Anna Sebastian’s death: Techie shares wife’s experience amid ‘toxic work culture’ debate, says ‘these same MNCs…’

A techie has shared his wife’s experience at Ernst&Young (EY) following the debate over the tragic death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old, due to alleged work pressure at the same accounting firm.

In a post on LinkedIn, Aakash Venkatasubramanian shared that his wife had to leave EY due to toxic work culture, where working for 18 hours a day was considered normal.

“My wife quit EY just because of the toxic work culture, and if she had not quit, I don’t know what would have happened to her.

"18 hours workday is normalised, glorified and expected out of employees by many big MNCs in India,” he wrote.

He mentioned that these companies will not have such long working hours for employees outside India. “The irony is, these same MNCs would not do that outside India.

"Indians are being seen as donkeys to offload work, and India is seen as a huge factory willing to operate 24x7x365,” he added.

Further he asked the Indian government to intervene in the matter and take necessary action to ensure that such incidents does not happen in future.

“The Indian government is happy to take tax from us without ensuring the bare humane conditions to work. The government does not help taxpayers when they are laid off, but would happily collect the taxes from us when they aren’t even giving us the basic necessities.

Dear Government, let this be the last death. I hope atleast after this incident, the corporate workers would get some benefit from the government with a new law or a job seeking cushion in the event of layoff (SIC),” he posted on LinkedIn.

Anna Sebastian Perayil died after collapsing at home. Anna’s mother, in a letter, stated that the cause of her death was extreme work pressure that took a toll on her physical and mental health.

Her letter went viral on social media, starting the debate on work pressure and toxic work environments across the country. On Thursday, September 20, the labour ministry said it would initiate an investigation against EY.

What EY said in a statement on employee's death

“We are deeply saddened by Anna Sebastian's tragic and untimely passing in July 2024, and our deepest condolences go to the bereaved family.

Anna was a part of the Audit team at S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, in Pune for a brief period of four months, joining the firm on 18 March 2024. That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us. 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."