Workplace toxicity: Young professionals reflect on work-life balance amid hustle culture

Manish Raj (name changed), a 27-year-old researcher at a public relations firm, prepared to leave work as usual, packing his bag around five in the evening. The atmosphere at his office, which Raj had joined a month ago, was no longer the same.

Raj, who had dreamed of working at a PR firm in the national capital, especially one managing social media content for multiple Central government departments, quickly realised the reality was far from what was promised in his interview. The internal workings of the prominent political PR firm began to unravel day by day.

“Initially, everything seemed fine. I would come to the office, finish my tasks, and head home. But within weeks, that routine changed. We started working long hours every day. Though my shift is technically nine hours, I often work 12 to 16 hours. There have been days where I worked 24 hours straight. Recently, when a government flagship train was being inaugurated, I worked continuously from 9 AM until midnight,” he said.

This situation is not isolated to the PR industry but reflects the growing strain across the broader work culture today.

Alarm Bells

Earlier in July, Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old Chartered Accountant at Ernst & Young’s Pune office, collapsed while going to collect her food on the staircase. She was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. Just a month prior, her parents had observed that she was going through a lack of sleep and food when they had gone to Pune for her convocation.

She was admitted to the hospital after experiencing chest pain and other symptoms, but doctors informed her family that the primary cause of her condition was sleep deprivation and complications from irregular eating habits.

Recently, her mother’s letter to the chairman of EY, Rajiv Memani, is being circulated, where Perayil’s family blamed the constant and heavy workload, which led to her death. It was the pressure to go beyond her means at her workplace that resulted in her declining health, which ultimately led to her demise, as her parents pointed out cardiac arrest as the cause of death.

Denial Of Leaves 

Similarly, Raj’s workplace teeters on a similar note. Without compensatory offs and a lack of gazetted holidays, the mental pressure keeps increasing by the day.

“Every company has a list of gazetted and restricted holidays. We have three mandatory holidays, but even then, we are compelled to work from home, albeit unofficially. If we tell them that we won’t be able to work, they deduct our salary. On the other hand, they give us our restricted holidays, such as Eid and Christmas, according to our faith. You are only eligible for an off if you belong to the religion whose festival is being celebrated. Moreover, even when we work on these holidays, we don’t get comp-offs. There was this one time when a person was suffering from bronchitis. He was unavailable for a month because he was in the hospital, and he sought leave for his treatment. He gathered all his documents and prescriptions to show to the HR manager whenever required. They accepted his leave but cut his salary for the entire month, despite him having saved up all of his holidays,” he said.

Misogyny at work

On the other hand, sometimes the toxicity is not permeated through additional work but through a lack of important work being given to them, just because they are women. Kritika Dutta (name changed), a 24-year-old HR professional at an agrochemicals manufacturing firm, said that the heft of the department’s work was given to her male colleague who joined alongside her, while she was left with making basic PowerPoint presentations.

“It’s very apparent that my organisation favours men more. I had joined my department alongside a male colleague in HR, while on the other hand, another friend of mine had joined the finance team with another male colleague as a management trainee in the same department. Both of our male colleagues get the actual ‘good’ work, while we only get to make PPTs or just collate data. Each time, our boss will not call us but the men, and he is very sweet to them. The boss gives feedback only to our male colleagues. There is zero interaction between him and us,” she said.

Kritika also claimed that the senior management maintains a list of people they do not like and are continuously searching to replace those people. “The senior management does not like anyone who is better than them, even potentially, and they loathe people who question them. Thus, they maintain a list of people who need to be replaced, and the moment they find the best replacement, they kick them out at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, only those who are close to the boss and the senior management get their promotions, while your professional acumen barely matters,” she alleged.

Increased layoffs 

To put matters into perspective, in August 2024, tech companies continued to cut jobs at a rapid rate, with over 27,000 workers laid off across the industry. More than 40 firms, including major players like Intel, IBM, and Cisco, as well as several smaller start-ups, announced layoffs during the month. So far in 2024, a total of 422 companies have cut more than 1,36,000 jobs, signalling significant turbulence in the tech sector.

On the other hand, the second largest investment bank, Goldman Sachs, also announced the sacking of around four percent of its workforce, as it slashes down nearly 1,800 jobs.

Sometimes, however, the toxicity can be built on the pretext of basic jealousy between colleagues. Prakriti Chaurasia (name changed), a 24-year-old financial analyst working at a start-up in Noida, highlighted that in the past few months, there has been a growing sense of animosity between her and her colleagues.

“My boss likes my ideas and he takes them up while shutting down the suggestions made by some of my senior colleagues. This has led to them creating random rumours about a romantic relationship between the two of us. However, such is not the case. Some of them also went to the HR manager to report us, where she called only my boss, who is a man. I was left out of the loop. On the other hand, there is constant jeering and taunts thrown by my colleagues, where they call me names, telling me that now I’ll get my promotion, and such vile statements. It’s only getting worse by the day, although I am trying to fend it off as much as possible,” she said.

Overworked and fatigued

A situation of absolute dread has also been built at another start-up firm in Gurugram, where Kaplesh Chaudhary (name changed), a 23-year-old IT professional, said that for the past couple of months, with a change in management, everyone on his team has had to work for overly long periods.

“I come to the office at 11 in the morning, and I have to stay back till late at night, with my work getting over at 11 at night. Actually, the fact is that I normally get done with the day’s work by around six in the evening. Then, my manager sees me sitting idly without anything else to do, and he gives me his share of work to get done. He runs off on his own time, and there I am seated alone till the dead of the night alongside my team of other juniors who have to clear up the mess he created. On the other hand, in most circumstances, we do not get our share of holidays prescribed, and if we have to take a compensatory off, we have to keep track of the gazetted holidays that we worked on. The HR does not tell us, and if we want to take the comp off, there is a lot of red tape, which eventually leads to nobody utilising them,” he said.

Experts’ take

Anuna Bordoloi, Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Healthcare, said that the hustle culture has led to immense mental fatigue, leading to the impairment of decision-making and problem-solving abilities of young professionals.

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“Hustle culture is often seen as a key to success, but it overlooks the brain’s natural limits. Our ability to focus is optimal for about 45 minutes at a stretch. Pushing beyond that without breaks can lead to mental fatigue, impairing critical functions like decision-making and problem-solving, and increasing the likelihood of mistakes. Additionally, the constant pressure to work can result in burnout, stress, and anxiety, creating a sense of disconnection from our surroundings. The drive for perfection and constant comparison with others can also impact our self-worth, making it harder to maintain a healthy balance,” she said.

Ayushi Gaur, a clinical psychologist and a professor at Amity University, Lucknow, highlighted that the hustle culture has diminished professionals’ interest in their jobs, leading them to equate their workplace with toxicity.

“The hustle environment at the workplace has made professionals lose interest in their jobs; they are carrying their work roles with a burden, and the passion and innovation at work have diminished. Moreover, if the reinforcement is not at par, there is poor communication and extreme micromanagement, which has turned the work culture toxic. This culture demands all-time availability of professionals (even if the employee is on leave), declining work breaks, and always-at-work mode status. There is no room for mental ventilation due to the hustle. A work environment that does not endorse fairness, allow flexibility, recognise integrity and honesty, and, last but not least, expedient increments to employees is bound to develop a toxic environment for its professionals,” she said.