Deaths due to “high pressure” at work - reflecting on my quest for WLB after returning to India from the US

I have been reflecting on the untimely death of Indian professionals due to “high pressure” at work – first it was Anna from E&Y and now there’s news of Sadaf Fatima from HDFC who died mysteriously.

A few years ago, I returned to India after spending several years living and working in the US. My wife and I had quit our jobs and moved back to India to be closer to my aging parents. After exploring various options, including entrepreneurial ventures, and networking extensively I was eventually offered the role of IT Director at a services company. The team I was leading focused on managing internal systems and application platforms like ERP, HR, and Finance.

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Returning to India was quite a culture shock, and the traffic was a real eye-opener. I found myself commuting 1.5 hours each way to the office at a tech park, which meant spending 3 hours daily just on the road. After working 9 hours in the office and commuting, I was expected to join ‘management,’ ‘strategy,’ and planning calls with global peers, which ran late into the night. This cycle repeated itself five days a week.

Having worked in large organizations in the US, I quickly realized that while the work wasn’t rocket-science, there were definitely opportunities to modernize and automate systems.

When senior business leaders like the CFO, CHRO, and their teams visited India, it was all about putting on a show. My fellow directors and I would spend weeks after hours preparing customized presentations and rehearsing for their arrival. During their visits, we would stay late to ensure everything looked perfect. The head of Indian operations, who had also joined recently, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, which made the rest of us jump on this fruitless treadmill.

Despite the challenges, my team achieved significant productivity gains by introducing new RPA tools and automating numerous processes. However, these improvements weren’t enough to counteract the company’s larger issues, including a flawed strategy and fierce competition. Not surprisingly, the board fired several executives, including the CFO who had been a key sponsor of our modernization efforts.

A few months into the role, my father passed away. After informing my boss and peers, I received a few perfunctory emails offering condolences, with a cursory ‘let us know if I can help with anything.’  And that was it.

Forget a wreath from the company, or a formal condolence note, when I asked my manager about ‘bereavement leave policy,’ he hummed and hawed and said they didn’t have one. As a ‘special favor’ to me, he agreed to look the other way as I “worked from home” through the 13^th day ceremonies.

Given my experience with Corporate India, I am not surprised to read Anna’s mother’s gut-wrenching email to corporate leaders lamenting ‘No one from EY attended Anna’s funeral’.

At the end of the year, despite receiving stellar performance reviews and being given "stretch goals" for the upcoming year, the cracks in the system became obvious. The company's stock had dropped by 20%, thanks in part due to a flawed corporate strategy and competitive pressures. And while management assured us they would "take care of employees," the paltry year end bonus showed otherwise.

A year in that pressure cooker with terrible commute and hardly a carrot in sight was more than enough for me.

Finally, I put in my papers and took on a different senior ‘individual contributor’ role at another multinational – since then I have largely been working-from-home and enjoy the work-life balance.