Have you ever taken ‘chutti’ from the office… just to finish office work? Well, apparently, a large part of corporate India is doing it. This may sound unusual, but it’s a well-documented, sad reality that was also identified as an ironic workplace trend a few months ago.
Honestly, it doesn’t sound shocking to me. I’ve been in the system for many years and see this happen frequently. I have seen so many of my friends and colleagues trying to dodge the constant distractions at work, only to fail. Miss one work message and all hell breaks loose. Your inbox has 200 emails, all marked “urgent”. There is yet another meeting, where nothing remotely productive is happening. Your annoying coworker has a “small doubt” for the millionth time today.
Your office bestie wants a coffee break right when your brain cells finally start cooperating. Then comes another performative cake-cutting ceremony where you know nothing about the person except their email address and WhatsApp DP.
Somehow, despite all this chaos, your boss wants to know why you don’t have an original, creative, and revolutionary idea by the end of the day. And this isn’t just me exaggerating or ranting. As per Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Annual Report 2025: “During the 9–5, employees are interrupted every 2 minutes by meetings, emails, or pings. Factor in activity outside of core work hours, and it adds up to 275 interruptions a day.”
Relax, corporate India. You are not diffusing bombs or saving lives. Replying five minutes late is not going to be the end of the world.
When comedian Ravi Gupta said this iconic line (“How am I supposed to work? I am still in a meeting) in his stand-up special Office, the internet went crazy. Millions of people found it “relatable” and “funny”.
But Gupta’s stance isn’t just for laughs. It reflects a work culture that expects you to deliver your best without providing the time or mental bandwidth to do so.
Dilpreet Kaur Banerjee, a sales professional, feels strongly about it. “Sometimes it’s crucial to take a break to do tasks when you know there are endless meetings at work and you have deadlines to meet,” she tells indianexpress.com.
A similar sentiment is echoed by Jinal Bhat, a -based journalist, who admits that taking leave for office work has become a part of her routine, especially after becoming an editorial lead. “I loved my team to bits, but some days I needed a break to complete my work without constant Slack pings and the interruptions that come with an open office!”
I couldn’t relate more to this! My line of work also demands my full attention. Already, it is challenging for my social-media-fried brain to get into the zone of the writing, and when I finally do, even one tiny distraction is enough to catapult me back to zero. I remember my editor once asking me why I am often spotted writing at odd hours. Well, this is why!
“People with creative jobs need space to breathe, and they aren’t able to split focus,” laments Nishita Sisodia, a marketing professional, pointing out how creative work demands space that many corporate structures lack.
And these frustrations have a deep psychological explanation as well. “These constant interruptions reduce the brain’s ability to focus deeply on one task,” confirms Dr Abhinit Kumar, senior consultant, psychiatry, ShardaCare–Healthcity.
As per the psychologist, even though people may appear busy throughout the day, “mentally they are continuously shifting attention, which increases fatigue and reduces efficiency.”
Another common reason behind the trend is the constant sense of urgency reported by many professionals, especially in fast-paced industries like media.
Nayani Bajpai, an account manager in PR, describes a typical day packed with “calls, pings, follow-ups, and ‘urgent’ messages,” where deep thinking becomes “a luxury”.
For her, that one personal leave day becomes “the only quiet space to strategise, clean up documentation, review performance, prep pitches, and think three steps ahead — the kind of thinking PR actually demands.”
“Strange, right?” she says. “You step away from work… to actually do the work.”
As per Bajpai, this isn’t about laziness or . It’s about a work culture “addicted to immediacy” — where everything is a priority, and “focus doesn’t have a calendar slot”
“When employees work from a quieter space during leave, they often experience greater mental clarity, reduced stress, and better concentration,” Dr Kumar also weighs in.
For some, this trend isn’t just about productivity or catching a break. It’s about survival and the immense pressure that corporations often bring along.
Thahaseen, a consultant, recalls using weekend holidays “every single week” to complete pending work. Tasks that looked simple on paper, she says, required heavy research and repeated revisions.
The pressure to prove herself, to not disappoint a good team, kept her working through personal time. “The only thing that was on my mind was to finish up the tasks with minimal to no revisions,” she admits while adding that she’d even think about work in her sleep.
The idea of perfectionism worsened her woes. “When my tasks were piling up, I had to make them perfect. For that, I needed lots of time. Even 24 hours didn’t seem enough,” the professional told indianexpress.com.
“As days went by, I felt my soul was leaving me,” she says. “My brain wasn’t functioning well. My body didn’t move much.” Eventually, she quit corporate life and started her own business — a decision she says she’s never regretted.
Thahaseen’s experience closely mirrors what philosopher Byung-Chul Han calls the “burnout society” — a culture where people internalise productivity pressure so deeply that guilt, self-worth, and overworking become tightly intertwined. Over time, rest itself starts feeling undeserved.
Dr Kumar tells indianexpress.com that what Thahaseen shared is a very common psychological pattern seen among working professionals today — a cycle of guilt, overperformance, and constant self-validation.
“Many employees begin to associate their self-worth with productivity. They feel that unless they are constantly achieving, delivering perfectly, or staying available beyond work hours, they may disappoint others or appear less capable.”
Over time, people develop what psychology calls a ‘guilt loop,’ where resting starts feeling unproductive and taking breaks creates anxiety instead of relief.
“People may experience fatigue, sleep disturbances, poor concentration, emotional numbness, anxiety, irritability, and even physical inactivity, exactly as described in this case.”
There’s also solid data supporting this. As per SHRM India’s Employee Wellbeing Survey 2025, 52 per cent of corporate India reports burnout symptoms, checking work messages 4.8 hours daily beyond office hours.
Many professionals say the problem isn’t just workload — it’s also the culture around it.
“When bosses micromanage and carefully monitor your every action, the office starts feeling more like a tuition class than a creative environment,” Sisodia, who stays away from home for work, tells indianexpress.com.
She also points to the unspoken culture of favouritism that exists in many workplaces, where likeability often matters more than actual talent.
“I’ve been told in my earlier job that I wasn’t social enough with my coworkers at the office,” she recalls. “Yet I was still expected to complete my work on time, and then put on a PIP if I didn’t.”
This, of course, adds to the homesickness and anxiety of being alone in a new city for many professionals like her.
Moreover, this constant pressure creates an environment where being “available” and “likeable” becomes just as important as being competent.
“When I was in a badly organised company, I used my weekends to finish pending work,” says Arshia Gulrays Shaikh, a senior PR executive.
“Organisations need to understand that constant availability does not always mean higher productivity,” reiterates Dr Kumar, while warning that over time this pressure can lead to , irritability, sleep problems, and difficulty maintaining work-life balance.
Karthik, a Growth Strategy Manager, believes the issue often begins higher up. “This doesn’t start with people not working hard enough,” he says. It starts with “weak planning and poor managerial handling.”
Too many meetings, last-minute priority shifts, and work pushed downstream quietly pile up — and personal time absorbs the overflow.
“Early-career professionals overcommitting, not asking enough questions, and struggling to push back. That combination almost always ends with personal time getting sacrificed,” Karthik points out.
When planning fails, and boundaries blur, stress doesn’t vanish. It just moves — from weekdays to weekends — and eventually becomes burnout.
Viveka Nagar, a media professional with 15 years of experience, calls the trend practical. “If taking a personal day is what it takes to reclaim your peace and boost productivity, it’s a smart move,” she says, crediting supportive managers for helping her meet targets without constant stress.
Perhaps that’s the real takeaway. Taking leave to work shouldn’t be the norm — but in a world where attention is under siege, it has become a coping mechanism—a quiet rebellion against the culture of endless notifications and performative busyness.
Ironically, I am writing this feature on a chutti in a cosy cafe. And honestly, this is the most focused I’ve felt in weeks.
As I ordered my third cup of coffee, I realised that maybe I didn’t need a break from work itself, but from the noise around it. Turns out the problem was not that I didn’t want to work, but that I wanted to work too well. Because that’s how I know how to do it.
I still checked my inbox, did a few updates, but with no execution to be “on” and the luxury of having half an hour to myself, without anyone going mad because I wasn’t replying. And strangely, that tiny bit of breathing room made all the difference.
But isn’t it ironic? Wasn’t the whole point of working to build a better life? When did we all turn into Hrithik Roshan from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, doing “Moshi moshi, Yamamoto-san” on a roadside, pausing our vacations?
Somewhere along the way, burnout has been packaged as ambition, and overwork has become something people are expected to wear as a badge of honour.
No wonder so many of us are burnt out — doomscrolling through life, emotionally exhausted, and stuck in a strange, frozen survival mode. No human brain is built to operate like a browser with 48 tabs open forever.
