Mental Health of Employees – Who Is Responsible?
The case of the untimely death of bright 26-year-old CA from a top audit firm has rattled the corporate world. This has resulted in a serious question “Who is responsible for the mental health of an employee?”
Workplace these days are too different from ones that existed a few years back. COVID has played its role in this in a big way. Now we have work from home, work from office, hybrid model and what not! The days of lifelong employment and loyalty of employees are all long dead! The workplace has become truly multigenerational. We have generation X, Y, Z millennial all huddled together and pulling their weights in achieving the goals of the organization.
At one end we have AI staring all of us and there are predictions of loss of jobs in sectors like IT and IT enabled services, who are the largest employers! Service industries are feeling the pinch of employee attrition as the new generation of ambitious lot wants to move to greener pastures in haste. Workplace is also growing globally as many Indian MNCs are emerging with greater pace.
Traditional jobs in industries like agriculture, machine building, automobile and such “nuts & bolts “industries are facing higher order automation leading to job losses. The emerging era is known to be that of one with heavy “Intellectual Capital” and knowledge based one.
In such a situation the role of a business leader becomes too complicated as he has the unenviable job of harmonizing the effort of his team members who are from diverse backgrounds. He becomes solely responsible for the organizational culture, values and at the same time mental, physical, social well-being of his team members. This can be done by promoting open communication to discuss challenges faced by employees, flexibility, and positive work culture, self-care models for employees, team building, and integration of work- life. Mindfulness and gratitude should become watchwords across the organization.
These things will keep toxicity at bay at the workplace and nurture great work culture. So, the business leader has got to be torch bearer and role model for this.
T Mugunthan Chari
A 433.
