Strong legislation and effective sensitization of managers are vital to reduce stress of employees at workplace, said Dr Shashi Tharoor, MP, today.
Dr Tharoor was speaking at the workshop on ‘Workplace Wellbeing and Organisational Readiness’, organized by Technopark-based LMonk and Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), the industry body of IT companies in Kerala, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day at Technopark here.
‘Mental Health at Work’ is the theme of World Mental Health Day 2024. Col Sanjeev Nair (Retd), CEO, Technopark, was also present.
Referring to the recent death of techie Ms Anna Sebastian in Pune, Dr Tharoor said employees are undergoing enormous pressure at their workplace and it can be brought down by introducing strong legislation and sensitizing managers on how to treat staff members to increase productivity.
“Many company managers are quite oblivious of the mental issues of employees arising out of stress and lack of sleep due to work pressure. So it is important to bring out a training module for creating awareness through workshops and training sessions for both staff and officials,” he observed.
Dr Tharoor said companies must conduct sessions like Employees Assistance Programme that gives employees access to mental health counseling.
The MP also urged HR managers and company officials to ponder on how to create an environment that support to ease the mental pressure of employees.
On the occasion, Dr Tharoor launched Wellbeing Helpline for techies at Technopark.
Mr Sreekumar, Secretary, GTech and Centre Head, Tata Elxsi; Mr Dinkar Krishnan V, MD&CEO, LMonk; Dr Anantha Krishnan, Consultant Psychiatrist, SRKM Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram; Ms Aditi Radhakrishnan, Member, WIIT, Life Coach; Mr Muraleedharan Manningal, CEO, ICT Academy of Kerala; Ms Deepa Nair, HR Evolve, and Mr Tony Joseph, Convenor, COFG-GTech and CEO, KennedysIQ, also spoke.