Akangjungla
The unfortunate demise of 26-year-old chartered accountant at Ernst and Young India allegedly due to work stress, has taken social media by storm. Following the devastating lost, Anna’s mother Anita Augustine wrote a letter to the chairman of Ernst and Young India raising concerns regarding work pressure and toxic environment. The letter, according to report, “originally meant as a private correspondence was leaked.” The mother writes, “Anna would return to her room utterly exhausted, sometimes collapsing on the bed without even changing her clothes, only to be bombarded with messages asking for more reports. She was putting in her best efforts, working very hard to meet the deadlines. She was a fighter to the core, not someone to give up easily. We told her to quit, but she wanted to learn and gain new exposure. However, the overwhelming pressure proved too much even for her.” The Ernst and Young India issued a statement and said “We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility.” In response to the mother’s letter, Labour Minister Shobha Karandlaje has confirmed that a thorough investigation was underway to assess the allegations.
Anna’s experience and incident has generated a lot of discussions on the hazards of glorifying overwork and most importantly underlined the need to create a healthy workplace environment for both the physical and mental wellbeing. Every year October 10 is observed as World Mental Health Day. On a very timely note, the founder of World Mental Health Day, the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) has launched a global campaign based on this year’s theme, ‘It is Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace’. WFMH states that the theme underscores the critical importance of mental health in professional settings, and the objective of the campaign is to engage a global audience - including employees, employers, organizations, and stakeholders - in grassroots advocacy to promote mental well-being at work. It aims to highlight the essential role of mental health in professional environments, advocating for workplaces where mental health is “prioritised, protected, and promoted.”
The world has entered into an era where issues of work have become extremely paramount. With the entire developed and the constantly evolving industrialised world, especially the technological revolution in transportation and communications, there is an intense shift in the very structure of the work. It is becoming more demanding in terms of time and skills, often resulting in making the nature of work very alienating. Perhaps the hardest damage falls on the wellbeing of the workers who are caught up in the fast-changing system. In the face of emerging cases of work stress, this year’s theme, ‘It is Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace,’ calls for action strategies to raise awareness on the connection between mental health and work. There is a greater need to regulate and implement policies for companies to create safe working conditions, provide job and financial security, and also doing away with any overload or working excessive hours. It will be a turning-point for companies to thrive when they address and prioritize mental health issues as a moral imperative, based on the values of respect and understanding and simply as a business strategy.
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