 "Long work hours, high pressure: How EY Pune employee’s death has bared 'toxic' culture at Big 4 firms")
The death of a young Ernst & Young (EY) India employee allegedly due to work pressure has put a spotlight on the ’toxic’ culture at the Big 4 companies. A 26-year-old chartered accountant had passed away just four months after joining the global accounting firm in Pune.
The tragic incident came to light after a letter by Anna Sebastian Perayil’s mother went viral on social media recently. It has triggered a huge outrage and sparked a conversation about the exploitative work environment pervasive at these major accounting companies in India.
Let’s take a closer look.
What happened?
The viral letter by Anna’s grieving mother, Anita Augustine, blamed the work stress and long working hours at EY that allegedly claimed the young woman’s life in July.
In a letter to Ernst & Young India chairman Rajiv Memani, Anita called on the company to change the work culture that “seems to glorify overwork while neglecting the very human being behind the role”.
She wrote that the family was deeply hurt as no one from the organisation “attended Anna’s funeral”.
After the letter caused uproar on social media, the Union Labour Ministry said it is investigating the matter. “Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil. A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway,” Minister of State for Labour Shobha Karandlaje wrote on X.
Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil. A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway. We are committed to ensuring justice & @LabourMinistry has officially taken up the complaint.@mansukhmandviya https://t.co/1apsOm594d
— Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) September 19, 2024
She was replying to former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s post seeking a probe into the allegations of Anna’s family of exploitative work environment at Ernst & Young India.
The company has also responded to the viral letter, saying it was “deeply saddened” by the employee’s death and that it “will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace”.
‘Toxic’ work culture at Big 4 in India
Anna’s untimely death has shed light on the missing work-life balance for those working at the Big 4 accounting and consulting firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte, EY, and KPMG.
Several social media users opened up about their experiences of alleged toxic work culture at these firms.
“My sister (working with one of the Big 4) faced the issues. She was at the dentist and [the] senior messaged and said at least reply immediately and do work after a few hours and got irritated when she said that she won’t be able to respond the entire day (on non-working day),” a user tweeted.
Another X user wrote about the “foundational beliefs” of managers at the Big 4 companies. He said they believe in not referring to people by name as they are a “resource”, undeserving of any empathy or humanity. The user alleged people leaving the workplace on time by 6 or 7 pm are “mocked” as serving “half-day”.
The user claimed managers deploy a culture of “fear” at the workplace.
Foundational Beliefs of Big4 Managers:
— Hardik Rajgor (@Hardism) September 18, 2024
1. Don’t discuss people by names. They are a ‘resource’. Hence they aren’t deserving of any empathy or humanity.
2. If a project requires 10 people, 4 should be allotted on it so profitability can be increased. If resources have to work… https://t.co/aUH1R5MSc2
Long work hours and high work pressure define these consultancy firms, which pay high salaries even at junior levels. As per a Mint report, there is an expectation from employees to work 16 hours a week, attend frequent meetings, and spend weekends preparing client pitches.
However, this trend is now leading to young professionals quitting their jobs in just a few years. Consultants told Mint that attrition in junior ranks in India’s consulting industry was believed to be 20-22 per cent last year, and 10 per cent at the middle and senior levels.
“I had to go to client’s site six days a week and travel 2-3 hours a day, return at night, and get back on my laptop. Work spilled over during weekends as I was in the risk and compliance team and worked for a telecom client, and escalations came in almost every day." a former employee of one of the firms who quit the job in three years told the financial newspaper.
A senior partner at one of the Big Four firms admitted that younger employees getting hospitalised were not unusual as they were expected to work 14-16 hours a day in their initial years.
After Anna’s death, an employee who has worked with EY for four years in Pune told Indian Express, “All of a sudden we can’t use the broad term ‘work culture’. We have to look for policy level changes and make basic changes, like the work day shouldn’t extend beyond nine hours… maximum twice or thrice a month. What happens at the manager and team level too makes a difference. The team has to understand what employees are going through. Somehow I have been lucky and got to work with a good team.”
A representative of Deloitte India told Mint in an email that the firm offers hybrid working to its employees. “We have introduced well-being as a component of goals too. The requirement is to take at least two days off every quarter and this is reflected in a burnout dashboard.”
KPMG said that it has several measures in place, including counselling for its employees and their families and periodic health check-ups, as part of its wellness initiatives, according to the financial newspaper.
Some social media users have pointed out that the culture of overwork is prevalent at most multinational corporations (MNCs) in India, which has the second-most overworked people, as per the International Labour Organization (ILO).
A problem beyond India
The problem of ’toxic’ work culture at the Big 4 companies exists beyond India. Last September, Spain decided to impose a fine of €1.4 million on the Big 4 companies after employees complained of working up to 16 hours per day at work.
This came after the Spanish Labour Ministry started probing the working practices and conditions at these consultancies. A former employee at PwC consultancy in Madrid told Euronews at the time that he used to work 12 hours a day, barely getting any free time after work. He said he did not even have time to buy groceries and would end up eating fast food for every meal.
The long work hours at these firms seem to have become an accepted norm. Four women alumni of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, who graduated in 2015, revealed working over 45 hours a week at their respective Big 4 companies. The EY and Deloitte employees reported spending an average of over 50 hours per week working and the one at PwC said she worked 70-80 hours a week during the busy season. The KPMG employee said she usually worked 40 hours a week, which could extend to 50-70 hours during the busy season, as per the Indiana University Women in Business website.
The work culture at these Big 4 firms has come under scanner before. A 27-year-old Indian employee working at EY Australia fell to her death from the terrace of the firm’s Sydney building in 2022. As per Daily Mail Australia, she had complained to her friends of her colleagues at EY being “mean and racist”.
Her death had led to accusations of racism and a toxic work environment at the company.
In 2011, a young Chinese woman employed at PwC’s Shanghai office died from acute meningitis. While there was no evidence to confirm her death was linked to work-related fatigue, several people blamed overwork for her death, reported China Daily.
Employees in China said that while the Big Four companies paid well, they were infamous for overworking employees. “Working overtime is normal at the Big 4. It’s like a culture. They will give you a project and set a deadline, but it’s impossible to finish it without working overtime,” a junior auditor at Ernst & Young had said at the time.
Big 4 in India
Big 4 companies started as accounting and auditing firms. Today, they have expanded into technology services. With this, their presence has increased in India.
Deloitte and EY have employed about 1 lakh people each in the South Asian country. PwC has about 50,000 employees and KPMG has over 40,000.
Deloitte has 18 offices across seven major Indian cities. The other three Big 4 companies also have more than 10 offices in India.
With inputs from agencies
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