On World Mental Health Day, we need to remember that as change is the only constant, it should also reflect at workplaces

We are more than our jobs is a fact, not a myth. However, capitalistic times bring capitalistic facts. The word ‘toxic’ has been associated with the workplace environment for a very long time now.

The toxic work culture that has been thriving for a very long time can be attributed to multiple factors as per the CEO of ClearForce, Tom Miller, who said that it could be a range of actions and behaviors displayed at the workplace that could qualify for the same – bullying, harassment of employees, lack of consideration for the employees, poor work life balance, unethical practices, poor pay among many others.

A trend that has gone viral on ‘TikTok’ has now caught the attention of the people with many relating to it. This is a video that was posted in July 2022 by the username @zkchillin wherein the user mentioned “You’re not outright quitting your job, but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond. You’re still performing your duties, but you’re no longer subscribing to the hustle-culture mentality that work has to be your life; the reality is it’s not, and your worth as a person is not defined by your labour”.

It is assumed that the people do their jobs with the highest level of passion, purpose and sincerity without understanding the silent unpopular factors such as poor economy, degrading job market, lack of opportunities, lack of skills and accessibility to resources and spaces, rampant discrimination at the workplace. All of these get even worse for the under-privileged, vulnerable and marginalized sections.

Anthony Klotz, Associate Professor at University of College London’s School of Management, says, “Although this has come from a younger generation and in new packaging, this trend has been studied under different names for decades: disengagement, neglect, withdrawal.” The term ‘coasting’ primarily means the same thing - wherein one does what is expected of them without going above and beyond their job requirements.

An article titled ‘Rather than quit, more and more employees are happy to just get by and collect their salaries. Is it necessarily a problem?’ by Alex Christian was published in BBC in 2022. It explains the many reasons why employees choose to work the way they do and ‘No’, it has nothing to do with ‘laziness’. Mark Bolino, Director of Management and International Business at the University of Oklahoma, US, explains how multiple reasons could lead to employee coasting, with this phenomenon gaining higher popularity since the pandemic, factors such as burnout, missed promotion, poor match between contribution and reward , poor mental health, mounting deadlines/projects leading to a “natural ebb and flow to work” (Bolino).

While the heat on quiet (or not so quiet) quitting is going on in and out of the digital space, CEO of Bombay Shaving company, Shantanu Deshpande, has come under radar now for his online post that reads, “When you are 22 and new in your job, throw yourself into it. Eat well and stay fit, but put in the 18-hour days for at least 4-5 years. I see a LOT of youngsters who watch random content all over and convince themselves that ‘work life balances, spending time with family, rejuvenation bla bla’ is important. It is, but not that early. That early, worship your work.

Whatever it is. The flex you build in the first five years of your career carries you for the rest of it.”

Deshpande is quickly joined by Harsimarbir Singh, Co-founder Pristyn Care, who has shared a checklist of ‘eligibility criteria’ to get the right people on board, which directly point towards the extremely toxic hustle culture of today’s times. Singh in the past has defended the LinkedIn post shared by Shantanu Deshpande and has further added that ‘successful’ people have a list of common factors - long working hours, missed family events, working when others were relaxing.

If we truly want our employees to be healthy, happy and productive at their work, then it is high time we reworked and broke down on what we have built over the years as the so called ‘work-culture’, because clearly this is not serving the right purpose to the people involved as evidently seen in the current times. If change is the only constant, shouldn’t that show in the right form at the workspace? Before we acknowledge the quietness levels of quitting, it would be wise to look at the myriad reasons that are responsible for an ever growing and evolving population of constantly burnout, unhappy and unhealthy employees today who are popularly quietly quitting and un-popularly made to ‘quit’ quietly.

(Forum Lalka is a Senior Psychologist at Mindtemple, Mumbai. Moitrayee Das Assistant Professor of Psychology at FLAME University, Pune.)