The Corporate Illusion: IT Burnout & The Factory Trap

I studied Mechanical Engineering. We spent four years learning complex subjects like thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. But do we actually ever implement them? Mostly, no. The reality is that most of us either pivot to IT or learn some basic design software just to get by.

The college structure completely fails to expose students to the real world. Most professors teaching us have zero industrial experience. They just finish their own degrees and start teaching. You graduate completely blind, acting like a sheep following the herd. The first phase of our professional life is a failed system.

The Sriperumbudur Robot

Following that herd, I landed my first job at a mechanical plant in Sriperumbudur, manufacturing axles for trucks.

It was hell. 12 hours a day of work. Nothing you studied for four years is used there. You don’t apply your analytical thinking. You don’t use your skills. You are just a machine. You stand there, you press a button, and that’s it. You are a robot.

I looked around at people doing this over and over again, for the rest of their lives, and thought: Are you guys really living? You are existing like zombies.

It was so stressful that I only lasted two months. It felt like a year. I finally just absconded. It haunted me later because I couldn’t get into other MNCs due to that messy exit. (A quick piece of advice: I know the situation is hard, but always try to exit cleanly).

The Breaking Point

I eventually joined another plant making steel. The hours were slightly better, but that exact same existential dread came creeping back in.

What is my purpose? What am I doing here? What am I actually contributing? I wasn’t an engineer solving problems; I was just pressing a button until I produced my 200 units for the day.

It led to countless sleepless nights. I would cry while traveling back home. Then, one morning, the breaking point arrived. I was sitting on my bike, ready to leave for work, but I physically couldn’t bring myself to start the engine. I just sat there on the bike and cried. I went back inside, looked at my mom, said “I can’t,” and I quit my second job.

I researched how engineers are treated abroad. They are actually respected. They use their skills to decide what materials to use, how to design, how to weld for maximum strength. They are specialized. But here in India, you are not seen as an engineer. You are a worker.

The IT “Ownership” Trap

Like everyone else who doesn’t know where to go, I joined IT. It was physically less intense, and I actually enjoyed it for a few years. But then a different kind of exhaustion started.

My manager used to tell me: “You need to take ownership of your code. Why are you lethargic? It’s your responsibility. You need to stay late no matter what and finish this.”

A thought kept echoing in my head: Why?

Why should I take ownership? I am a worker. If I work hard, the company gets bigger and the shareholders enjoy the money. What does the normal employee get? I understand that if I owned equity or if it was my own business, I would work day and night because I am building it for myself. But no IT company gives you that. You are working, someone else is growing, and there is a massive disconnect.

They don’t respect your boundaries, your time, or your working hours. Abroad, the whole team decides how much time a project will take. Working late is seen as a sin; it is a sign of disrespect to your personal life. Here, a middle manager who is terrified for his own survival and his own family just pushes impossible deadlines onto freshers without considering their well-being.

The Digital Sweatshop

We haven’t built a culture of innovation; we have built a cheap labor market. We are fighting to be the cheapest commodity, not the most valuable asset.

When developing countries faced long working hours and exploitation, they got out of it by setting strict boundaries and forming labor unions. They transitioned into economies that innovate.

But here, we are just competing with China in a cheap labor market. That is where all the chaos and distress comes from. We are not innovating. We are just acting as a digital sweatshop for Western innovation. They invent the ideas (like Google or Microsoft) that the whole world uses, and they use us as the manufacturing and maintenance workers for those ideas.

Obviously, you are going to be treated like a replaceable worker and not a valuable asset.

If we ever want to escape this, we need to move from being “India as a service” to an India that actually innovates and builds. If you are planning to start a business, don’t just build another service hub for a Western idea. Create your own idea, and let the rest of the world be a service hub for you.

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(Author’s Note: These are my raw thoughts, serving as an open diary. If you agree, disagree, or feel the exact same burnout, let’s have a healthy conversation in the comments below. You can also watch the video version of this journal entry on my YouTube channel, Limji’s Diary).