"There's a limit to lying."
"I'm willing to bet that it's a sheer lie."
"According to the FM, the amount of pressure wasn't abnormal."
"You should know how to handle it."
"The Labour Ministry proposed that"
"a company can have their employees work for up to 12 hours a day."
"So he requested our youngsters to want to work 70 hours a week."
"It raises the question that"
"despite this toxic work culture,"
"why don't people like Anna, employees like Anna, quit their jobs?"
Hello, friends!
Can working too much in an office job
the toxic work culture of the workplace,
cause someone to lose their life?
We witnessed an example of this a few days ago.
26-year-old Chartered Accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil
was working with a member firm of Ernst & Young Global in Pune.
Her mother Anita Augustine
wrote a letter to the chairman of EY India
in which she said that
her daughter was given so much work at her workplace
that she was physically, mentally, and emotionally broken.
She was so over-stressed,
she had to stay up so late every night
that all of it led to her de@th.
"26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil
tragically d!ed in Pune."
"Anna Sebastian Perayil was working for EY at their Pune office."
"Are Indians overworked?"
I will read this letter to you to help you
understand the pain these parents are going through.
Because you know what friends,
this was not an isolated case.
The same level of physical, mental, and emotional t0rture,
is faced by millions of corporate employees in our country.
The McKinsey Health Institute conducted a survey in April 2022.
It talked to 15,000 employees
and 1,000 HR managers.
The survey found that 40% of Indian employees
are showing symptoms of burnout, distress, anxiety, or depression.
And the reason for 90% of such outcomes is
the toxic workplace behaviour.
That is why the desire to leave their jobs among employees in India,
is 60% more than the global average.
But unemployment is also a daunting problem in our country,
which makes it difficult to quit a job during this period.
What is this Toxic Work Culture?
And the employees who are facing this,
what can they do about it at their individual level?
Let's understand this in this video.
First of all, let's clarify one thing.
Some people have a misunderstanding that
Anna Sebastian d!ed by su!cide.
But it isn't so.
While talking to Indian Express, Anna's parents said that
on the evening of 20th July,
Anna reached home late from her office.
After she reached home, she collapsed suddenly.
She was taken to the hospital
and doctors there declared her 'D€ad on Arrival.'
This means that she passed away before reaching the hospital.
The post-mortem report mentions that
she d!ed due to cardiac arrest.
But do you remember this scene from the film 3 Idiots?
"The reason for de@th in the post-mortem report is stated as"
'Intense pressure on windpipe, resulting in ch0king."
"They think he d!ed because pressure was applied here."
"But what about the pressure that was on him for the past 4 years?"
"That's not in the report, sir."
In Anna's case, it wasn't even 4 years,
it had been only 4 months old since she started working there.
Her family said that she had no health problems before this.
EY India's Chairman Rajiv Memani
posted on LinkedIn that he was 'deeply saddened' about this incident.
He expressed regret that they didn't attend Anna's funeral.
He said that it had never happened before
and promised that it won't happen again.
But the main issue is the Toxic Work Culture.
Look at what he had to say about this.
He says that they have around 100,000 employees.
And that everyone has to work hard.
He mentions that Anna worked with them only for 4 months.
And that she was given work just like any other employee.
He said that he doesn't believe that she lost
her life because of the pressure at work.
He received a lot of backlash on this post.
A user said that their son went through the same nonsense years ago.
They were fortunate that their son quit after 2 years
but he was completely burnt out.
As parents, they were worried whether
he would be able to work again or not.
They were angry at Rajiv Memani and said that
he should apologise to everyone who works with his 'rotten organisation.'
Many people posted on social media about how
they are going through the same situation at their jobs.
Look at this,
one person said that he used to work for 20 hours a day at his job.
But the company did not acknowledge work beyond 15 hours.
Another user said that a Deputy Manager at Deloitte
passed away due to the same reasons two years ago.
During the mid-twenties,
their stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep led to their de@th.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spoke to Anna's mother on video call.
Rahul Gandhi assured her that he will take this matter to the parliament.
If our government wants, it can bring about
many positive changes in response to this issue.
Two months ago, the Australian government
gave the Right to Disconnect to the millions working in Australia.
Do you know what this means?
If any Australian employee isn't at work,
and their employer tries to contact them,
through messages or calls,
the employee can choose to ignore those calls and messages.
Any unreasonable contact related to work can be ignored
when they aren't working.
In Europe, a European Union law states that the maximum
working hours per week can be 48 hours including overtime.
That means, no employee at any sort of work
can work for more than 48 hours per week.
And what about our country?
We're going backwards.
Look at this article from November 2020.
The Labour Ministry proposed that
a company can have their employees work for up to 12 hours a day.
So if you work for 5 days a week,
this comes to 60 hours a week.
After a public outrage about this,
the Centre Government allegedly began investigating this matter.
The Minister of State of the Labour and Employment Ministry,
Shobha Karandlaje tweeted that
"a thorough investigation into the allegations of an
unsafe and exploitative work environment (was) underway."
What will this thorough investigation reveal?
What do you think?
At most, the government will issue a warning to the company.
If there's a lot of pressure on the company,
the company will shift the blame on a few managers and fire them.
But everyone knows that this problem wasn't caused by only one employee or one manager.
The managers are also under pressure from their bosses.
These bosses are also under pressure from their bosses.
And just like this, the pressure on each individual,
flows directly from the top.
This is proved by the ideologies of the billionaires who own these companies.
A few months ago, India's tech billionaire and Infosys' co-founder
Narayan Murthy said in a podcast that
India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world.
So he requested our youngsters to want to work 70 hours a week.
This shows you how these people think.
If allowed to, they will make their employees work 70 hours every week.
And do you know what it means?
If you take a 5-day work week,
it would mean working 14 hours every day.
If you set aside 8 hours for sleep,
you'll have only 2 hours left for everything else.
And for those who want to work 7 days a week,
they will need to work 10 hours each day
to get to 70 hours.
Narayan Murthy's senseless statement received support from other corporates.
Like Ola's CEO Bhavish Agarwal.
He too wants India's youth to work 70 hours a week.
And when he was asked about how much he works,
this was what he had to say.
There's a limit to lying.
I'm willing to bet that it's a sheer lie.
Most people in the world need 7-9 hours of sleep every night to remain healthy.
But there is a rare gene mutation
called DEC2.
Only 0.5% of the global population is affected by this gene mutation.
Only those who have this mutation can survive with less sleep.
According to a 2009 study,
people who had this gene mutation
were able to remain healthy even after getting only 6.25 hours of sleep per night.
But even among the people with this gene mutation,
there is hardly anyone in the world,
who sleeps less than 5 hours a night.
Now, for a second, even if we assume that Ola's
CEO Bhavish Agarwal has this mutated gene,
and that he is a naturally gifted, talented person,
then the question that should be asked to Bhavish Agarwal is
does he work even while eating, bathing, and while on the toilet?
Working for 20 hours every day of the week means that
he has only 4 hours left for everything else.
And he would need a minimum of 4 hours to sleep.
So how did he get the time to be on this 2-hour long podcast?
Was he secretly typing with his feet while doing the podcast?
You can see these news articles from 2017, 2020, and 2024,
where Ola drivers claim to work for 10-14 hours a day.
Some days they are forced to work for as much as 17-18 hours a day.
JSW group's Sajjan Jindal endorsed Narayan Murthy's statement.
I would like to challenge the CEOs of all these companies
to work like the lowest level employee at their company,
for 70 hours a week, for the same salary.
Just for a month.
Only then will they realise what is this Toxic Work Culture.
Instead of putting so much burden on an employee,
why don't these corporations give a job to one more person?
Each of them working 35 hours a week.
By doing so, first of all, the unemployment rate in our country will fall,
and secondly, the productivity of the employees will increase.
You heard it right.
By working for lower hours,
productivity and efficiency actually increases.
An organisation called Expert Market
examined the workforce of 42 countries.
They divided the GDP Per Capita of each country
with the annual working hours of each person.
They did this to calculate productivity.
On this list, Luxembourg is in the first place.
Do you know why?
Because they've strictly prohibited people from working on Sundays.
Every employee gets 5 weeks' paid leave in a year.
They aren't made to work for more than 40 hours a week.
The other countries at the top of the list are
Ireland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands,
and these countries follow the same approach.
Each of these countries have a 40-hour work week
and it is not a coincidence that these countries
are always at the top in terms of Quality of Life and Happiness Index.
The countries at the bottom of the list included Mexico,
where unemployment is a huge threat.
Labour laws aren't strict at all
and that's why the 48-hour work week limit
is hardly ever imposed.
It's the same scenario in countries like Colombia, Chile, and Greece,
where the working hours are very high.
As a result, the employees are often overworked and burnt out,
and their productivity keeps getting lower.
I have talked about this principle in detail in my Time Management course.
Not only at the countrywide level
but this is applicable at the individual level too.
If you want to increase productivity and efficiency in your personal life,
you have to improve your quality of life first.
You have to focus on your happiness.
And how can you do this exactly?
Some points are very obvious.
Like, sleeping 8 hours every night,
eating healthy, exercising,
but there are other stuff that might sound counterintuitive.
Like, spending more time with your friends and family.
I have explained these in detail in my course.
It is a detailed and comprehensive course
where not only do I teach you time management,
but also goal creation, life satisfaction,
task management, productivity, and happiness.
And how to increase all of them together.
Apart from this, you will also learn to get rid of
procrastination and distraction once and for all.
Last month the new Hindi version of this course was launched
and the first few people who completed this course
gave the reviews that you can read on the screen.
I am happy to see how useful this course was for these people.
If you want to join this course,
use the coupon code LIVE48
to get 48% off.
The link is in the description below
or you can scan this QR code.
Now, getting back to Anna Sebastian,
a big question is that despite this toxic work culture,
why don't people like Anna, employees like Anna, quit their jobs?
Here, I would like to read her mother's letter for you
because that answers many questions.
"From, Anita Augustine,
Mother of Late Ms Anna Sebastian Perayil.
To, Rajiv Memani,
EY India Chairman.
Dear Rajiv, I am writing this letter as a grieving mother
who has lost her precious child, Anna Sebastian Perayil.
My heart is heavy,
and my soul is shattered as I pen these words,
but I believe it is necessary to share our story
in the hope that no other family will have to endure the pain we are going through.
Anna passed her CA Exams in November ’23
and joined EY Pune on March 19th, 2024, as an Executive.
She was full of life, dreams, and excitement for the future.
EY was her first job,
and she was thrilled to be part of such a prestigious company.
But four months later, on July 20th, 2024,
my world collapsed when I received the devastating news
that Anna had passed away."
"A 26-year-old Chartered Accountant,
who worked at Ernst & Young, d!ed in July,
just four months after she joined the company."
"She was just 26 years old.
Anna was always a fighter,
from childhood through her academic years,
where she excelled in everything she did.
She was a school topper, and a college topper,
excelled in extracurricular activities,
and passed her CA exams with distinction.
She worked tirelessly at EY,
giving her all to meet the demands placed on her.
However, the workload, new environment, and long hours
took a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally.
She began experiencing anxiety,
sleeplessness, and stress soon after joining,
but she kept pushing herself,
believing that hard work and perseverance were the keys to success.
On Saturday, July 6th,
my husband 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 Sunday, July 7th,
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.
It was my daughter’s great dream
to take her parents to her convocation
with her own hard-earned money.
She booked our flight tickets
and took us.
It breaks my heart to tell you that
even during those two days,
which were the last we would spend with our child,
she couldn’t enjoy them because of the work pressure.
When Anna joined this specific team,
she was told that many employees had resigned due to the excessive workload,
and the team manager told to her,
'Anna, you must stick around
and change everyone’s opinion about our team.'
My child didn’t realize
she would pay for that with her life.
Her manager would often reschedule meetings during cricket matches
and assign her work at the end of the day, adding to her stress.
At an office party, a senior leader even joked that
she would have a tough time working under her manager,
which, unfortunately,
became a reality she could not escape.
Anna confided in us about the overwhelming workload,
especially the additional tasks assigned verbally,
beyond the official work.
I would tell her not to take on such tasks,
but the managers were relentless.
She worked late into the night,
even on weekends,
with no opportunity to catch her breath.
Her assistant manager once called her at night
with a task that needed to be completed by the next morning,
leaving her with barely any time to rest or recover.
When she voiced her concerns,
she was met with the dismissive response,
'You can work at night;
that’s what we all do.'
Anna would return to her room utterly exhausted,
sometimes collapsing on the bed without even changing her clothes,
only to be bombarded with messages asking for more reports.
She was putting in her best efforts,
working very hard to meet the deadlines.
She was a fighter to the core,
not someone to give up easily.
We told her to quit,
but she wanted to learn and gain new exposure.
[...] Anna would never have blamed her managers.
She was too kind for that.
But I cannot remain silent.
Burdening newcomers with such backbreaking work,
making them work day and night,
even on Sundays,
has no justification whatsoever.
She had just left her hometown and loved ones.
Everything was new to her—
the organization, the place, the language—
and she was trying very hard to adjust.
[...] Instead, the management took full advantage of the fact that
she was new
and overwhelmed her with both assigned and unassigned work.
This is a systemic issue
that goes beyond individual managers or teams.
The relentless demands
and the pressure to meet unrealistic expectations
are not sustainable,
and they cost us the life of a young woman
with so much potential.
Anna was a young professional,
just starting her career.
Like many in her position,
she did not have the experience
or the agency to draw boundaries or push back against unreasonable demands.
She did not know how to say no.
She was trying to prove herself in a new environment,
and in doing so,
she pushed herself beyond her limits.
And now, she is no longer with us.
I wish I had been able to protect her,
to tell her that her health and well-being mattered more than anything else.
But it is too late for my Anna.
I am writing to you now, Rajiv,
because I believe EY has a profound responsibility
to ensure the well-being of its employees.
Anna’s experience sheds light on a work culture
that seems to glorify overwork
while neglecting the very human beings behind the roles.
This is not just about my daughter;
it’s about every young professional
who joins EY filled with hopes and dreams,
only to be crushed under the weight of unrealistic expectations.
I took the time to read EY’s human rights statement,
which bears your signature.
I cannot reconcile the values expressed in that
statement with the reality my daughter faced.
How can EY begin to truly live by the values it professes?
Anna’s de@th should serve as a wake-up call for EY.
It is time to reflect on the work culture within your organization
and take meaningful steps to prioritize the health and wellness of your employees.
This means creating an environment
where employees feel safe to speak up,
where they are supported in managing their workload,
and where their mental and physical well-being
is not sacrificed for the sake of productivity.
No one from EY attended Anna’s funeral.
This absence at such a critical moment, for an employee who gave her
all to your organization until her last breath, is deeply hurtful.
Anna deserved better,
and so do all the employees
who continue to work under these conditions.
My heart aches not just for the loss of my child
but also for the lack of empathy shown by those
who were supposed to guide and support her.
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?
Becoming a Chartered Accountant involves years of toil,
hardship, and sacrifice—
not only for the student but also for the parents.
Years of my child’s hard work
have been snuffed out by just four months of EY’s callous attitude.
I hope this letter reaches you with the gravity it deserves.
I don’t know if anyone can truly understand a mother’s emotions
when she lays to rest her child—
the child she held in her arms,
watched grow, play, cry,
and shared dreams with—
unless they have experienced the same pain.
I hope my child’s experience leads to real change
so that no other family has to endure the grief and trauma we are going through.
My Anna is no longer with us,
but her story can still make a difference.
Sincerely, Anita Augustine."
I salute Anna's mother
despite grieving the loss of her daughter,
she showed concern for others.
She showed a mirror to this toxic work culture.
She showed hope to change the situation.
Friends, if you are facing such a toxic work culture at your workplace,
then share your experience in the comments.
You need to reject such toxic work culture.
If your job is like this,
first, contact your managers and
tell them exactly what you are going through.
Share your problems with other employees.
If possible, raise this issue on social media.
If this doesn't work,
try switching to another company.
Starting a new business might seem daunting.
If you don't want to do this,
there are freelancing options in every field.
A separate video can be made on this topic in detail.
Comment below if you'd like such a video.
For now, I hope this video has opened your eyes.
The link to the Time Management course is in the description below.
And if you want some more advice on this topic,
I have talked about it in this video.
'Stop Wasting Time.'
You can click here to watch it.
Thank you very much!
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