Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu believes that allowing workers to work from home can help reduce burnout. In an interview with PTI, he discussed the difficulty of juggling work and personal life, criticizing corporate culture for prioritizing profits over employee well-being. Vembu believes that firms may be successful without pushing employees to their limits.
He compared today’s workplace to a “pressure cooker,” warning that excessive stress damages both individuals and organizations. He emphasized how loneliness, long commutes, and high-stress environments exacerbate the situation.
So you’re putting individuals in a very large pressure cooker, and regrettably, some of them shatter, while others are broken,” Vembu added. He emphasized that organizations that prioritize rapid profits over employee well-being are setting themselves up for long-term failure.
Vembu also revealed his approach to achieving a healthy work-life balance. With over 30 years of expertise, he believes that avoiding burnout is critical to remaining productive. But to accomplish so, I can’t let myself or my colleagues burn out,” he said.
Decentralizing activities is an important aspect of Vembu’s methodology. He favors relocating corporate activity away from major cities, allowing employees to live closer to their hometowns. He argues that transferring young people to large cities frequently results in isolation and long, stressful commutes, which can lead to burnout. “We frequently move young professionals from rural villages to large cities, where their first challenge is overcoming isolation. Following that, they suffer long journeys, which may run up to two hours each way, particularly in cities like Bengaluru. “It’s no surprise that many people are exhausted,” Vembu explained. He believes that spreading business to smaller towns and rural regions will decrease stress and promote long-term growth.
Vembu also addressed the importance of technology in business. He advocated for more controls on large technology businesses to prevent monopolies. He emphasized the need of cross-platform interoperability, particularly for messaging services. “Messaging platforms cannot work in isolation. “We need standardized systems to prevent monopolies and promote fair competition,” Vembu stated.