Why is it so hard to sing Hakuna Matata
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics reveal that 15 people commit suicides every hour. More than 2500 employees across 150 clients have reached out to an employee assistance program called1to1help.net for help in the last 10 years. They were feeling suicidal. Optum, an employee assistance firm estimates that almost half of the workforce in organizations in India suffers from some or the other form of stress.In the film Lion King, when the protagonist Simba is getting stressed, his friends advise him to just relax and sing Hakuna Matata – that is Swahili for “no worries”. If the reports are to be believed, corporate India is finding it hard to sing Hakuna Matata. <Watch the video>
Everyone gets stressed
A mismatch of expectations and reality causes stress. Unexpected life events cause stress. Here is a list of top stressors <read here>. Adults will go through all those stressful life events like death and balancing conflicting priorities. We know that. Our youth is consumed by the endless preparation needed to launch a career – which makes us look good in others eyes. That only leaves childhood as a possible stress free zone. Is it?Childhood would have been stress free (relatively speaking) but for ambitious parents who believe that their child must be well read, articulate, accomplished in sports, arts and studies and rattle off impressive stuff when they have visitors. That leaves only the new born baby who could be stress free. But even they aren’t shielded from this.
Workplace stress
Organizations are constantly having to trim costs to stay afloat in a competitive environment. Since 2000, 52 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired, ceased to exist, or dropped out of the Fortune 500. In fact, the pace of change has increased, competition has intensified, and business models have been disrupted. Robots are taking away tasks that were done by humans. That means employees need to continuously upskill themselves as their existing skills are constantly becoming obsolete.
The new employers are starting companies worth billions and employing barely a few hundred people. Per employee valuation is the new status symbol the unicorns want to flaunt. WhatsApp had 55 employees when Facebook bought it out for $19 billion making it a whopping $345 million per employee. Facebook employed 12,691 people in December 2015. When Uber was valued at $40bn in July 2015, they employed 7500 people.
What can be done
Loneliness is the biggest curse of the contemporary India. The pressure to find employment drives people to uproot themselves from their friends and family. That takes away the biggest mental safety-net one could have. Software engineers have often said that they dread weekends because they have no friends in the city where they are now working. Hanging around in malls is a poor substitute.At one level skills are getting eroded. Businesses are going through massive swings adding to the uncertainty. Most senior executives stay tethered to the office on their mobiles. When French legislators proposed that the employees have a right to disconnect, the world gasped in disbelief. Inability to get at least seven hours of sleep results in “inability to process even simple information, mood swings, anger outbursts.”Frequent travel, poor eating habits, lack of exercise and inadequate number of meaningful and trusting relationships at work is beginning to define the new workplace. Work is much more than a means of putting bread on the table. It is a source of our identity and provides meaning. Stress is a signal that there is trouble brewing somewhere.--------Preparing our children for the future workplaceRead more: What is stressing corporate IndiaJoin me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri