Anna Sebastian Perayil, an Audit and Assurance executive at Ernst & Young (EY), returned from work to her paying guest facility in Pune around 8 pm on July 20. She felt unwell. It wasn't just exhaustion. Usually she reached her PG around 1 am after putting in extra hours at work.
Two weeks earlier, her parents had flown from Kochi to Pune for her convocation. She was proud that she paid for their tickets with her money. When they were around, she told them of a chest constriction. They had taken her to a hospital. ECG had then seemed normal. The cardiologist had been reassuring. But this time, she felt a nagging pain again. She thought she needed some food and rest and she would be fine. It was not to be. The pain was really bad. She told her roommates. They unlocked her phone and rang up her mother. Back home, her mother Anita Augustine panicked. She knew what her girl was going through, day by day. She asked her friends to take her to a hospital. By then Anna had collapsed. One of her friends -- a dental doctor -- gave her CPR multiple times. They quickly called an ambulance. On her way to the hospital, she suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
Two hours before she died, Anna was on phone with her best friend from school, Ann Mary. They spoke for almost an hour, said Ann, recalling the final hours. "Even on that day, she had told me about a late-night meeting. Her manager often told her that no one lasts more than a quarter in his team and that Anna should be the one to break that pattern. He was proud of this. They had normalized this toxic work culture. Anna experienced anxiety attacks, but no one stepped forward to help her,” said Ann.
“Anna was planning to resign. Her parents were always supportive of her decisions. She had raised concerns with the HR about her experiences, but she was met with cold indifference. Neither her manager nor the assistant manager showed any empathy towards her health. Anna’s mother had also attempted to contact both the manager and assistant manager, but they never responded," added Ann.
In a letter to Rajiv Memani, EY India chairman, Anna's mother, deeply shaken and unable to cope with the loss, writes, "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. I wish I had been able to protect her. But it is too late for my Anna''. Anna, the 26-year-old woman with a beaming smile was a fighter to the core, always a topper, too kind to blame anyone, her friends and family remember.
Still she broke down over phone while calling her close friends from Pune. Ann Treasa Joseph, a friend from church, recalled that Anna would call her mother in tears almost every day. “Anita Aunty (Anna’s mother) often mentioned how Anna was overwhelmed with work at EY, and even at night, she was still being assigned tasks. During one visit home after four months at EY, Anna confided that she was considering quitting. She felt isolated without close friends there and was trying to get a transfer to EY Kochi. Her mother kept advising her that if the stress became too much, she should leave such a toxic environment. Anna fought fiercely for everything she achieved in life. She was incredibly close to her parents, and now they are devastated. They cry every day, struggling to cope with this loss,” Ann said.
After Anna died, Ann made a painting. Hair parted in the middle, Anna holds her palm to her chest, all smiles, with a bird flapping its wings around her -- just like her friends always wanted her to be -- happy and smiling. "I don’t want anyone else to go through what she endured. It’s hard for me to accept that she’s no longer here. It feels as though she’s out there somewhere, not talking to me, as if we’ve had a fight. That’s how I’m trying to cope with this,” she said.
According to Anna's family, she had applied for a 15-day leave and was supposed to return home by July end as that was when her latest auditing project would end. Though she was asked to come home earlier, that would mean having to drop the audit midway, which would affect the workflow and the team. Hence, Anna decided to stick on till the project was completed.
Anna's uncle (does not want to be named), who lives next to her house in Kochi, remembers her as a caring and loving child. "She should have resigned. She's a chartered accountant, she would have got a job anywhere. But it was her first job and in a company as good as EY, Anna knew it would influence her career trajectory and decided to carry on. There was pressure, but she was fighting it out," he said.
He also said the rumours going around in social media that Anna had a history of illness was "absolutely false". "She consulted a cardiologist, who told her stress, lack of sleep and improper intake of food was causing her trouble," he said.
Talking about EY's cold approach initially, he said the organisation should have deputed somebody to meet the parents on learning about Anna's demise. "They have an office in Kochi as well. We were surprised to find out that the chairman learned about the incident only after receiving Anita's letter," he said.
Neither her manager nor the assistant manager showed any empathy towards her health
Ann Mary, Anna's close friend
Anna's father, Sibi Joseph said that Anna had no prior health issues but began experiencing difficulties due to the demanding work culture at EY.
Sibi mentioned that whenever they urged her to resign due to her stress, Anna insisted that the job offered valuable exposure and she planned to stay for a while longer. Regarding the response from the chairman of EY India, Sibi stated, "The chairman mentioned that the company would establish a forum to address these issues and ensure that such incidents do not occur again. It was only after we sent an email that the chairman learned of Anna’s passing; the company did not provide any explanatory messages beforehand," he said.
The three-page letter of Anna's mother triggered widespread outrage on social media. It was not just one of a mother's sorrow over her lost daughter, but of an appeal to a corporate giant to change so that no other parent has to go through what Anna's family is enduring. Following the social media backlash, the organisation issued a condolence note stating Anna's death was an irreparable loss and that they (EY) were deeply saddened by Anna's tragic and untimely passing. "That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us. While no measure can compensate for the loss experienced by the family, we have provided all the assistance as we always do in such times of distress and will continue to do so. We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility," the company's statement read.
Onmanorama had sent a detailed questionnaire to EY for the article. In response, a general reply was received and EY did not give specific answers to the queries.