HYDERABAD: After being dragged into the drug dragnet, IT professionals in the city believe they have been made soft targets due to their high salary packages. As many as 14 IT companies in the city were recently issued notices by the government. However, the techies believe the industry should not be targeted because of the choice of some individuals.
Courtesy the huge amount of stress at work owing to tiring work hours, work shifts and ever-changing work environment and pressure to perform consistently, the addiction is not just to drugs but to sleeping pills as well.
Mohan Krishna (name changed), a techie who left an IT company recently said that many employees who worked in his process used drugs like marijuana to ease off stress levels.
“Marijuana is the most common drug which many uses, besides popping sleeping pills to counter shift work sleep disorder, a sleeping disorder that arises because of multiple work shifts that break sleep cycle,” he said.
Another techie said that employees who manage multiple servers and those who are into hardcore programming mostly resort to drugs.
“In IT sector, consuming drugs has become a lifestyle because of high pay packages. But still the number is not significant,” said Kiran Bantu, a software employee.
Interestingly, psychiatrists feel that marijuana is the gateway to several hardcore drugs that can even prove fatal. “For a person who uses marijuana, consuming drugs like cocaine and brown sugar is no big deal. One should try to manage stress instead of giving to drugs,” said Aftab Khan, a psychiatrist.
“The problem comes when employees stop introspecting about their lives which cause stress levels to increase. Basics such as nutrition, sleep, and exercise should be adherently practiced to overcome stress,” said Dr P Madhurima Reddy, a psychologist. She further added that sleeping pills will lead to addiction that causes lethargy and can even affect a person’s sex life.
Several others like Akshay Kumar, a techie, believe that drug abuse is rampant among personnel in all professions. “There are a few teachers and lecturers who do drugs but that does not mean all teachers do drugs. In the same way because of a few, blaming the entire IT sector is an absurd idea,” he said.