A Setback for the harsh truth behind successful organizations and their hierarchical corporate culture with a 26-year-old female Pune employee Anna Sebastian Perayil’s untimely demise on July 20. She was decked up with extreme work stress and inefficiency in setting boundaries to say no to the boss succumbed her to death. Let’s accept the harsh truth behind the oh-so-professional corporate culture that often takes pride in overwork. One of the accountancy firm EY India employees fell into work stress which cost her to lose her life at this young age.
Death gives no second chance to life, the Kerala-based young Chartered Accountant died as the firm “burdened her with backbreaking work,” the grieved mother, Anita Augustine condemned the firm in her email to Rajeev Memani, EY India Chairman.
Yes, the work pressure that comes with a seemingly captivating offer letter needs to be handled smartly, or the workload is never going to unload. The grievance mother wrote an email to the company that the companies are “glorifying overwork” and questioned the credibility of the contradictory human rights faced by her daughter. Stretched schedules presented to the employees, but nothing works beyond nature, she could not cope with the work pressure and stumbled to untimely death.
Perayil was from the CA 2023 batch and EY Pune was her first company where she joined as an executive in March 2024. According to her mother, she “worked tirelessly to meet the expectations,” which took a toll on her mental and physical health. “She began experiencing anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress soon after joining, but continued to push herself, believing hard work and perseverance were the path to success.”
“Her manager would often reschedule meetings during cricket matches and assign her work at the end of the day, adding to her stress. 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,” the letter further added.
Her mother stated that after many "employees resigned due to the excessive workload," her daughter’s boss encouraged her to "stay and change everyone’s perception of the team."
The mother further stated that Perayil worked “late into the night and even on weekends”: “Anna confided in us about the overwhelming workload, especially the tasks assigned verbally, beyond the official work. I would tell her not to take on such tasks, but the managers were relentless. She worked late into the night, even on weekends, with no opportunity to catch her breath.”
She also uncovered her daughter’s worsening condition in the letter that, “Anna would return to her room utterly exhausted, sometimes collapsing on the bed without even changing her clothes, only to be bombarded with messages asking for more reports. She was putting in best efforts, working very hard to meet the deadlines. She was a fighter to the core, not someone to give up easily. We told her to quit, but she wanted to learn and gain new exposure. However, the overwhelming pressure proved too much even for her.”
Augustine narrates an incident from the past where her daughter was assigned a task at night by her boss with a deadline the following morning. She expresses, “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’.”
In her heartbreaking letter to the India Head of EY, the diseased mother wrote that “Anna was a young professional. Like many in her position, she did not have the experience or the agency to draw boundaries or push back against unreasonable demands. She did not know how to say no. She was trying to probe herself in a new environment, and in doing so, she pushed herself beyond limits. And now, she is no longer with us.”
Augustine also emphasized the glaring contrast between the company’s human rights statement and her daughter’s experience. She questioned, “How can EY genuinely uphold the values it claims to stand by?”
In her ‘plea for reform of work culture,’ Augustine advised EY to take her daughter’s death as a “wake-up call.” “It is time to reflect on the work culture within your organisation and take meaningful steps to prioritise the health and wellness of your employees.”
Augustine further confronted EY Pune employees on skipping her daughter’s funeral, saying, “This absence at such a critical moment, for an employee who gave her all to your organisation until her last breath, is deeply hurtful… After her funeral, I reached out to her managers, but received no reply. How can a company that speaks of values and human rights fail to show up for one of its own in their final moments?”
The exact reason for her death remains unclear, the email noted that in the weeks leading up to the demise, Perayil was experiencing “chest constriction”. “We took her to the hospital in Pune. Her ECG was normal, and the cardiologist came to allay our fears, telling us she wasn’t getting enough sleep and was eating very late. He prescribed antacids, which reassured us that it wasn’t anything serious.”
Read the complete letter written by Anna Sebastian Perayil’s mother Anita Augustine here:
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