Debate sparked over India’s work culture following employee death

Following the death of 26 year old chartered accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil a few months ago, a major debate has been sparked regarding the workplace culture in India.

Perayil’s parents said that the ‘overwhelming work pressure’ at her new job took a toll on their daughter’s health. Ernst & Young (EY), the firm where Perayil was employed have disputed these allegations.

It was a letter from Anita Augustine, Perayil’s mother to EY being shared on social media that brought this issue into the spotlight. In her letter Anita describes the pressure her daughter was under at her new job including working a lot of late nights and weekends.

She said she wanted EY to “reflect on its work culture” and take steps to prioritise the health of its employees.

This lead numerous people taking to Twitter & LinkedIn to share the experiences working at EY and condemning their ‘Toxic work culture’.

One user said: “Work culture in India is horrid. Pay is dismal, exploitation is maximum. There are zero repercussions and no remorse on the part of employers who routinely harass workers.

Another said: “Interns are given crazy workloads, unrealistic timelines and are humiliated during reviews as it builds character for their future.”

EY’s India Chief Rajiv Memani has since spoken out on the issue stating in a LinkedIn post: “I would like to affirm that the wellbeing of our people is my top most priority and I will personally champion this objective.”

This isn’t the first time India’s work culture under scrutiny as last October, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy was criticised for suggesting that young Indians should work 70 hour weeks to boost the country’s economic growth.

Ola’s India Chief Bhavish Aggarwal supported these views saying that he didn’t believe in the concept of work life balance.

Mental health experts and labour rights activists say that such high demands are unfair and put immense stress on employees. Perayil’s mother alleges that her daughter had experience ‘anxiety and sleeplessness’ after joining EY.

India is known to have one of the most overworked workforces globally. A recent International Labour Organisation report said that half of India’s workforce worked over 49 hours each week making India the second country after Bhutan to have the longest working hours.

Chandrasekhar Sripada, professor at the Indian School of Business said a toxic work culture was a “complex multi stake holder problem.” He feels that everyone from industry leaders to mangers to employees would have to change the way they viewed productivity in order for there to be any real change.

Sripada said: “We’re still confusing hard work with productive work. The point of technology is to reduce human work so why are working hours getting longer?

We need to start focussing on sustainable growth, not just from an environmental standpoint but also from labour rights perspective. Scandinavian countries have already created much gentler working environments so there are models for India to follow.

All it needs is willpower.”