The tragic death of Ernst & Young (EY) employee, Anna Sebastian Perayil, from overwork and stress has not gone in vain. It has forced the cavalier managers of the accounting firm to issue guarded regrets. It has triggered a national debate on the toxic work culture and the slave driving that happens behind the hallowed portals of these service organisations; and the government has ordered a “thorough investigation into the allegation of unsafe and exploitative work environment” at EY.
In this swirling debate, an important person whose silence is deafening is Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy. He took the country by storm in September last year when he called on young people to work a 70-hour week to boost productivity and improve the economy.
He was backed by Ola’s Bhavesh Aggarwal and Vinod Khosla, co-founder of IT major, Sun Microsystems. The latter described Murthy’s critics as those who needed mental health therapy. Narayana Murthy’s call for a 70-hour-week got so much traction that MPs in Parliament wanted to know if there was a government proposal to switch to these new work hours.
Overwork culture
Given his strident stand, shouldn’t Mr Narayan Murthy have some comment to make on the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil? Why Are Vinod Khosla and Bhavesh Aggarwal silent too? After all wasn’t it overwork that did her in? Anita Augustine, the distraught mother of Anna, points this out in her letter to E&Y chairman Rajiv Memani:
“Anna confided in us about the overwhelming workload, especially the additional tasks assigned verbally beyond the official work. I would tell her not to take on such tasks, but the managers were relentless. She worked late into the night, even on weekends, with no opportunity to catch her breath…
With the collapse of the trade unions and collective bargaining in recent years, employees are forced to compete with each in a debilitating rat race. India’s corporate culture glorifies long hours, and expects employees to stay and work late into the night. Those that stick to their working hours are looked down upon as ‘losers’ or ‘under-performers’.
The belief that long and arduous worktime increases productivity has been proven to be a fallacy. It is the quality of work that matters. A balance of worktime with recreation, sports and family time not only creates a more eager and happy worker, but also a more productive one.
In Australia, a sporting nation, there is no one in offices to take a call past 5.00 PM. They are all out in the open on their bicycles, in the swimming pool or wielding a tennis or squash racket. No one has accused these employees of delivering low productivity!
Long, sweat shop working hours are no guarantee to economic advancement. In fact, the most economically advanced countries have progressively reduced working hours: European Union countries have a low average of 36.4 hours per week. Of these the most advanced – Netherlands, Norway, Germany – average between 32.4 and 34.6 hours per week.
Bullying, a killer
There’s another side to the tragic story of Anna Sebastian. It was not just a punishing work routine that loaded stress and breakdowns on the young girl. There was deliberate and sadistic bullying by her managers. The EY brass failed to check it, and till today has refused to own up.
Anna’s mother, Anita, points to the bullies that preyed on her daughter: “Her manager would often reschedule meetings during cricket matches and assign her work at the end of the day, adding to her stress.” She was just a cog in the grinding wheel because when she died none of these bullies attended her funeral.
The tragedy of Anna is not a rare deviation. In the name of increasing productivity, corporate bullying by control freaks has become endemic. An HDFC Bank employee in Lucknow, Sadaf Fatima, 45, recently collapsed in office and died. Her colleagues say it was overwork. Let us recall the widely publicized death in Mumbai of senior journalist Satish Nandgaonkar in February this year. His heart attack in office was triggered by incessant harassment and bullying by his immediate editorial boss.
In this context, how hollow EY’s Global human rights statement sounds! The section on ‘The rights of all EY People’ guarantees “a physically and psychologically safe work environment,…just and favorable terms of employment….in an inclusive environment where all can thrive.”
There has been blowback for EY. The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of the Anna Sebastian case.
Government labour department sleuths have been visiting EY’s Pune office. However, once the brouhaha dies down, it will be business as usual. As it is Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, an old EY hand, has sought to sweep the issue under the carpet telling students to handle work pressure through ‘inner strength by reaching out to God’.
There has been a serious breach of the law at EY which must be remedied. Moreover, the government must go beyond one company and ensure the law on working hours and rest timings – evolved through years of battle against exploitation during the Industrial Revolution – is not snuffed out by greedy entrepreneurs. If the death of Anna Sebastian can keep the debate churning, she would not have died in vain.
