Harsh Singh, a Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani alumnus, has started a dialogue on social media regarding the hardships faced by tech professionals working in Bengaluru. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he brought attention to several issues, including loneliness, an imbalanced work-life schedule, and their strong effects on mental and physical health.
Singh wrote in his post, “Most techies in Bangalore are pretty lonely. Away from family, no real friends, stuck in traffic, high rents, children not getting good values, peers into status games, cringe tech meet-ups, shoves body with coffee & alcohol, hair-loss, tummies popping out & pays highest taxes.”
In a follow-up post, he wrote that it was scary that his first post was relatable to so many people. He added, “It scares me even more that so many people relate with this. Consider this your wake up call & take some action fellas. Fixed 1000s of jiras but your health & family is broken?”
His post generated over 770,000 views and 13,000 likes, and online users flooded the page with comments.
One of the internet users wrote, “Had same feeling when i was there last year. In 2 months itself, I realised it's a long journey to go. Came back delhi, joined gym, started working on me. Although, a lot of scope to improve, but atleast doing what's maximum possible.”
“True that. I realised this in 2018 (29y then) and quit the industry. Doing a traditional business since then and moonlighting as a techie on my own projects. Happy as efff,” wrote a second user.
Another user said that people need to calm down and wrote, “Stop competing with others, stop the show off game , be patient and take it slowly in rat race, don't burn out ! It's not only bangalore, job life is hard for every middle class! Struggle is more in IT may be compared to other industry. But we need to keep calm and carry on.”
“Hey I value my roots hence couple of suggestion: 1) yes take your health into your own hands, you are simply what you think and what eat 2) Get out of city as much as possible during weekends, Kaveri fishing camps, trekking, birdwatching, a lot more to do outside Bangalore,” said a fourth user.