EY has issued a statement addressing the now-viral email written to EY India Chairman and Regional Managing Partner Rajiv Memani by a mother who tragically lost her daughter, an EY employee for just four months, in July. Anita Augustine’s scathing letter details how her 26 year old daughter Anna Sebastian Perayil “worked tirelessly at EY,” giving in to unreasonable demands placed upon her day after day because she was new and wanted to impress. “However, the workload, new environment, and long hours took a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally,” said Anna’s mother. “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.”
“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,” the email said.
A tweet by @kaay_rao — which is where we first saw the letter shared yesterday — has 3.2 million views as of publication time.
Heartbreaking news from EY Pune – a young CA succumbed to the work pressure and nobody from EY even attended her funeral – this is so appalling and nasty!!! pic.twitter.com/pt8ThUKiNR
— Malavika Rao (@kaay_rao) September 17, 2024
Social media reaction and media coverage since the letter dropped yesterday has pushed EY India into issuing a statement. “Anna was a part of the Audit team at S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, in Pune for a brief period of four months, joining the firm on 18 March 2024. That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us,” EY’s statement said [source: Economic Times]. She passed away on July 20.
“We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility. We place the highest importance on the well-being of all employees and will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace for our 100,000 people across EY member firms in India,” they said.
The statement, brusque and hollow even by corporatespeak standards, is not being well-received by the public so far.
EY’s response is a classic lesson on how to say nothing will change without saying nothing will change. pic.twitter.com/HuHIDScGLf
— Lavanya Mohan (@lavsmohan) September 18, 2024
More conversation in @kaay_rao’s replies.
Earlier: Mother Pens Letter Calling Out EY After Her Overworked Daughter Suddenly Passed Away at 26