Regrettable incident, compassion must be encouraged: Experts react to the death of an EY employee

The death of the 26-year-old EY Employee Anna Sebastian Perayil shocked the nation last week and people have been talking about the incident on social media. Her mother had blamed “work stress” in a letter to EY and said she hoped no other family had to go through what she had experienced. Since the letter went viral, people have been reacting to it.

While many say how a feeling of Balancing work and family is important, others criticize large companies for overburdening their employees. Some experts have also joined the debate and say that the incident is regrettable and that people should show compassion.

Experts talk about work-life balance

Speaking to ANI, Corporate Outbound expert Tanmay Pendse urged the government to introduce clear policies aimed at managing workplace stress more effectively. “We have been training people for 15-16 years and through management activities we ensure that such training is included which helps in stress reduction. When employees come home, they should spend quality time with their family and stay away from mobile phones. I appeal to the government to come up with a specific policy to address such situations,” Pendse said. He also recommended introducing wellness activities like yoga in companies to help employees relax and deal with pressure.

Nikhil Badgujar, Associate Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), spoke about how stress is an inevitable part of professional life and needs to be managed. He also said that what happened to the EY employee was very unfortunate.

“Whatever happened is very unfortunate. People need to understand how to respond to stress. Stress is relative because the stress I feel is different for other people. People need to understand how to respond. I can understand that because these things are very common today. We need to think about how to reduce the impact. That is the only thing we can manage. Stress cannot be avoided but it can be managed. In the business world, stress is a part of our lives. We need to understand how to respond to it. We are the solution providers ourselves,” said Badgujar.

Anand Kulkarni, process specialist at Infosys, agrees that while stress is common in many workplaces, it can be managed with the right mindset. “I have been in the corporate world for more than a decade and have seen and experienced a lot of work stress. I manage stress by enjoying work. Stress does exist in the corporate world, but it's how you deal with it that counts.”

Pushkar Aurangabadkar, an educator and author, approaches the issue from a more philosophical perspective, pointing out that societal pressures often push people into high-stress environments.

“The incident is very painful and has a lot to do with the aspirations we have today. Most of them come from the compulsive obsession to own as many things as possible. It's not just the trap set by companies, but we also have to think about what causes people to fall into these traps in the first place.”

Aurangabadkar added that promoting compassion and spiritual wisdom can help reduce feelings of isolation and pressure in the corporate world.

“But there are ways and means to deal with it better and as a society we should look into it. It depends on the corporate culture and as everyone should know, every company has a different culture. It depends from company to company what kind of culture they have that determines how much pressure is applied in that organization. But beyond that, I believe that compassion and the yearning for spiritual wisdom must be encouraged in society because it can reduce the possibility of such incidents. The reason is that beyond the pressure that people face in companies, the duress and loneliness that we face is deeply touching and the answers to that could lie in compassion.”

Death of EY employee shocks the nation

Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old auditor, died in July 2024, just four months after starting her first job at EY. Her mother attributed Anna's death to extreme work pressure in an emotional letter to the company. The letter went viral on LinkedIn last week.

Anna's mother wrote in the letter that her daughter worked tirelessly, even on the day of her graduation ceremony, despite experiencing chest pains. Although doctors found no immediate cause for concern, Anna continued to feel unwell. Her mother added that Anna's manager would reschedule meetings during cricket matches and assign tasks at the end of the day, dismissing Anna's concerns about the workload late into the night.

The letter went on to say that despite her difficulties, Anna wanted to stay because she wanted to learn and gain experience, but the pressure was too much. In her letter, Anna's mother expressed her deep sadness, not only over the loss of her daughter, but also over the lack of support from EY. She also said that none of Anna's colleagues or superiors attended her funeral.

(With ANI inputs)