Human mind is the main source of stress as well as its main victim. Stress has always been a major psycho-somatic issue afflicting human health from ancient to the modern times. For the ancient man, the problem was anxiety of the uncertain. Little knowledge, naturally, proved dangerous. The irony is that with more knowledge, we worry more now. As technology infiltrated our lives, life got derailed, and went offline. George Orwell’s proverbial big brother is getting bigger causing more and more anxiety and stress to human beings. Aadhar that was supposed to make life easier has become a cause for concern. While the banks are insisting on data and digitisation, the cyber thugs are swindling money from accounts with consummate ease giving sleepless nights to the customers. But this is not the only cause of online driven anxiety. The Coronakaal, as we can call it now, is giving a double whammy. On the one hand warnings galore from many sources are scaring people to abnormal levels, while on the other, the work from home is making many experience virtual hell. A new mega organism, the online CEO, has emerged on the scene. Relaxing in the cool climes of homes the corona age boss is keeping all employees in his loop on the toes. Shooting mails at the oddest of the hours he is issuing directives by the minute. One step forward two steps backwards, that is the nature of command, because he himself is not sure what to do. Needless to say all this is leading to excessive stress as the hapless employees are continuously on alert for the next mail or WhatsApp message on their mobiles. These nightmarish experiences are slowly but surely threatening to become a full blown health crisis. Already, anxiety and stress related disorders are on the rise and frustration is leading to depression and even suicides. And you cannot blame this on Corona only. It is the big bug, the bloated bossy ego of haughty minded people that is the root cause. While Corona related data of distress is available, the online distress is making life more miserable. People are already feeling the Zoom fatigue which may be a generic expression for all the different online platform related stress. There is ample evidence to suggest that exhaustion from excessive video chatting is harmful to both mind and the body, as the total psycho-biology gets affected. It is time we thought of a tweak in workmen’s compensation act to include executives who are increasingly becoming victims of on line stress due to idiosyncratic fancies of some people. There could not be a better time to enact the right to disconnect legislation that is waiting assent as a private member’s bill, given the agony and torture employees are subject to. Many western nations already have such legislation in place to protect employees from online firing directed at them. Not only privacy and freedom but life as a whole is at stake as this round the clock monitoring and maneuvering is driving people crazy. As oldspeak is being replaced by newspeak in a new Orwellian global order, human beings become puppets tied to online strings. And the key deliverables in this new order are stress and anxiety. What Orwell visualised in 1984 is being realized in 2020.

Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed Fpublic speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com