The sad demise of 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil, who was working at EY (Ernst & Young) Pune, has ignited discussion and debate on the work culture, including hours of work at Big 4 CA firms in India. This is not the first case of young death allegedly due to work pressure. There have been many such cases in the past, including a recent case of an Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) alumnus died by suicide after returning from work at McKinsey.
In a letter addressed to the EY Chairman, Anna’s mother Anita highlighted the work stress caused by impractical deadlines, work overload, and continuous work with no breaks/leave. Sibi Joseph (Anna’s father) recently in an interview, shared that Anna would often return back to her PG at around 1.30 am. EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani mentioned that the amount of work given to Anna was comparable to that given to other employees.
The workload at Big 4 firms especially in the audit and assurance function, is a known fact. In my short work tenure at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), I used to return home post-midnight on most of the days. A lot of my students and friends who work in Big 4s share similar work routines — most of them clock 12-14 hours a day, which can stretch up to 16-18 hours during deadlines. Several employees and ex-employees have experienced similar workloads, as shared on various social platforms after Anna’s incident. There are stories of how managers are involved in the stock market till the afternoon and actual work starts only post that.
It’s a matter of fact that such workload is not only restricted to Big 4s but spans across many companies, including investment banks and consulting firms. In many, it has become an accepted phenomenon that if you are working in the finance function, you need to slog. In my previous organisation, most employees would follow normal work hours, and we in the finance function used to work regularly beyond 12 hours. At times I have logged in at 8.00 am and logged out at 4.00 am the next day. When it is a part of organisational culture, a single individual cannot bring out the change. In many cases, companies are very cautious of headcount. They end up paying twice the amount and, in return expect a 4x work contribution.
If asked, do longer work hours help? Over time, the quality of work suffers. If you consistently put in longer hours, the focus is diluted and the work stretches automatically. And then there is a tendency to take unnecessary coffee and smoke breaks.
Another question that arises is why employees continue to work in an environment where such pressure exists. The first reason is that it's almost the same story across most organisations. Secondly, for a fresher, there is hardly any understanding of how to draw boundaries and when to say no. Over a while, the “boiling frog syndrome kicks” in and everyone feels it’s a part of normal.
How are many others surviving under such work pressure? Many of them are built to handle such work environments. In other cases, employees get habituated or work out of compulsion. And few succumb to the work pressure.
Though organisations claim that they are an employee-friendly company and value their employees' well-being, the reality is far from such a claim. After all, the bottom line is what matters. Any amount of training or workshops on mental health would not help till the working environment shifts towards enabling a better work-life balance.
(CA Suraj Lakhotia, Co-founder & Director of IndigoLearn EduTech, an online platform providing animated classes for CA students. Views expressed are his own)
