The tragic death of a brilliant and talented young woman, through overwork and work-related tensions, has brought corporate culture in the cross-hairs of various high-powered Government agencies, like the National and State Human Rights Commissions. The late reaction of the Government is understandable, considering that Government, like the proverbial thanadar, takes note only when things go irretrievably wrong.

The toxic corporate culture in metropolises was not a hidden phenomenon. Rather, yuppies, young urban professionals for the uninitiated, were the envy of Indian youth, because yuppies drew unimaginably high salaries, worked hard, and partied even harder. Their employers offered in-house catering, gyms and places where the employee could relax ~ all provided with the sole, but hidden, aim of making the employee spend all his waking hours in the company’s premises. Consultancy firms, private equity firms, investment banks, law firms ~ all were guilty of promoting this brand of corporate culture. Work life balance was seldom mentioned, and almost never practised by the so-called yuppies.

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Corporate leaders, the labour ministry and even parents, determinedly shut their eyes to an ecosystem where employees lived to work and not vice versa, with the company being the be all and end all for their employees. The end result was that the corporate sector flourished, by maximising the output of employees, but for employees it was a Faustian bargain; in lieu of a hand some salary, the employee had to sell his body and soul to the company. Most newcomers to the corporate sector could not even understand what they were getting into; coming straight from college, they had no experience of corporates, or any other kind of employer.

Additionally, a significant proportion of corporate employees are from smaller cities, and so have a tough time adjusting to the metro culture. The inevitable result is a stressed and unhappy existence for employees ~ with no option of calling time. Also, the high salary comes with high expectations and high expenses; with their tight schedules, corporate executives have to live near their workplaces, which are mostly in the toniest neighbourhoods, with exorbitantly high rents. Income-tax, and money required to keep up with the Joneses, takes care of the rest of the employee’s salary, leaving him with no savings.

The 2008-09 global meltdown exposed the ill-effects of the corporate lifestyle, on employees. The average salary cut was 34 per cent in the US, with the highest paid executives suffering the most, since they faced higher pay cuts, and had little savings to weather the storm. Dubai, which was on a roll before the meltdown, paid corporate executives, mostly expatriates, the moon. The meltdown resulted in salary cuts and retrenchments, which had corporate employees hotfooting it back to their homelands, abandoning their sports cars and flat keys at Dubai Airport; since their lavish lifestyle had almost entirely been funded by debt, they were afraid to default on their debts, in a country with strict insolvency laws. Post-meltdown analysis by economists revealed that ultrahigh salaries had been a drag on Dubai’s economy; high operating costs ~ including wages, and office and residential rents ~ were a deterrent for prospective investors, preventing new businesses from coming to Dubai.

The international financial crisis proved a blessing in disguise for Dubai, with rents and salaries coming down, entrepreneurs again started flocking back. Aftershocks of the meltdown affected executives in India also; Gurgaon (now Gurugram) and Bangalore (now Bengaluru) witnessed a large number of defaults on credit cards and housing loans of corporate executives, showing that corporate employees the world over were living on the edge, their flashy lifestyle mostly funded by loans and credit cards. After the meltdown, private jobs lost some of their sheen, and youngsters again started trying for government jobs.

However, with soaring unemployment, exam paper leaks, and the virtual freeze on government recruitment, there are few employment opportunities left for Indian youth. Sensing their helplessness, corporates have started hiring contract workers, reducing salaries, and laying off employees. Thus, the adage that private companies pay twice the salary, but make a person do the job of four persons needs modification; you should be thankful if private companies pay you on time and make you do the work of only five persons. The public mostly sees the rosy side of corporate culture ultramodern buildings housing corporate offices, smartly dressed men and women roaming around in fashionable malls and pubs, spending money as if there was no tomorrow. The toxic culture of corporate workplaces rarely comes out in the open ~ employees are bound by nothing short of anomerta rat on us, and you are out of the corporate world.

Sometimes, pushed to the brink, employees reveal shocking instances of mistreatment; after a showdown with management, workers at an Amazon facility in the UK, told the BBC about “severe” work conditions, where even their toilet breaks were timed. An Amazon spokesman clarified “(Amazon) also encourages coaching to help employees improve if they are not meeting their performance goals” which is reminiscent of Chinese-speak about ‘re education.’ The experience of Amazon employees in the US and India was no different, where an oath was administered to employees to not take toilet or water breaks till targets were met. Employers should realise that they are dealing with young men and women, not animals ~ though a conscientious owner will never overwork his charges, the way employees are made to struggle in blue-chip companies.

The hundred-hour work week ~ the Indian employers’ ideal ~ has gone out of fashion more than a century ago, after Henry Ford introduced the forty-hour week. Currently, while Europe is gravitating towards a four-day week, Indian employers will have their staff work 24 X 7. With the Labour Department in deep slumber, or in cahoots with wealthy employers, it is up to the political leadership to prevent exploitation of young men and women at the hand of big corporates. Yet politicians are often found wanting in sensitivity; commenting on the unfortunate death of the young corporate employee, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister and also Minister for Corporate Affairs, herself an employee of one of the Big Four in her youth, said: “… a woman who had studied CA well, died unable to cope up with the pressure.

Families should teach that no matter what you study and how far you go in life, you should have the inner strength from within to handle stress,” which seemed to suggest that the young woman died due to work pressure because she was not taught to take stress. After adverse comments by Opposition politicians, the FM denied that she had indulged in victim blaming. Young men and women join large corporates with stars in their eyes; they want to be the new Brian Niccol, the recently-joined CEO of Starbucks, who commutes 1,000 miles to work from his home in Newport Beach, California, to the company’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, three days a week, by the company’s private jet, or at least like Ravi Kumar Sin gisetti, the CEO of Cognizant, who drew a salary of Rs.186 crore in 2023. Sadly, few will realise their dream, since the burnout rate for corporate executives is quite high.

Also, some will fall by the wayside, some others will not be able to resist their temptation while dealing with humongous sums of mon ey and property, and like the Indian-American Rajat Gupta, the erstwhile CEO of McKinsey & Co, and a co-founder of the Indian School of Business, will be hauled up for unethical behaviour. Be that as it may, the ball is squarely in the Government’s court; at the very least, guidelines need to be finalised to lay down working hours and compulsory off days, with strict penalties for infringements. Sadly, what the US labour leader James P Hoffa said about the US: “Wage theft, worker rights and workplace discrimination should not be swept under the rug. The United States cannot have a functional economy where all the gains go to the corporate class while all the pain goes to regular workers,” applies equally to India.

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax)