The Cost of Overwork: A Wake-Up Call for All of Us

The recent death of a 35-year-old Microsoft engineer in Silicon Valley has left many of us shaken. Pratik Pandey, a talented professional originally from Indore, walked into his office on August 19 and never walked out. He was found dead the next morning.

By all accounts, Pratik was healthy, happy, and driven. He held a master’s degree from a U.S. university, worked at Apple before Microsoft, and was passionate about sports. There were no known health issues. But his family says he had been working late nights for weeks.

As a doctor, I’ve seen too many similar cases. Men and women in their 30s, seemingly at the peak of their careers, ending up in hospital rooms with chest pain, stroke, or worse. And all too often, the common thread is chronic overwork and unrelenting stress.

For investors and business leaders, this is a moment of reflection.

We back founders and leadership teams for their vision, stamina, and execution. But what happens when that execution comes at the cost of their health? What kind of return is worth a life?

Here are the signs to watch for in ourselves and our teams:

🚩 Regularly working past midnight

🚩 Running on less than 6 hours of sleep

🚩 Skipping meals for meetings

🚩 Ignoring recurring chest pain or palpitations

🚩 Feeling extreme fatigue that doesn’t go away

These are not signs of commitment. They are signs of collapse.

Chronic stress is not just mental. It breaks the body.

▶ Suppressed immunity

▶ Elevated risk of heart disease

▶ Increased chances of stroke

▶ Long-term damage to mental health

We often say that a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. But if we keep running at sprint speed every day, we won’t make it to the finish line.

Let’s be the kind of investors who encourage smart scaling, sustainable work cultures, and long-term thinking — not just in financial models, but in how we treat people.

Because no valuation is worth more than a life.