A 26-year-old woman employed with accounting firm, Ernst & Young (EY) Pune tragically lost her life due to alleged work stress. Her mother has cited the work stress after joining the company as the reason she lost her life. Anna Sebastian Perayil, Chartered Accountant from Kerala had joined EY Pune on 19 March, 2024 as Audit & Assurance Executive.
After the devastating incident, her mother Anita Augustine has now written to EY India Chairman, Rajiv Memani. In her letter, she mentioned that it was Anna’s first job and she was thrilled to be part of such prestigious company. According to her mother, Anna worked tirelessly and had given her all in this job. Anita further states that the workload, new environment and long working hours had started taking toll on her physically, emotionally & mentally. She experienced sleeplessness, anxiety and stress as soon as she joined the company. Anna’s mother has blamed all these conditions as reason for her daughter’s tragic demise.
She has also mentioned one instance where Anna complained of ‘chest constriction’ on 6 July and they had taken her to the hospital, her reports were normal but she insisted to get back to the work saying there was a lot of work to be done. She added, Anna’s manager would often reschedule meetings during cricket matches and assign her work at the end of the day. These all added up to her stress. From the letter, it comes to the notice that Anna confined in her parents about the workload and additional tasks assigned to her verbally which was beyond the work.
She also mentioned that her daughter worked till late in night to meet the deadlines and there was workload even in the weekend. She was extremely exhausted due to all this.
The grieving mother has demanded justice for her daughter and change in the organization. She said, that her daughter’s death will serve as a ‘wakeup’ call for EY. There was no one from EY at Anna’s funeral and her mother called the absence as hurtful.
Netizens have slammed the company over Annas’s death calling it heartbreaking. Reacting on the same, UBT leader Priyanka Chaturvedi also took to her X handle and said, “This just broke my heart, Anna deserved better. Hope her mother’s gut wrenching letter to E&Y will get corporate houses to relook at their HR policies and prioritise mental health especially for the new recruits who are transitioning from student life to work life”.
There has been no official statement from the company so far.
