Executive Dizzy'sions due to work pressure

Woman Sub-Inspector attempts suicide. Techie jumps to death. Sweeper ends life. A number of horrific suicide cases have been reported in the city recently, and all for the same reason – work pressure! Claiming to be harassed by their managers and stressed out with work, a number of employees are ending their lives because they are unable to cope with and balance out their work.

Has the level of sensitivity increased so much, that a mistake pointed out or a small firing has caused employees to take such extreme measures? We speak to experts from different fields and get some pro-active inputs on how to tackle the issue.

The ever increasing demand for jobs has made people easily dispensable is their work is not upto the mark, which seems to be a huge factor today. “Today, employees are  expected to act with speed and cope with high levels of stress, something they aren’t taught at universities and educational institutions.

Most employees don’t understand what they are signing up for so it’s important that industries have their own training programmes for newly recruited employees. It will not only give them a heads up on what is expected of them but also whether they are capable of handling it,” opines G. Sivaramakrishnan, a sociologist.

While initial training is important, organisations also need to be in constant touch with their employees and make sure they have an outlet, or somebody to talk to. “We encourage our employees to express themselves on a one-to-one session with their departmental heads, when they feel like they are being over-worked and can’t handle the stress and pressure, and the heads try to help them out with it. Talking about problems is still a new concept here which is why it will take some time to catch on and be accepted,”

says Sudhakar Bose, a Human Resource recruit, of a company in the city.
A number of companies, in order to reduce the levels of stress have come up with innovative ideas like having office pets and relaxation rooms, to reduce the levels of stress! “It’s important to find the factor of stress,” suggests Lenni George, a Psychologist.

“Factors are subjective and differ from person to person. Having a relaxation room helps tremendously. And when stressed  about something, they should take deep breaths for ten seconds to calm themselves down right in their spot,” suggests the Psychologist from the city.