(A technology worker falls asleep at her desk in an office in
Having morphed from a quiet, laid-back provincial city into a crowded, cosmopolitan metropolis of sky-high salaries and even higher ambitions,
Experts at the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) have been warning that an increasing number of young professionals, including IT sector workers, are reporting psychological problems. Dr B.N. Gangadhar of the Department of Psychiatry at NIMHANS says he usually sees half a dozen techies on his outpatient days, and the most commonly reported problems are marital discord and depression. "Most IT sector employees are migrants, with little social support in their adoptive cities," he says. "Being young, they're often single and lonely. If married, they have little time for their families. And when things go wrong, whether at work or at home, they have no one to turn to for help."
Last month, the country's attention was drawn to a case in which an Infosys software engineer killed his wife and himself because he suspected her of infidelity. A NIMHANS study shows that
"Companies have seen individuals breaking down, and they realize that they need to play a part to prevent it," says Karuna Bhaskar, director at 1to1help.net, a counseling service whose clients include HP, IBM and Texas Instruments. In the seven years since she co-founded her organization, she says she has found that the rat race causes a diversity of problems. "Not only do you want to keep up with the Joneses, your children want to keep up with the Joneses' children. But debt is something we Indians have never been comfortable with. So mounting credit card bills become a nightmare," she says. "And then there's the uncertainty over downsizing and job cuts. Our generation has seen our parents stay with the same job for life; for a lot of us the prospect of a pink slip is horrifying," she adds.
Many of these changes are daunting because they have happened so quickly that society and individuals have had no time to develop a response. C. Mahalingam, chief people officer at software solutions provider Symphony Services, says the IT sector needs to evolve a long-term solution. "What we need to do more is to train and educate employees to expand their zone of comfort, and to draw upon their inner resources," he says. "We're taking in all these brilliant Mensa Club types, and we must provide them with a better support system so they can perform."