Gen Z That Sinking Feeling

India Inc has been accused of promoting a toxic work culture. And Gen-Z workers are pushing back. Is there a solution to the growing trust deficit between employers and employees?

- Ayaan Kartik and Nabodita Ganguly

It was a baptism by fire. Mumbai-based Shreyas Gowda (name changed on request) still shudders when he talks of his first job. As a junior lawyer his day would start around 9am and end at 10pm. By the time he reached home it would be close to 11pm and he would be totally pooped.

“When you spoke about work-life balance, your seniors at work would dismiss your concerns and say that young people have to do the grind,” he says. Worse, his boss would not even let him take proper breaks.

Devashish Sharma (name changed on request), a 24-year-old techie, shares Gowda’s pain of dealing with a toxic manager. At his first job, his boss would call him at odd hours to inquire about projects. “Once he called at 11.30pm. I did not take the call. The next day he insulted me in front of the entire team at a meeting which took place at 8am,” he says.

The pressure to perform and the shrinking of private space is the new normal at India Inc. Most young workers are scathed, but survive. Except when tragedy strikes as in the case of Anna Sebastian Perayil.

The 26-year-old chartered accountant at leading accounting firm EY India died a few months after joining the firm. Her parents blamed “the workload”. They alleged “long hours took a toll on her physically, emotionally and mentally”. EY has refuted the allegations.

Months before Perayil’s case, news of the death of a McKinsey consultant by suicide in February also surfaced online. Twenty-five-yearold Saurabh Kumar Laddha could not cope with the work pressure, according to media reports.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2022 reveals that salaried employees constituted 10% of total suicides in the country. There are myriad reasons for mental health struggles, but several surveys are flashing red flags in India Inc. Gallup State of the Global Workplace Survey 2024 showed that 86% of Indians surveyed are struggling at their workplaces.