Macro uncertainty, layoffs giving sleepless nights to working professionals

Increasing macroeconomic uncertainty, worries about job loss, news of global mass layoffs, and financial insecurities are unnerving working professionals leading to a huge rise in stress levels and anxiety-related disorders in the last 6-8 months, mental health consultants said.

About 4-6 out of 10 professionals reaching out for mental health support in the last few months are hounded with the fear of potential impact of the uncertain business environment on their jobs, according to estimates by mental health experts. The impact is mostly visible in the information technology (IT), IT - enabled services and tech startup sectors that are battling with slowing global demand and funding winter, said counsellors.

"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."


Symptoms of people are calling in for support include high anxiety, catastrophic thoughts that things will go wrong, sleeplessness, mental fatigue, lack of motivation and inability to focus or concentrate, mood swings and anger, as well as depression, said mental health experts and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service providers.

Mental Health Support
Last week, Amit Malik, founder and CEO of psychological health platform Amaha (formerly InnerHour), had an internal conversation with his team on how to proactively provide mental health support to people who have been laid off. Amaha is currently talking to a couple of companies in the technology sector that have reached out to them to support their laid off employees. "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, 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 feeling rising levels of stress due to the uncertainty.