EY worker dies four months after starting dream job – after ‘toxic work culture’ claimed the life of a young Aussie

An Ernst & Young executive in India has tragically died, nearly two years after an Australian employee committed suicide following allegations of a toxic workplace culture.

Anna Sebastian Perayil, 26, died on July 20, just four months after joining EY as an Audit and Assurance Executive in Pune, western India.

In November last year, she completed her accounting exams and travelled the 1,300 kilometres from her native Kerala to Pune for the job at the notoriously competitive accounting firm.

At the time, she had posted on LinkedIn how excited she was about her new position.

Her mother, Anita Augustine, has since written a letter to EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani demanding that something be done about the work culture at EY, which she says is “sacrificing mental and physical health for productivity.”

Adding to her grief, Augustine wrote, was the fact that no one from EY showed up at her funeral.

“My heart is heavy and my soul is broken as I write these words, but I believe it is necessary to share our story in the hopes that no other family has to endure the pain that we are experiencing,” her letter began.

Mrs Augustine said that when her daughter passed her exams she was “full of life, dreams and enthusiasm” for the future.

“She has worked tirelessly at EY and given everything to meet the demands placed on her,” she continued.

‘But the workload, the new environment and the long working days took their toll, physically, emotionally and mentally.’

Mrs. Augustine said her daughter began to suffer from anxiety, stress and insomnia.

When her parents came to visit for the ceremony marking the completion of Mrs. Perayil’s CA training, she had to be admitted to the hospital due to chest tightness.

The doctor found that she was not getting enough sleep, but even after she was discharged, Mrs. Perayil wanted to go back to work.

“It breaks my heart to say that even those two days, which were the last we spent with our child, she could not enjoy them because of the pressure of work,” her mother said.

Mrs Augustine claimed her daughter was told that many of her colleagues had quit due to ‘too much work pressure’.

“My child didn’t realize she would pay for this with her life,” she said.

Anna returned to her room completely exhausted. Sometimes she collapsed on the bed without even changing her clothes.

“She didn’t know how to say no. She was trying to prove herself in a new environment and she was pushing herself beyond her limits. And now she’s gone.”

The grieving mother also demanded answers as to why none of Ms Perayil’s colleagues attended her funeral.

Ms Augustine said she had contacted senior staff at the company after the funeral but had received no response.

“This absence at such a critical time, for an employee who gave his all to your organization until her last breath, is deeply painful,” she said.

“My heart cries not only for the loss of my child, but also for the lack of empathy from those who should have guided and supported her.”

EY said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened” by the passing of Ms Perayil.

“That her promising career was cut short in this tragic way is an irreparable loss to all of us,” the statement said.

While no measure can compensate for the family’s loss, we have offered all the support we always do in such difficult times and will continue to do so.

‘We take the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility.

‘We attach utmost importance to the well-being of all our employees and continue to find ways to improve and maintain a healthy workplace for our 100,000 employees across EY member companies in India.’

Ms Perayil’s death comes after Australia EY employee Aishwarya Venkatachalam, 27, fell to her death from the terrace of the firm’s Sydney office building on August 27, 2022.

The Indian, who had moved to Australia 10 months earlier, complained to friends that other EY employees were “mean and racist”.

Daily Mail Australia’s reporting on the story prompted an investigation into bullying, racism and workplace culture at the financial giant by Elizabeth Broderick, Australia’s high-profile Sex Discrimination Commissioner.

David Larocca, CEO of Oceanic EY, promised that Ms Broderick would investigate the company’s culture, working practices and psychological health and safety in an “independent and thorough” review.

Ms Venkatachalam, who used the abbreviated Venkat form of her name professionally, died on August 26 while having drinks at her workplace at The Ivy nightclub in Sydney.

She returned to the EY building and managed to reach the terrace of the café, where she fell to her death.

Good Samaritans told Daily Mail Australia they found Venkatachalam distraught in a nearby car park shortly before her death, crying about being bullied.

A group of women returning to their car found her sobbing uncontrollably in a city centre car park, telling them that ‘everyone in her office was so mean to her and that white people are not nice, they are mean and racist’.

It was reminiscent of similar comments she made to friend Neeti Bisht earlier in April, when she said “mean colleagues” were making her new life in Sydney a living hell.

She told the three women she encountered in the parking lot that her house key was in her office, but she couldn’t go inside to get the key and had nowhere else to go.

Her newlywed husband Nakul Murali, whom she married in January 2021 in a spectacular three-day Tamil-Brahman ceremony, was on a plane back to Sydney from Singapore at the time of her death.

Bystanders helped her back to her office around midnight, but twenty minutes later she crashed into the canopy above the building’s main entrance and died.

Ms Venkatachalam’s death sparked fresh allegations of racism within the company and accusations of a toxic workplace culture.

There is no evidence that EY or Ms Venkatachalam’s colleagues or superiors were in any way responsible for her death.

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