Getty ImagesA tragic death of a 26-year-old American personnel at a leading accounting firm has sparked a significant controversy about work culture and worker welfare in commercial settings.
Anna Sebastian Perayil, a chartered accountant at Ernst &, Young ( EY ), died in July, four months after joining the firm. Her parents allege that her death was brought on by the “overwhelming job force” at her new career.
EY has refuted the claim, saying that Perayil was given the same amount of work as any other employee and that it did n’t think that work pressure could have saved her life.
Her suicide has resonated seriously, sparking a debate on the “hustle tradition” promoted by some corporates and start-ups- a work drive that prioritises productivity, often at the expense of employee well-being.
Some claim that this society encourages innovation and development, with some choosing to work extra hours out of a desire or goal. According to others, supervision frequently places employees under pressure, which results in fatigue and a decline in quality of life.
After a letter written by her family Anita Augustine to EY went viral on social media last year, Perayil’s death came under the limelight. She urged EY to “reflect on its work culture” and put emphasis on its employees ‘ health in the letter, giving specific examples of the alleged pressures her daughter’s people had endured at work, including working late into the night and on weekends.
Anna’s experience “lights up a workplace culture that seems to honor overwork while ignoring the very people who work in the roles,” she wrote. The persistent demands and the force to fulfill unrealistic expectations are insurmountable, and they cost us the existence of a young woman with such high potential.
Many people condemned EY for its “toxic work culture”, sharing their experiences on Twitter and LinkedIn. One user alleged that he had been made to work for 20 hours a day at a top consultancy firm without being paid overtime.
“Work culture in India is horrid. Pay is dismal, exploitation is max [maximum]. There are zero repercussions and no remorse on the part of employers who routinely harass workers,” another user wrote, adding that managers are often praised for overworking and underpaying their employees.
A former EY employee criticised the work culture at the firm and alleged that employees were often “mocked” for leaving on time and “shamed” for enjoying weekends.
” Interns]are ] given crazy workload, unrealistic timelines and]are ] humiliated during reviews as it builds character for their future”, he wrote.
Getty ImagesEY’s India chief, Rajiv Memani, has since said that the firm attaches the “highest importance” to the wellbeing of its employees. “I would like to affirm that the wellbeing of our people is my top-most priority and I will personally champion this objective,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Perayil’s death is n’t the first incident that has brought India’s work culture under scrutiny. Narayana Murthy, a co-founder of Infosys, was criticized for suggesting that young Indians may work 70 hours per week to promote the country’s economic growth in October of last year.
His views were backed by Ola’s India chief Bhavesh Aggarwal, who said that he didn’t believe in the concept of work-life balance because “if you are enjoying your work, you will find happiness in life also and work also, and both of them will be in harmony”.
In 2022, Shantanu Deshpande, founder of the Bombay Shaving Company, asked youngsters to stop “cribbing” about working hours and suggested that new recruits at any job should be prepared to work 18 hours a day for the first four to five years of their career.
However, labor rights activists and experts in mental health claim that these demands are cruel and set employees under a lot of strain. In her email, Perayil’s family alleged that her child had experienced “anxiety and sleeplessness” shortly after joining EY.
Getty ImagesIndia is known to have one of the most overworked workforces globally. A recent report by the International Labour Organisation said half of India’s workforce worked for over 49 hours each week, making India the second country after Bhutan to have the longest working hours.
Labour analyst Shyam Sunder said India’s work society had shifted post-1990s with the increase of the services sector, leading companies to pass labour rules to meet round-the-clock demands.
He added that the culture has now been “institutionalised” by firms but it has also been accepted by employees. Students are tacitly told that working long hours to earn a high salary is acceptable and even desirable, even in business schools, he said.
According to him, a “mindset shift” is required for there to be any real change in corporate culture, one where both companies and employees approach work with a more mature perspective, believing that it is important but not the only purpose and part of life.
” Till then, all the other actions by corporations, such as providing period leave or working with mental health organizations, will remain supplementary at best and symbolic at worst,” he said.
Chandrasekhar Sripada, a professor at the Indian School of Business, agrees with this view. He claimed that a” complex, multi-stake holder problem” existed for toxic work culture and that everyone involved, from industry leaders to managers to employees to society, would have to alter their perceptions of productivity in order for there to be real change.
” We’re still confusing hard work with productive work”, Mr Sripada said. Why are working hours getting longer when the purpose of technology is to reduce human labor?
” We need to start focussing on sustainable growth, not just from an environmental standpoint, but also from a labour rights perspective”, he added.
There are models for India to follow because Scandinavian nations have already developed much gentler working environments. All it needs is willpower”.