Anna Sebastian Perayil: Death Due to Overwork

Syllabus: Applications of Ethics

Source: IE

Context: The tragic death of 26-year-old EY employee Anna Sebastian Perayil has sparked critical discussions about toxic work culture in corporate India.

Anna’s mother claims work pressure led to her daughter’s passing, highlighting issues of overwhelming workloads, long hours, and unrealistic expectations. Employees often hesitate to voice concerns due to fear of professional consequences, worsening the situation.

Despite corporate wellness initiatives, many companies fail to prioritize employee well-being. Experts emphasize the need for empathetic leadership, reduced workloads, and stress management programs. Anna’s death serves as a reminder that creating a healthy workplace culture should be a priority for all organizations.

The ethical issues in the case of the 26-year-old EY employee’s death include:

• Workplace Stress and Mental Health: Failure to manage excessive workloads, long hours, and stress can harm employees’ physical and mental health, raising concerns about employer responsibility for well-being.

• Toxic Work Culture: A culture that normalizes overwork, burnout, and the fear of speaking up about stress or exhaustion can be seen as unethical, as it neglects the human aspects of work.

• Lack of Empathy and Support: The absence of company representatives at the employee’s funeral reflects a lack of empathy and emotional support from the organization, which is essential during such situations.

• Retaliation and Fear of Repercussions: Employees hesitating to report work-related stress due to fear of retaliation or poor performance ratings highlight an unethical power dynamic within the workplace.

• Unclear Expectations and Unrealistic Workloads: Imposing unrealistic expectations without regard for employee capacity or well-being is a violation of ethical labour practices.

• Mental Health Stigma: The fear of being judged for mental health struggles or stress highlights a broader ethical issue of insufficient support for mental well-being in the workplace.

• Credit Misappropriation: Instances where managers take credit for subordinates’ work, resulting in poor performance ratings for employees, reflect a lack of integrity and fairness.

• Neglecting Employee Welfare Policies: Despite wellness programs, the failure to genuinely implement policies that prioritize employee welfare shows a disconnect between corporate promises and actual practices.

’18 hours work’ debate and hustle culture

Hustle culture is defined as one that encourages employees to work more than normal working hours.

• Work is on their minds even when they have free time or on holidays.

• The major requirement of this culture is to complete a job on target at a faster pace than usual.

A LinkedIn post by the CEO of a company advising youngsters to work 18 hours a day, at least for four to five years initially in their career, faced a backlash and was ridiculed.

What does WHO study on long working hours say?

• 745,000 people died from a stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016

• Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard

• Capping hours would be beneficial for employers since that has been shown to increase worker productivity.

Why is it important to have a work-life balance?

Siddhartha S, an author of 5 books — ’60 Keys to Success with NLP’, ‘Thank God it’s Monday’, and many others suggest:

• Work-life balance is critical

• Put health before wealth

• Devise an incentive system if you want employees to work extra hours

• Success has different meanings for different people: Economic success is not the only yardstick to measure the success of human life.

• Entrepreneur and employee mindsets are different: If an employee has to work 70+ hours for a basic salary, then it is not a great idea. The employee may as well take the entrepreneurship path where there is an opportunity to create a company and to keep the profits.

Mains Link:

Do you think rejecting hustle culture youngsters or going for moonlighting is rejecting the idea of work is worship embedded in Indian Culture? Discuss. 10M