Death of Anna Sebastian: Technician recounts his wife's experiences at EY amid debate over 'toxic work culture' and says: 'These same multinationals…'

An engineer has shared his wife's experiences at Ernst & Young (EY) following the debate over the tragic death of 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil due to alleged work pressure at the same accounting firm.

In a post on LinkedIn, Aakash Venkatasubramanian shared that his wife had to leave EY because of the toxic work culture where working 18 hours a day was considered normal.

“My wife left EY only because of the toxic work culture, and if she hadn’t quit, I don’t know what would have happened to her.

“Many large multinational corporations in India have normalized and glorified an 18-hour workday and expect their employees to do the same,” he wrote.

He mentioned that these companies would not implement such long working hours for their employees outside India. “The irony is that the same multinationals would not do that outside India.”

“Indians are seen as donkeys to be dumped for work and India is seen as a giant factory ready to work round the clock and all year round,” he added.

He further called on the Indian government to intervene and take necessary measures to prevent such incidents from recurring.

“The Indian government is happy to take taxes from us without providing us with the bare essentials of working conditions. The government does not help taxpayers when they are laid off, but it would be happy to take taxes from us when it is not even giving us the bare necessities.

Dear government, let this be the last death. I hope that after this incident, corporate employees will get some support from the government at least in the form of a new law or a job search cushion in case of layoff (SIC),” he wrote on LinkedIn.

Anna Sebastian Perayil died after suffering a collapse at home. Anna's mother stated in a letter that the cause of death was extreme work pressure, which affected her physical and mental health.

Her letter went viral on social media, sparking a national debate about work pressure and toxic work environments. On Thursday, September 20, the Department of Labor announced it was launching an investigation into EY.