There’s another wave of debates around corporate overworking after the tragic death of a young professional mere months after joining a very reputed MNC in Pune.

Before proceeding further, I want to emphasize that losing such a young soul is a tragedy in itself. The fact that it was lost over a job and threats of a ruined career, is heart-breaking. I’m engaging in this debate in good faith, with the hope that these discussions result in a positive outcome, that improves the situation for others, as a lasting legacy of the victim.

First off, I would recommend everyone to calibrate their own, individual level of work load and work stress, that is tolerable for themselves. No government regulations, no corporate committee policies, no union recommendations will be able to get this right for you – only you have the power to define your own threshold when it comes to how much workload and work stress you can handle without it affecting your health – physically or mentally.

If you are regularly exceeding this threshold at work, then you have two options: suck it up and keep hammering, or change your circumstances. Again, because only you can define your baseline, only you have the complete power to change your circumstances. People like to vent online, or blame managers, or curse their fate – but this will NOT change anything. I’m not discouraging you to talk to your manager or using channels to report abuse, but don’t assume using these authority approved procedures will change things for you.

Only you can change things for you – this is true of corporate life, as it is true of life itself.

Let’s also make it clear that corporate organisations don’t care about you. Whether you’re an employee or the founder, whether you consider yourself irreplaceable – the organisation is an organism where you are a cell; and it will try it’s best to survive without you. If Apple is surviving fine without Steve Jobs, you are not irreplaceable. And organisations will replace you quickly, sometimes even willingly.

Consequently, offer no loyalty to the organisation that prioritises its health over your health. No promotion, no threat or coercion, no corner office, no “Employee of the Month” award is worth taking a big hit to your personal health. Don’t get sucked in by this gamification that organisations come up with, so they don’t have to deal with constant churn.

However, there are still times when you want to strategically work over your baseline. I’ve certainly pushed over my baseline for certain periods of my career, but I’ve always been mindful of when I’m doing so, and make sure I make changes when they’re needed. Primarily, these periods can be represented using 4 quadrants:

• High work load and low stress: In startups, you’re often punching above your weight but it should be balanced out with great team cohesion and camaraderie. I’ve worked from late mornings to early mornings, over weekends – but none of it was stressful, it was actually fun! In such situations, you’re fine with the high workload at least until the stress begins to rise, the work begins to lower. Eventually, either the project was launched and work load was manageable again (until we sprint again!), or team dynamics change and stress piles up which moves you into a different quadrant below.
• Low work load and high work stress: Dysfunctional organisation with bad leadership with very low psychological safety and morale. I’ve had roles where I’m going from meeting to meeting without much productive work, but still feeling anxious and dreadful throughout the day. In such situations, you should stay around for a minimum amount of time while you create a savings nest to quit, or start looking for other roles.
• High work load and high stress: Fucked up beyond all repair, quit ASAP. You should ideally see this coming because it would start with one of the other quadrants above. A pro-tip here would be you should keep your savings emergency fund ready so you can quit a role in less than 3 months (the lower this time period, the more empowered you are).

Now, quitting is easier said than done. There’s social stigma around being unemployed, especially from immediate family and friends. Modern consumerism and lifestyle creep have made it hard to opt out of the rat race. But the alternative of letting your health be permanently damaged is definitely worse! Odds are that a few years down the line, the shame of spending a summer unemployed or taking up a lower paying job in some other industry won’t matter much. Use the time to recharge your batteries, upskilling and giving it another shot. The cheat code is that you have unlimited attempts at the corporate game, if you are in good health!

It might seem like I’m dolling out this advice from a position of privilege, which I won’t deny to a certain extent. But I’m also in the middle of a year-long sabbatical that I started after quitting my well paying role without having anything else lined up – so I do know a little bit about the topic.