'She didn't have time to sleep or eat...' EY employee Anna Sebastian's grieving father tells Asianet News
Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant working at Ernst & Young (EY) in Pune, passed away on July 20 due to excessive work-related stress. Her father Sibi Joseph told Asianet News that Anna struggled with overwhelming workloads, leaving her unable to eat or sleep properly.
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FollowKollam: Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant who had been employed with the international consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) in Pune for just four months, passed away on July 20 due to work-related stress, according to her mother. She reportedly suffered from an "overwhelming workload."
Sibi Joseph, the father of the deceased, told Asianet News that his daughter didn’t even have time to sleep or eat properly. He emphasized that the suffering his daughter endured should not be experienced by anyone else.
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"The company's audit work was focused on external clients. During her final days, Anna was working on the audit for Bajaj Auto and had just announced the results. The job required completion within strict deadlines, necessitating late-night work, often until 12:30 AM. By the time she got to her home, it would be around 1:30 AM, only to receive additional work, resulting in her inability to get proper rest," said her father.
"At the PG where she stayed, food wasn't available after 10 PM. Along with the stress of work, it was difficult for her," said Anna's father. "We had asked her to resign, but she told us the job provided good exposure and that it would be better to stay for at least a year. She said she'd consider moving only if a better opportunity came along. That's why she stayed. Even after informing her senior officials about the challenges, nothing improved," her father added.
"She had told her assistant manager multiple times that she couldn't handle the workload, but they insisted that she had to work late into the night. Her CA results were announced in February, and she joined the company in March. She passed away in the early hours of July 21. She had mentioned issues related to not eating properly and lack of sleep. When she attended her convocation, she even went to a hospital to get an ECG done. The cardiologist assured her there were no heart-related issues," her father explained.
"She only had issues with lack of sleep and not eating on time. We were looking for a solution to that. She had no other health problems; she was perfectly healthy. The company only responded after we wrote a letter. All we want is for future employees not to go through the same situation. They gave more work to newcomers, and she wouldn’t speak up against it. Whatever work they gave, she would finish, which is why she started having issues with sleep," said Sibi Joseph to Asianet News.
Anna, who had passed her chartered accountancy (CA) exams in November 2023, joined EY Pune in March 2024. According to her mother, Anna was excited to start her career at the prestigious firm, but the family’s world shattered when she passed away on July 20, 2024. Meanwhile, the Union Labour Ministry has said it has taken up a complaint and will be investigating the circumstances that led to the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil.
