26-year-old succumbs to 'work stress' four months after joining EY Pune

The girl's mother recounted an instance when the girl was given a task at night with a deadline set for the next morning.

Thiruvananthapuram: A letter written by a mother to a leading professional services firm accusing of the work pressure that her deceased daughter had been facing has gone viral.

Anita Augustine, mother of EY Pune employee Anna Sebastian Perayil, who died on July 20 at the age of 26, wrote to EY India chairman Rajiv Memani narrating the work pressure her daughter had been going through. The emotional and strongly worded letter had gone viral on social media.

Augustine told DH that she got a reply from EY telling that they would review the matter and also informing that some representative of the company would like to meet her.

A native of Kochi, Anna joined EY Pune on March 19 after clearing CA exams. Augustine narrates in the letter how they witnessed the work pressure their daughter was going through. 

"On July 6, my husband Sibi Joseph and I reached Pune to attend Anna’s CA convocation. Since she had been complaining of chest constriction upon reaching her PG late at night (around 1 am) for the past week, we took her to the hospital in Pune. Her ECG was normal, and the cardiologist came to allay our fears, telling us she wasn’t getting enough sleep and was eating very late. He prescribed antacids, which reassured us that it wasn’t anything serious. Though we had come all the way from Kochi, 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. That night, she returned to her PG late again. On the day of her convocation, she joined us in the morning, but she was working from home even that day until the afternoon, and we reached the convocation venue late.... Anna confided in us about the overwhelming workload, especially the additional tasks assigned verbally, beyond the official work," Augustine narrates.

Augustine also lamented that no one from EY attended Anna’s funeral. "After her funeral, I reached out to her managers, but I received no reply. How can a company that speaks of values and human rights fail to show up for one of its own in their final moments?," asks Augustine.