As if the fact that India is almost the suicide capital of the world was not enough that now we see this dragon having entered the workplace for more victims !!
This article is written in the context of the recent suicide by the employee at Axis Bank in Noida. A female relationship officer who had joined just six odd months before the unfortunate day and consumed poison. In her suicide note, she has mentioned their Area Manager, Senior Manager and four other colleagues for constantly harassing her, name calling, derogatory remarks and cornering her of verbal insults and discrimination. The lady had also approached VIMHANS for psychological counselling.
This is ridiculous to have happened this way and the police investigation has led to some arrests as well. Some or the other types of case studies are everywhere in the corporate environment, whether a small company or a well organised structured systems like MNCs. Not everybody commits suicide but we know the stress people are carrying within them and the resultant behavioural repercussion at the workplace or in personal relationships.
Let’s dig deeper in our case again to understand the state of mind of the victim here.
Prima facie it is clearly evident that this is a case of lack of employee counselling within the organisation or in other words apathy for the employee. Of course in an organisation like Axis HR would have a redressal space where the employee can express his or her opinion but obviously it proved to of no use.
Do I blame the immediate manager for this? No. Even the Area Manager was involved in this as per the lady. Probably it is the organisational culture to be blamed where such torture is happening in open and no one, let alone the HR is bothered to do something about it. So then do I blame Axis Bank for this? No. It is the industry culture across organisations. BFSI (particularly the private companies) is known to be one of the top pressure inducing work environments around. Do I blame BFSI culture for this? No. This culture of apathy spans across all industries in private and also government organisations.
So then who am I blaming here? Where do we point a finger and start the resurrection work? Or the bigger question is – is blaming the solution or a just social habit whether it is cricket, corporate or politics we just start gossiping and judging people and situations.
But if I have to put a finger on someone in such cases, I guess it is hidden reason why the individual chose not to fight and rather succumbed to the situation. Whether it was this lady or from a different context – Joy from 3 Idiots or Siddharth from CCD or everyone’s favourite Sushant Rajput (whatever the reality was in his case). Again not anyone’s fault so to say. Organisation psychology talks about obedience and conformity as necessary cases in point here.
The unfortunate habit to term everything toxic is the point of blame here. All the time people are seen cribbing about the workplace, work, colleagues, relationships, kids and what not. Psychology says this adds to cognitive dissonance and makes one take a drastic step like suicide just because you are habituated to crib and seek attention than to stand up and fight!
Hope HR in the organisation also takes an empathetic look into this situation. This their department’s forte and also responsibility and an accident like this certainly calls in for them to take the moral responsibility. After all, a significant part of the moral part of the blame lies in the department who are supposed to be the custodians of the organisational culture and employee (humans are a resource – HR) welfare. How come no one approaches HR in such situations is a question that is asked in hidden alleys but not upfront !! Why?
The next in line, this time I tag as a criminal of course in general terms, is the immediate manager. Need I say anything about him?? Enough literature on how to be an effective leader but incompetent human leadership ties the hands of the HR also in the end.
So there we are, all the blames and no solution in sight, only gyan. God bless the employee with wisdom to work on his self-worth and learn to live, co-exist, collaborate and prosper in this workplace!
Key mantra for stress resolution – “Remember, the Only Reason for Unhappiness in Life is the Desire That There Should Not be Unhappiness in Life !!
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