THE PETTY PARTY

Six months into her job, Ruchita Goswamy, a content writer at a Delhi-based firm, started suffering from frequent headaches, anxiety attacks, and insomnia. While she initially dismissed these as a side-effect of a stressful job, a chat with a counsellor narrowed down the cause of the ailments to one particular irritant—a bullying co-worker. “I was indeed having a tough time dealing with my immediate senior who was unpredictable. Sometimes, she’d be friendly and encouraging, and, at other times, she’d fly into a rage and chastise me in front of the office. As a result, I was always stressed, and on tenterhooks. But I never imagined it would affect my health as well. I took up the issue with the HR department, and asked for a transfer