The unbearable lightness of obligations

A 42-YEAR-OLD PROGRAMMER threw himself out of the window of the 26th floor of an office building of a telecommunications company in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, last week. Beijing News commented on Monday:

It is said that the man committed suicide after he lost his job. It would not be that easy for a programmer of his age to secure another well-paid job when the industry is laying off employees. And with two children and two pairs of elder parents to care for, the man and his wife had a heavy financial burden.

The man's death has drawn attention to the crisis of the middle-aged in big cities, many of whom are under great pressure from work, life and health, especially in rapidly changing industries such as information technology.

Many people in their late 30s and 40s pay high mortgage payments as they bought their homes when house prices were at their peak, and they cannot afford any disturbance, let alone the rupture, in their income.

In other words, although they are middle-income residents of big cities, their decent lives are precariously balanced.

Despite this, they are reluctant to go back to their hometowns, where the job opportunities in their professions might be fewer and the pay would be lower than in the big cities.

Also, the fast changes in sectors such as information technology mean it is more difficult for individual programmers to start their own businesses from scratch. To found startups entails large sum of input in capital and human resources.

It would be considerate for the companies to offer necessary psychological counseling for their employees before laying their cards on the table.