According to mental health consultants, working professionals are becoming increasingly stressed out due to rising macroeconomic uncertainty, worries about job loss, news stories of widespread layoffs, and financial insecurities. As a result, anxiety-related stress levels and disorders have significantly increased in the past 6 to 8 months.
According to estimations from mental health experts, 4-6 out of 10 professionals who have sought mental health care in recent months are disturbed by fear of the potential effects of the uncertain business environment on their work. According to counsellors, the impact is primarily seen in the information technology (IT), IT-enabled services, and tech startup sectors, all struggling with slowing worldwide demand and a funding crisis.
“Fear of losing jobs is on the top of the mind of everyone,” said Ashish Ambasta, founder-CEO HappyPlus Consulting. According to him, “six out of ten people who reach out for counselling assistance have this fear of uncertainty, especially with their jobs. The anticipation of pain gives you more pain. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow, and that is playing in everyone’s mind.”
High anxiety, negative speculations that everything will go wrong, insomnia, mental fatigue, a lack of motivation and trouble focusing, mood swings and anger, as well as depression, are all symptoms of people seeking help, according to mental health experts and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service providers.
Amit Malik, the founder and CEO of Amaha (previously InnerHour), a psychological health platform, held a staff meeting last week to discuss ways to offer mental health support to those laid off proactively. Amaha is currently speaking with a few tech companies that have contacted them for assistance with their laid-off workers.
“That apart, we are also ramping up our efforts to provide support to the managers who are forced to take the hard decision as well as an anxious bunch of professionals feeling job loss fears,” said Malik.
“We have more people reaching out to us with stress, anxiety and some forms of depression in the last few months – mostly from the tech and startup sectors,” said Archana Bisht, director of 1to1help.net.
According to Bisht, middle-level managers, who must pay monthly EMI and take care of children’s education, are worried about their job security and feel rising stress levels due to uncertainty.
