Young woman dies 4 months after joining EY
A talented accountant took to LinkedIn to let her friends know she had landed her dream job at a Big 4 accounting firm. Four months later, she was dead.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Audit and Assurance Executive at EY!,” Anna Sebastian Perayil excitedly shared on LinkedIn earlier this year.
Four months later, the 26-year-old accountant was dead.
In a powerful letter addressed to her employer, Ernst & Young, her grieving mother has accused the accounting giant of overworking her talented daughter to death.
Anita Augustine claimed the “relentless demands and the pressure to meet unrealistic expectations … cost us the life of a young woman with so potential”.
“Years of my child’s hard work have been snuffed out by just four months of EY’s callous attitude,” she wrote.
Anna lands new job, mental health deteriorates
After passing her Chartered Accountant (CA) exams with distinction in 2023, Anna landed her first job with EY as an executive in March.
She packed up her life and left her family behind in Kerala, in India’s southwest, to move to the city of Pune to begin her professional career.
“She worked tirelessly at EY, giving her all to meet the demands placed on her,” her mother wrote in a scathing letter directed to EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani.
“However, the workload, new environment, and long hours took a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally,” she continued.
Ms Augustine said her daughter began experiencing “anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress” after joining the company, but refused to show any signs of weakness to her new colleagues.
Things got so bad that she was rushed to hospital the night before she was due to get admitted as an accountant.
“She insisted on going to work after seeing the doctor, saying there was a lot of work to be done and she wouldn’t get leave,” her mother wrote.
Her parents had made the 1300km journey to watch the ceremony, but Anna was so snowed in with work she was barely able to enjoy the moment with them.
“It breaks my heart to tell you that even during those two days, which were the last we would spend with our child, she couldn’t enjoy them because of the work pressure,” her mother wrote.
Ms Augustine recalled a harrowing conversation her daughter had with her manager where he warned her about the high turnover in their team.
“The team manager told her, ‘Anna, you must stick around and change everyone’s opinion about our team’. My child didn’t realize she would pay for that with her life,” she wrote.
She said her daughter had confided in her about the “overwhelming workload” and “relentless” managers.
“She worked late into the night, even on weekends, with no opportunity to catch her breath,” she claimed.
“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.”
Ms Augustine said her daughter, who she described as a “fighter” who “excelled in everything she did”, would never have placed the blame on her managers.
“But I cannot remain silent. Burdening newcomers with such backbreaking work, making them work day and night, even on Sundays, has no justification whatsoever,” she wrote.
“Anna was a young professional, just starting her career. 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 prove herself in a new environment, and in doing so, she pushed herself beyond her limits. And now, she is no longer with us.”
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‘Not a single EY employee attended her funeral’
In what she described as a cruel final blow, Ms Augustine claimed not a single person from EY attended her daughter’s funeral.
“This absence at such a critical moment, for an employee who gave her all to your organisation until her last breath, is deeply hurtful,” she wrote.
“Anna deserved better, and so do all the employees who continue to work under these conditions.
“My heart aches not just for the loss of my child but also for the lack of empathy shown by those who were supposed to guide and support her.
“How can a company that speaks of values and human rights fail to show up for one of its own in their final moments?”
Ms Augustine said she hoped her daughter’s death would not be in vain and urged EY to “take meaningful steps to prioritise the health and wellness of your employees”.
In a statement supplied to news.com.au, EY said they were “deeply saddened” by Anna’s “tragic and untimely passing”.
“That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us,” the firm said.
“While no measure can compensate for the loss experienced by the family, we have provided all the assistance as we always do in such times of distress and will continue to do so.
“We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility. We place the highest importance on the well-being of all employees and will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace for our 100,000 people across EY member firms in India.”
‘Toxic work culture’: Nation erupts over death
News of Anna’s sudden death sent shockwaves through India.
One woman, who said she was a “dear friend” of Anna’s, revealed she was heartbroken by her death.
“This is a reminder that mental health matters. Burnout and stress can have devastating consequences. Work-life balance and well-being must be prioritized—no job should come at the cost of life,” she wrote.
Tax professional Vivek Awasthi had a powerful message for other young accountants.
“The toxic work culture is no secret, yet students and professionals are continuing to push themselves to the brink, believing it’s the only path to success,” he wrote.
“There are better opportunities out there that value your well-being. Don’t lose yourself to the pressure of the race.
Accountant Manisha Yadav took to LinkedIn to call for managers to stop “destroying young Indian careers with toxicity, incompetence and a lack of people management skills”.
“I request everyone please take care of yourself, protect yourself. No job is worth exploiting your mental and physical health,” wrote HR professional Fathima Shahjahan.
“I am truly heartbroken… a bright young #CA graduate who lost her life due to the overwhelming pressures of a toxic work environment,” wrote psychiatrist Dr Jyothirmayi Kotipalli.
‘70 hours a week’: India’s toxic work culture
It’s not the first time India’s unrelenting work culture has come into the spotlight.
Software billionaire NR Naranya Murthy – the founder of Infosys and father-in-law of former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – sparked outrage last year after claiming young people should be prepared to work 70 hours a week.
“India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world,” he said on a podcast.
“Unless we improve our work productivity... we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress.
“So, therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week’.”
He defended his comments earlier this year, insisting the 70-hour figure was not the point he was trying to make.
“I don’t think 70 is important, all that it means is that you are productive, work very hard like the Germans did after World War II, like Japanese did. We owe it to the poor people to work hard and make the quality of their life a little bit better.”
He’s not the first Indian business titan to advocate for a suffocating workload.
In 2022, Bombay Shaving Company CEO Shantanu Deshpande said young Indians should be working 18 hour-days for the first five years of their career.
“When you are 22 and new in your job, throw yourself into it. Eat well and stay fit, but put in the 18 hour days for at least 4-5 years,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“I see a LOT of youngsters who watch random content all over and convince themselves that ‘work-life balance, spending time with family, rejuvenation bla bla’ is important,” he continued.
“It is, but not that early.
“That early, worship your work. Whatever it is. The flex you build in the first 5 years of your career carries you for the rest of it.”
The numbers: India’s sad work crisis laid bare
The average Indian worker works 47.7 hours a week – higher than the US, UK and Germany but lower than China – according to the International Labour Organisation.
Other studies suggest that figure is actually much higher.
A bill named Right to Disconnect – similar to one enacted in Australia recently – was introduced in India in 2018 but has gained no traction in parliament.
Worryingly, just one in five working-age women in India have jobs, according to the latest World Bank Figures from 2021.
Those official figures are thought to include employed women who report working as little as one hour of work outside of their home.
The Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) found that just 10 per cent of working age Indian women in 2022 were employed in the workforce.
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