"My name is Sunita Mishra. I am an employee of IDFC First Bank Lanka Varanasi. I have poured petrol on myself and I will burn."
If there is any award for the worst work culture in our country, it should go to Indian banks. Don't believe it? Just listen to this—"My name is Sunita Mishra. I am an employee of IDFC First Bank Lanka Varanasi. I have poured petrol on myself and I will burn. All responsibility will be of our branch head Raniya Singh."
This is not a movie scene. This is real. Bank employees are under so much pressure to meet targets, and seniors treat them so badly, that suicide has become normal news in this industry.
From Respect to Salesmen
There was a time when working in a bank was a matter of pride. Today, bank employees have been reduced to just salesmen. Whether private or government bank, all are mentally torturing their employees and pushing so much that depression has become common.
As one employee shared, "I got everything from this job—depression. When I don't even like my own daughter, when I don't like my home, when I don't like food—this is what I got from my 6.5 years of hard work. I lost my child because of them."
Managers and senior management have fallen to such a level that one employee was told, "Leave your sick old mother in a shelter home, but you have to come to job." Eventually, he had to resign.
The Daily Struggle
In team meetings, senior managers tell employees, "Bank gives you salary, so you are bonded laborers of the bank. Bank is doing you a favor." Working late without overtime is common. Meetings are scheduled even on holidays. For banks, nothing matters more than their profit.
That is why the attrition rate in this industry has reached 50%. Meaning, out of 10 people who join banks, 5 leave their jobs.
What Public Doesn't See
Public has this old perception that bank people don't work, always sitting for lunch. You must have seen that viral photo where a bank employee is sleeping with his head on the table. But the reality today is different—bank employees are under so much pressure that they don't even have time for lunch.
Banking job has basically become a salesman job where people get tired meeting targets. And this is happening in all banks—public sector and private—there is barely any difference in how toxic the work culture is.
The Call Center Pressure
Bank employees keep calling people to sell credit cards, loans, mutual funds, and insurance. Sometimes they ask you to open FD, sometimes they push credit cards. Obviously, customers get irritated. Many times people scold them and cut the call.
But behind these calls is a dark reality—these poor employees have daily targets. And many times these targets are so unrealistic that they are told, "If you don't open this many accounts or sell this many policies by evening, you cannot go home."
So they have to keep their self-respect aside and call people again and again. They have to listen to people's harsh words and abuses. Because if they don't, the manager will come and shout at them.
Management treats employees like slaves. If targets are not met, don't go home. And if you go home, they will ask for updates till 12 midnight. If work doesn't happen from Monday to Saturday, then Saturday-Sunday is also working days.
The Viral Video Reality
One viral video shows a bank manager saying, "Some people think we will go on Saturday-Sunday holiday with family. Bank has given you job for working, not for roaming with family. Who cares about your family? Go to hell."
Then he says, "I care about my bank more than my family. I am also family. I don't care about my family also." If your targets are not met, you will work on Saturday-Sunday too. And he threatens, "If you don't kindly respond to my messages, things will be different."
Imagine what kind of psycho person this is, who himself says he doesn't care about his family or yours. This is pure mental harassment. In fact, this person needs the most help—who thinks his life's only purpose is doing this bank job.
How Targets Destroy Lives
Even if employees somehow meet their targets, next time they are given even bigger targets. Daily target, weekly target, monthly target—so many that when one finishes, deadline for another comes. This vicious cycle keeps running.
Employees are forced to open accounts of their own family members to meet targets. Meaning, to achieve targets, they have to forcibly make their own family customers.
One user shared that their bank is in a rural area, and they have a daily target of ₹1 crore FD. Where is the logic in this? In this target pressure, work-life balance—which is non-existent in banks—suffers completely.
The Infrastructure Mess
Banks may close for public at 4-5 PM, but work doesn't end there. On average, an employee has to do 12-hour shifts. Even after that, many times work has to be taken home and completed.
If you search Reddit, Twitter, you will find many examples where employees were not allowed to go home before 8-9 PM even when they were sick. Emergency leaves are not approved.
Government banks especially have poor infrastructure. AC remains shut. Toilets not maintained. Chairs are so old that employees get back pain whole day. No note counting machines. Ink pads are shared between people. Passbook entry machines—you will rarely see one working.
Most PSU banks have staff shortage. Because of this, pressure falls on limited employees and 3-4 people have to do work of 6-7 people.
The Customer-Facing Nightmare
Now think about cashiers. They are already troubled by slow servers. On top of that, handling cash is a responsible job, so they have to be extra careful. In government banks, such people come who don't even know how to fill forms. Mistakes happen in forms.
Cashier knows that old man has come to take pension, but he cannot give money on wrongly filled form—his job will go. So he has to send them back, saying "Grandpa, get it filled by someone else and come." In this case, many old age customers get angry at the cashier saying, "Because of your mistake, my money is not coming out."
Plus, civic sense is so poor here—nobody stands properly in line. People fight with each other. Chaos everywhere. As a customer, we get irritated in one hour. Now think what must be the mental health of that cashier, who every day before coming to work thinks, "Oh God, again that same headache."
Because in banks, work from home doesn't happen. That is why high blood pressure and headaches are very common among bank employees.
Transfer Policy Torture
Public sector banks have another big issue—transfer policy. Getting transferred to some far location from home is very common. But many times, cases have happened where transfer happens again within 1-2 months. Because at middle level in PSU banks, transfers happen on need basis, sometimes so far from home that whatever little motivation remains for working, that also finishes.
Remember that viral video of Karnataka bank employee who said "Madam, first Canada" when customer asked for something in Hindi? Now think—what was the need to shift a person from North India to South Indian branch when you know this job is customer-facing and people will be more comfortable speaking their local language? Was it that employee's fault that he doesn't know local language? Maybe he got transferred just 1 month back there.
In transferable jobs, all-India posting can happen anywhere. How many languages can one employee learn? In today's politically charged environment, this is also a big issue for bank employees that nobody talks about—already so much work pressure, and on top of that, adjusting to new culture again and again brings separate challenges.
Why People Are Quitting
Because of all these issues, many people are forced to leave these government bank jobs—which they got after so much hard work cracking competitive exams.
Just type two words on YouTube or Instagram—"bank resign"—and you will find 50+ videos where people have explained why they resigned from their bank job.
For example, in one big Indian bank, 1600 employees resigned in last 2.5-3 years. The bank officers union says there were two main reasons behind these resignations. One, work culture is very toxic and HR doesn't listen to them. They said mostly employees are under pressure to sell third-party products, and those who cannot achieve sales targets get numbers cut in their appraisal and get transferred to some uncomfortable location.
When employees took their concerns to HR, nobody listened to them.
The Counter Arguments
Some people say, "When these bank people have to work, why are they making so much noise?" Work pressure happens in IT industry also. Many industries have 12-hour work as common thing.
People also say bank employees get so many holidays—all bank holidays, paid leave, sick leave. So why do they cry so much for leave?
Some say people join government banks thinking "it's government job, now we won't have to work." But when they have to work, they show tantrums, start crying.
The Reality Check
Saying that toxic work culture exists in other industries too, so it should exist in banks—this is wrong. We should say it should not exist anywhere.
India is perhaps the only country where working beyond set timeline is glorified. Meaning, if your office is 8 hours and you sit for 10 hours, even if you do no work, manager sees from far and says, "Wow, this guy is great. I will definitely promote him next time."
While actually, this means that person is inefficient. He cannot complete work in set time, or he just sits doing nothing whole day but shows he has so much work.
Companies that glorify such things don't go far. This is a mindset problem. We should not glorify overwork.
How toxic bank work culture has become—you can imagine from this: even where people don't have government jobs, people are resigning from government banks after getting jobs there.
What Needs to Change
Government and RBI need to bring major reforms in banking industry. This industry needs more regulation—not just for employee well-being, but for common public also. Because in the race to meet targets, these people sell wrong policies, give wrong financial advice, make people do wrong investments, and forcibly distribute loans.
Many times, bank employees themselves have to face consequences of this. And in many cases, bank employees are under pressure to pass loans also—like that Patna case where a contractor entered bank and started insisting manager to fix his civil score. When refused, he started misbehaving.
Banks' working policies and toxic work culture have become dangerous for both public and employees. RBI needs to take this seriously. RBI should create a grievance window where any bank employee can anonymously report harassment happening on them.
Until that happens, at least you can share this video to become voice of bank employees.