Is A Toxic Work Culture Affecting You?

'There is a limit when it comes to tolerating abusive behaviour or working styles. Many employees find ways to quit,' says career coach and rediffGURU Pradeep Pramanik.

Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant, breathed her last, allegedly due to extreme pressure at the firm she was working for.

Anna, who passed her CA exams in 2023, had worked at Ernst & Young's Pune office for barely four months.

In a heartfelt and strongly worded letter addressed to EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani, Anna's mother Anita Augustine flagged the 'glorification' of overwork at the multinational consulting firm.

The letter, that has since gone viral on the Internet, has inspired several discussions around workplace harassment and what can be done to break the cycle while protecting the employees' physical and mental health.

The important question everyone is asking is: How does one deal with workplace burnout?

Responding to a question on RediffGurus, rediffGURU Pradeep Pramanik, career coach, placement consultant and director at Fast Track Career Consultants, highlights how workplace burnout is ruining the mental health of working professionals.

Calling it a 'paradox in the Indian context', Pramanik explained how certain private companies are encouraging abusive working styles and why it is important for employees to take strong action.

"There is a limit when it comes to tolerating abusive behaviour or working styles. Many (employees) find ways to quit."

This toxic culture, he says, is prevalent not just in the consulting field; it affects other sectors as well.

"There are BFSIs (banking, financial services, and insurance), NBFCs (non-banking financial companies), telecom, industrial product companies, real estate firms, FMCG, FMCD and pharmaceutical companies that, despite offering high packages, are not able to attract talent."

The reason, he says, is the high work pressure and abusive work conditions, coupled with job uncertainty and the "worst approach by top management where employees are treated like slaves.

"If this is what can happen to a CA, one can only imagine the pressure professionals in other fields must be facing," Pramanik tells Divya Nair/Rediff.com.

What is a toxic workplace? What are the warning signs?

"I have spoken to so many professionals working across industries in India who have discussed their concerns at work," says Pramanik.

"It is frightening, but there are managers who make threatening calls to employees pretending to follow up on their work and pressure them into meeting unhealthy deadlines," says Pramanik who lists a few warning signs for young professionals:

"You should know that your workplace is not healthy when you experience the following:

• "Your boss/manager frequently calls or assigns you more work after office hours.
• "You are always working overtime and stressing over deadlines.
• "Your immediate boss/line manager takes undue credit for your hard work.
• "You are not allowed to take holidays or weekends off to spend time with your family."

"There are so many different ways companies can harass employees at work.

"The simplest way is to understand how you truly feel about your workplace.

"When you wake up in the morning, do you always pray that 'Today should be a normal/stress-free day at work'?

"When you are spending quality time with your family after work, do you often dread that your manager will call you and assign you a project?

"Are you always worrying about work, missing out on time with family and friends and struggling with work-life balance?"

If the answer to all the above is yes, it is time you look for a new job, suggests Pramanik.

"Be bold. Take challenges as a part of your life.

"And when you think work pressure is crossing limits, you must expose the truth to the top management.

"On many occasions, putting so much pressure on young professionals is the handiwork of line managers or HR managers," says Pramanik, "which the top management might not be aware about."

• How to deal with a toxic work culture? You can post your questions to rediffGURUS HERE.

Dear Readers, have you faced harassment at the workplace? Do you know anyone who has?

How did you deal with it?

Did you report the incident/s or did you quit?

How did you heal from the abuse? Did you take professional help?

What were the lessons you learnt that can help others?

In the light of Anna's tragic demise, we hope the real life experiences we are presenting will help others who are facing a similar situation.

Write to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (Workplace woes). If you can, please do share your name and location. If you wish to remain anonymous, please do let us know; we will respect your wishes.