The recent death of a 26-year-old chartered accountant at leading accounting firm EY India triggered the often ignored work culture in the country. Her parents alleged that she succumbed to the extensive workload and long working hours that took a toll on her physically, mentally and emotionally. In another instance, a McKinsey consultant died by suicide, succumbing to work pressure, according to the media reports. These deaths cannot be isolated but are symptomatic of larger structural complexities of society's effusive acquiesce to ‘hard work’, ‘merit’ and ‘success’. The appropriation of these ideals and further romanticising of the same recluse any serious debate on the work culture and ethics, especially in the Indian context where such issues are often dismissed citing the problem of plenty.

According to Dan Ariely, humans broadly live in two words, one characterised by social exchanges and the other by market exchanges. Market norms are based on monetary transactions, where interactions are governed by cost-benefit logic. They involve explicit exchanges, such as wages for work or payment for goods. On the other hand, social norms operate on relationships and goodwill, relying on trust, respect, and emotional bonds. The problem arises when the intermixes of these norms occur. 

Over recent decades, corporations have made explicit endeavours to go beyond the market norms and market themselves as social brethren, attributing employees as a ‘family’. From advertisements to so-called company culture, corporations are rushing towards ‘humanising’ themselves beyond the conventional transactional relationship constitutive of market norms. And when one is attributed as a ‘family member’, one needs to go leaps and bounds to contribute to the growth of the ‘family’. 

Bridging of gap between work and home

In a typical market-driven exchange and system, the workers are paid by the hour, and there is a clear distinction between work and non-working hours. However, corporations and companies using social exchange blur the boundary between work and non-working hours. Companies have hardwired their workforce to think about the work all the time, which is further exacerbated by the IT and internet revolution, where one’s work is independent of physical spaces. With companies giving away laptops and phones, bridging the gap between work and home.

As social exchange comes with intrinsic values of goodwill, trust, respect, and emotional bonds, it nudges employees to be passionate, hard-working, flexible, and concerned. In the same vein, virtues like hard work and loyalty and merit are construed to serve the corporations and social norms become the best conduit to ensure the same. 

Ambitious entrepreneurs, including at established tech giants, expect employees across the ranks to clock up long hours to show their commitment and dedication. Peer pressure is a significant factor. Workers often consider it an unwritten rule to stay past the official hours, regardless of whether that extra time spent results in higher productivity. The CEO and owners of the corporations ostensibly lecturing on 70 hours of work per week and rendering the idea of weekends as useless are nothing else but benchmarking exploitation intrinsic to neoliberalism. 

It's not only corporations; state representatives expected to ensure and promote welfarism seem hand in glove with the economic elites. The BJP, time and again, has highlighted how PM Narendra Modi works 24X7 and sleeps for four hours, symptomatic of his due diligence pertaining to work. The idea of overworking is often draped as self-sacrifice, a cultural phenomenon typically revered in Indian society. 

The culture of 996, which refers to working 12 hours a day, six days a week, has become an unwritten standard for developing country’s tech firms. In China, the term 996 describes the notoriously gruelling work schedule adopted by tech companies, whose employees are known to toil from 9am to 9pm, six days a week – or longer. In some workplaces, such as fledgling start-ups, 996 has been attributed as “Work by '996', sick in ICU”, an ironic saying among Chinese developers. These are pertinent issues related to the mere 15 percent of the formalised workforce comprising IT and service industries that often face excessive workload and stress and limited autonomy. According to a 2023 survey by the McKinsey Health Institute, 59% of respondents in India reported experiencing symptoms of burnout, the highest rate among surveyed groups. Here, more than 85 per cent of informal labourers are without a written contract, paid leave and other benefits.

Developing world has different work values

Glorifying long working hours can cause individuals to normalise them, fostering a belief that enduring extended hours reflects greater toughness and dedication. The peer pressure has been further exacerbated as productivity is valorised and cherished under the euphemism of ‘hard work'  under the frivolous category of ‘employee of the month’ with no other incentives. However, evidence indicates that working longer doesn't always equate to working more effectively.

In a typical capitalistic system where profit is the fundamental maxim for corporations, emerging studies on four days a week have shown higher productivity in the employees. The four-day workweek trials received overwhelming support, with 97% of workers and 92% of UK employers favouring its permanence. Globally, participating companies saw an 8% revenue increase during the trial, reduced absenteeism, higher hiring rates, and fewer resignations. People did more exercise, and had more sleep and the time spent by typical male workers looking after the children increased by 27 percent. Such trials do not resonate with the developing world as the focus is on boosting the economy's growth engines. 

However, the question that remains unanswered is, when 'social norms' are the ones co-opted by corporations to maximise profits by humanising themselves in disguise, why reduce the workforce only on market norms?

(The author is Assistant Professor of Political Science at GITAM-Hyderabad. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at mayank-mishra@live.com)