Falling Sick due to Work Stress

We are living in times where health is of the top most priority and nothing is more important than taking care of our health. In my HR career I have observed and seen many such incidents where if employees are sick to the level of getting hospitalized, they still want to come to work and stick on to their commitments. It is good to be a dedicated employee but at what cost is very important. Being sick and taking work stress is not even the last thing one should think of.

We work for 35 to 40 years of our life and the tragedy is that we make work only our life, forgetting that there is life beyond work. Specially in the Indian work environment, where you are expected to work long working hours and that too without any additional benefits. In the last few years, I have started working on my own terms, doing freelancing HR job, but till the time I was in a full-time job, it was always my rule to leave from office on time and not attend any work calls after that unless only extreme emergency.

Working for 25 years I have also realized one thing that, every work becomes urgent and on top priority outside your office hours and you are pressurized to complete it beyond your working hours. It is always made to look that way, if not done right now, there is going to be big impact, but the truth is, everything can wait, out of the 100 times, may be just once or twice is the real emergency situation, rest all are just pressure tactics. I have always encouraged my teams also to maintain a work life balance.

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The work stress that employees take is not going to harm the big corporates in any way, they are going to make profits and the employees who are stretching out are going to suffer with bad health. What is that promotion or extra money of use, if good health is not there. I have always believed that one needs to work smart and not like a donkey. Majority of the Corporates do not really care for your health, all they will have for you is timelines. There are very few Organizations who emphasize on work life balance, and I have been lucky to work with one of them, Accenture. One of the best Companies to work with where work life balance is given the utmost importance, where employee's wellbeing is considered to be priority.

In my free-lancing job, where I have taken up assignments for smaller companies, most of them I have seen treat their employees like slaves, as if they are bonded to them and they give least importance on the wellbeing part. Specially the Indian mid-size and small companies, they thoroughly exploit their employees. The work culture in these types of Companies is very poor, they have 6 days working in a week, which hardly gives any time to the person to rejuvenate.
While work is important, one has to be mindful about their health and not work till a situation where one feels stressful and falls sick, that is no way of working. If your Company makes you work to that level on a regular basis, it is time to reconsider your job. A job where you feel burned out, is probably not the best job for you.

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