause anxiety, depression, and, even, suicidal thoughts. Furthermore, these physical and mental health issues impact relationships due to lack of personal time and disrupt family ties.

The post-pandemic shift in work culture has worsened work schedules, as work from home has become round the clock and the hybrid system requires constant attention of employees.

“Before the pandemic, I used to go to work for fixed hours. Responding to work emails and calls outside office hours was rare. But since work from home has been implemented, we are expected to be available 24/7. Companies serving foreign clients expect employees to clock in as per clients’ time zone. So we login as per our office hours and also ensure availability for client calls and discussions as well," says Shubham Kumar, a software engineer with a corporate firm.

Health experts call for attention to regulate working hours and work time. "Women, particularly working mothers, have a tough time juggling between work and personal life. They travel long distances for work and still address work-related calls or email even outside office space, which leads to pressure. The stress created is passed on to family members, resulting in relationship conflicts," says Vandhana.

Insomnia and untimely eating habits are other major concerns that lead to lifestyle diseases. Experts say organisations should look at countries with better work-life balance and implement some of their systems here.

“Managers have a crucial role to play. They can ensure targets are achieved without compromising the well-being of their team. Their responsibilities include fostering open communication, understanding each employee's capacity, and fair distribution of workload,” says Erinda Shah, mental health expert at Mental Health First Aid India.

While many corporations are beginning to recognise the importance of employee well-being, their efforts to improve mental health initiatives often fall short of addressing the root causes of workplace pressure.

"For example, wellness programs and mental health resources are mainly static, which means employees need to reach out to access them. Moreover, these initiatives are usually promoted around ill health rather than adopting a preventative approach to retain positive mental health. A poor mental health status comes with certain stigma in corporate houses as they have huge targets to meet, making jobs demanding and extending work hours to, often beyond, 12-16 hours," added Erinda.