The ‘new’ four-letter word in our midst today is jobs. Those who have it are unhappy, and those who don’t have it are equally unhappy. Those who are doing well in their jobs are insecure, and those who are doing badly even more so. Those who have good jobs are looking to do something else, and those who don’t have those jobs are looking for those very same jobs. I am venturing out to say this based on a new piece of employee-exploration research.
I am just out of a skin-deep research exercise that covers 8,000-plus people all across India. This is an exercise carried out as a snap-poll across terrains of work that actually pay a monthly salary to an individual on their rolls. This is not about the gig worker. This is about anyone who has an appointment letter that makes them a ‘permanent employee’ (whatever that means). This research covers both physical and virtual spaces of work. It covers the IT worker as much as it covers those in manufacturing, telecom, pharma and nine other verticals of work that employ large numbers in India today.
The output is shocking. The one key element in the jobs marketplace of India is insecurity (71 percent). The second element is anxiety (59 percent) and the third in the pecking order is unhappiness (47 percent).
The headline output of this exploration—if it is to be believed—is that seven out of 10 employees in India are insecure. Insecurity can be good or bad. While insecurity is good to an extent to the employer, it is equally bad, as it makes the mind of the employee focused on to job search in the world outside that much more than to focus on the job at hand. The distracted employee is a reality at the workplace. And this leads to a lack of productivity.
While employee attrition rates are expected to be lesser in such an environment, this is not such a great positive. Insecurity cuts both ways. While keeping employees insecure just that wee bit is fine to get them to work hard, making them keep wondering as to when they will lose their jobs is not such a great thing at all. The negative angst can kill—it can kill productivity and interest altogether, among other things.
This latent insecurity, as expressed by a small set of explored people in the job market of India, is telling. Insecurity leads to anxiety (and attendant physical and mental health issues) and anxiety leads to unhappiness. Just as we seem to have those touted and highly advertised ‘happy places to work’, we seem to have a whole host of ‘unhappy work places’ which no one is wanting to explore or discuss for a start, leave alone celebrate.
Those who have jobs have job-envy. They are forever looking across the fence at a brother, a sister or even a father or a mother or a relative who has a ‘better job’ (again, whatever that means). Those who have jobs do have a condition called ‘job insecurity’. What if I lose my job? And when will I lose my job? While three out of 10 are totally secure and happy, seven of that 10 sit in this rather insecure boat sailing a choppy sea of insecure global headwinds and the accompanying tumult of artificial intelligence and all that it promises (or threatens) to accomplish today.
As we explore age segments of people who sit across these proverbial two sides of the fence, the younger ones below 30 are largely that much more secure than the older ones. They are new to the workplace. They have been given the right responsibilities. They enjoy a work-life balance as promised to them in the campus pre-placement talk.
The 31-39 age group is confused. Those between the ages 40 and 59 are the most insecure, and those above that age group seem the happiest of the lot, having escaped the ‘chakravyuh’ of the job market altogether post retirement.
The biggest age group with the biggest set of issues seems the 40-59 age group. This group has the biggest latent demand for a regular and secure salary-paying job. The children are growing up and the educational needs are to be funded. Parents are growing older and their medical needs need to be attended to. Their immediate workplace seems to be flooded with the young. New technologies are replacing competencies that were once considered needed. The headhunters have stopped calling them with new offers across the fence. The stress out here is palpable. There is plenty of sweat to smell in this category. Tears as well.
Even as you read this, it might be good to have a quick and honest answer at hand. Are you insecure at the job you are doing? Are you anxious as to what’s going to happen next? Do you feel flossed over? Are you seeing younger folk outnumber the older in your work space (in the field and in the offices)? Are your skills coming under question? Is AI threatening your job? Have you embraced AI in totality at your work? Are you ahead of the curve of AI, on it, or behind?
If the answer to these questions is largely a yes, it’s time for people of all ages to re-invent their attitude to jobs and work. In that order. It is time everyone looked at themselves as a workforce of one. It is time to re-invent the ability to work on your own and not for someone. Reinvent the ability to do something on your own. Something that can be monetised, even in a small manner. It could be a hobby you want to monetise. It could be your ability to write, your ability to teach, your ability to dance or teach, healthy eating or, for that matter, your ability to create socially relevant projects that can give you work, and maybe even an income in the future, if not now. Also your ability to be that specialised resource, whose ability can be sought after by industry on a consulting basis in the future.
The key question: must we then have jobs at all? Were we meant to be working for others on a monthly salary basis at all? Were we meant to sell our working hours to a company at all? Were we meant to be a salaried class? Were we meant to be wedded to our desks and our desktops? Were we meant to do more? And must we do more than just sell our hours to a job we have?
Even as we think that out, there is a calming thought in what Oscar Wilde had to say: “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” On that abrupt note, touché!
– Harish Bijoor
Source – https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2025/Apr/14/the-reality-of-the-distracted-employee