Thought leader Shivani Gera has shared a stark account of why she chose to step away from work, saying the decision wasn’t born of self-doubt but from the realization that “I had given everything to work and nothing to life.”
In a reflective public note timed to World Mental Health Day, Gera describes how “busy seasons” of 15-17 hour stretches blurred the line between ambition and exhaustion. What began as late nights soon became missed family dinners; “just one more call” turned into a standing excuse. Over time, she writes, “normal” faded from view.
“I once thought burnout meant weakness until I learned it’s what happens when strength goes unnoticed for too long,” Gera observes.
The breaking point wasn’t one moment, it was a pattern
Gera doesn’t frame her exit as an impulsive move. Instead, she traces it to a slow accumulation of choices that, collectively, sidelined life outside work. A colleague’s comment crystallized the tradeoffs: leaving home at 8 a.m., getting back after 10 p.m., children already asleep and realizing it had been three days since he had actually seen their faces. That vignette, mundane yet piercing, made the unseen costs visible.
What Shivani Gera’s story says about workplace culture
Gera’s note calls out a culture that often equates constant availability with commitment, silence with professionalism, and exhaustion with virtue. She argues that companies frequently respond with box-ticking gestures, “a 40-minute mental health webinar”, that don’t alter the underlying incentives or expectations.
“Mental health can’t be outsourced to a speaker,” she writes, adding that genuine care requires honest conversations, empathetic leadership, and workplaces that value people as humans, not headcounts. In her telling, productivity may drive profits, but empathy sustains them.
A reminder on World Mental Health Day
Gera highlights that the conversation about goals and growth rarely includes a frank accounting of costs. She points to the wider context by noting, in her words, that “in India, 1 in 7 people struggle with mental health challenges.” She uses the figure to underscore why awareness cannot be episodic, performative, or outsourced and why day-to-day norms matter more than annual speeches.
How she quit and what that choice represents
The decision, as Gera relays it, came after recognizing a life crowded out by back-to-back targets. The “how” was less about drafting a perfect resignation and more about reclaiming the basics: evenings that are not swallowed by email, family laughter heard in real time, and the refusal to conflate endurance with success.
By framing quitting as an act of alignment, not surrender, Gera challenges the reflex to view burnout as a personal failing. Her account suggests another reading: that stepping away can be the most responsible choice when the job and the life it funds are no longer compatible.
Beyond awareness: what changes actually look like
While Gera doesn’t prescribe policy, her critique implies a practical playbook for leaders and teams:
- Shift the signal: Stop rewarding performative overwork; reward clarity, prioritization, and sustainable pacing.
- De-risk boundaries: Make it safe to decline non-essential calls after hours and mean it.
- Replace one-off webinars with ongoing practice: Shorten sprint cycles, review workloads, and measure managers on people outcomes, not just output.
- Speak plainly: Normalize saying “this is too much” without penalty. Culture changes when people can tell the truth.
Finance is known for long hours, but Gera’s account resonates far beyond any one industry. It captures a modern paradox: we pursue security for our families while drifting further from them; we chase purpose at the expense of the very lives that give purpose meaning. The moral is not anti-ambition, it’s pro-balance. As Gera puts it, don’t be so busy building your career that you forget to build your life.
On World Mental Health Day, her message lands with a simple clarity: goals matter, but people matter more.
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