Work stress” has claimed the life of a 26-year-old Ernst & Young (EY) Pune employee. Anna Sebastian Perayil, a Chartered Accountant from Kerala, had joined EY in March this year barely four months before her death. As the employee passed away due to work stress, her mother Anita Augustine claims the work pressure became too much to handle.
A fresher out of the CA exams in 2023, it was her first job at EY. Just after a few days at work, she started feeling anxious, not sleeping, and stressed. Well, driven by dreams of making good, she did not rest on her laurels and worked hard with the hope that hard work would lead to success. Augustine slammed the work culture at EY in an email to the company’s India head, Rajiv Memani, as having human rights values in stark contrast with what goes on.
According to Augustine, many employees had quit as they would not be able to work under the immense pressure. However, her daughter, a hardworking employee passed away due to work stress. Perayil’s manager used to schedule meetings late in the evening, and assigned work late at night.
“Her assistant manager once called her at night with a task that needed to be completed by the next morning, leaving her with barely any time to rest or recover. When she voiced her concerns, she was met with the dismissive response: ‘You can work at night; that’s what we all do’.”
Such a schedule was doubling stress. Perayil was working late into the night, on weekends too. She was usually handed extra work besides what she was supposed to do. Many times, late at night, she was assigned tasks with morning deadlines.
She was even mocked in her circle. The mother narrates:
“At an office party, a senior leader even joked that she would have a tough time working under her manager, which, unfortunately, became a reality she could not escape,”
Employee passed away due to work stress, wanted to learn and grow at the company
Despite all this pressure, Perayil still managed to deliver on time. Her mother later advised her to quit, but Perayil wanted to experience things and learn. According to Augustine, her daughter soon could not take all the pressure anymore.
In her e-mail, Augustine advised EY to consider this death as a wake-up call to introspect about its work culture. She asked the company to focus much on people’s health ensure well-being at all times and allow its new employees to set boundaries. This tragic case shows extreme workplace stress can lead to severe consequences for the health of employees.
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