India Inc Needs To Sit Up And Smell The Burn

Corporate leaders are still stuck on the manufacturing mindset of running factories. It's no surprise our offices are mostly unhappy places where burnouts are common

He fortnight gone by has had one big question out there in public discourse: "Who or what killed Anna?" Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old CA at Ernst & Young died 4 months after joining the firm.

Her parents indicated "overwhelming work pressure" as a cause of death.

The case being discussed indicates a new cause of work- or overwork-related depression and death. Death due to work. And, in some ways, death due to the workplace.

The rest of the debate is out there in public space. An entire nation has discussed the case as one that typifies the high-tension workplace that India today boasts of. Grandmothers in every home with a grandchild in the workplace were involved in this discussion, just as parents and employees themselves were.

As the parents grieve their sad loss, the rest of the nation will cool down and move on to a newer issue. Public memory is really short. But must we? Should we not instead look at the cause and discuss ways to avoid such losses in the future? Must we not sit up and smell the burn? India is today emerging to be the new workplace of the world. If in the old days the factories that produced physical goods were the production centres, today every corporate and commercial entity that produces both goods and services is a key production entity. In many ways, every company is a 'factory' that produces goods and services. The mindset at work has therefore the potential to become the same. There are a set of basic economic resources acquired. Land, labour, capital and entrepreneur (or enterprise) are put into play.