EY India employee death: Harsh Goenka shares 6 tips to promote healthy workplace culture

Chairman of RPG Enterprises, Harsh Goenka, called on Indian corporates to take immediate action to foster a healthy workplace culture, in the wake of the death of Ernst & Young (EY) India chartered accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil, allegedly due to work-related stress, on July 20. 

“India Inc must take urgent action following EY’s Anna Sebastian Perayil tragic death to foster a healthier workplace culture,” Goenka said in his post on social media platform X. 

Here are Goenka's 6 key tips for healthier workplace culture:

1. Prioritise well-being: Goenka highlighted the importance of prioritising an individual's well-being. This requires companies to implement mental health programme, manageable workloads, and wellness initiatives.

2. Support new hires: Companies should support their new recruits and offer mentorship to help employees adjust to new roles and environments.

3. Tackle burnout: To deal with burnout, companies should end the glorification of the overwork culture and reward efficiency over working for long hours.

4. Foster open communication: Communication is crucial in any corporate environment, and addressing employee concerns without fear of retaliation is important.

5. Accountable Leadership: Employees should hold leaders responsible for creating a toxic work environment in a corporate space. This adds to the factor of the leader's capability of taking up accountability as well.

6. Promote Work-Life Balance: Employees should set clear boundaries between work and personal time; respecting the employee's well-being is needed.

Harsh Goenka also highlighted that “Real change, not condolences, is what’s needed”. 

Meanwhile, Rajiv Memani, chairman and managing director of Ernst & Young India, stated that his company hires nearly 1,00,000 people who all have to work hard. “We have around one lakh employees. There is no doubt each one has to work hard,” he noted. 

On Thursday, the Union Labour Ministry announced that it will start an investigation into the incident, days after an emotional letter from Anna Sebastian Perayil's mother went viral.

According to the mother's letter, Anna worked very hard at EY. The workload and long working hours took a physical, emotional, and mental toll on her. The mother also noted that Anna continued to push herself despite suffering from immense stress and anxiety.

What EY said in a statement on employee's death

“We are deeply saddened by Anna Sebastian's tragic and untimely passing in July 2024, and our deepest condolences go to the bereaved family.

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. 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. 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."