Grieving Mother Writes Letter To Daughter’s Employer After Their ‘Relentless Demands’ Cost Her Life — And No One From The Company Attended Her Funeral
"This is not just about my daughter, it's about every young professional."
PBXStudio | Shutterstock It's often said that capitalism and the untenable workloads it creates are killing us. That sometimes feels hyperbolic, but for one family in India, it is the grim reality.
Anita Augustine wrote a letter to her daughter's employer about how their exorbitant workload cost Anna Sebastian Perayil her life. Her story is a cautionary tale that feels like a deeply dystopian sign of our times — as does the utter indifference she received from her daughter's employer in return.
The grieving mother wrote a letter to her daughter's employer, explaining how their 'relentless demands' cost her life.
As so many have learned the hard way in recent years, the hyper-capitalism of — not just the United States but the myriad countries that emulate it — has created a business environment in which infinite profit growth is the only acceptable output.
This, in turn, has given rise to an environment in which unsustainable workloads are par for the course. Not to mention a job market so cutthroat it makes many young people sense that they have one, singular chance to launch their career. If they flub it — if they pull back so much as an inch — it will collapse like a house of cards and take their future with it.
PreciousJ | Shutterstock
It's hard not to think these are precisely the forces that were at play in the life of 26-year-old Indian accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil, who passed away July 20, 2024, after succumbing to what her mother says were the effects of a workload too heavy for one person to endure.
That Perayil's death came just four months into her tenure at the international "Big Four" accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) is shocking. Perhaps more shocking still is the response her mother received after writing a letter to EY India's Chairman Rajiv Memani pleading with him for change in the organization.
The mother's letter detailed how her daughter's workload sent her to a cardiologist at just 26.
In her letter to Memani, Augustine shared that when her daughter joined EY India in March 2024, "she was full of life, dreams, and excitement for the future." That excitement quickly evaporated, however, as this high-achieving young woman — consistently at the top of her class in school and university — rapidly began to unravel.
Reddit
"She worked tirelessly at EY, giving her all to meet the demands placed on her," Augustine wrote. "However, the workload, new environment, and long hours took a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally."
Even after developing debilitating anxiety that left her unable to sleep, Perayil "kept pushing herself, believing that hard work and perseverance were the keys to success." But by July, she had developed chest pain and was rushed to the hospital in Pune, the city she'd moved to for her EY position.
Perayil was rebuffed when she begged for a lighter workload. She refused to give up, and it ended up taking her life.
Augustine says Sebastian Perayil's job had long since developed a reputation within EY India for being untenable. "She was told that many employees had resigned due to the excessive workload," Augustine wrote, adding that managers implored Anna to stay put and change the perceptions of the team. "My child didn't realize she would pay for that with her life."
Reddit
Sebastian Perayil worked around the clock, late into the night, and often all weekend, sometimes even getting calls in the middle of the night with assignments that had to be completed by the following morning. "When she voiced her concerns, she was met with the dismissive response, 'You can work at night; that's what we all do,'" Augustine wrote.
The shocking indifference to her struggles of which Augustine accused Perayil's superiors has been corroborated by Reddit users who claim to be her colleagues. In fact, in a lengthy Reddit comment thread, one such colleague claimed that as bracing as Augustine's letter is, the reality Perayil faced was far worse than described.
Augustine and her husband begged Anna to quit amid these abuses and the untenable workload. "But she wanted to learn and gain new exposure," Augustine wrote. "The overwhelming pressure proved too much even for her."
After Anna's death, no one from EY attended her funeral — a fact Augustine found infuriating and devastating.
Augustine went on to say that, being so young and early in her career, Perayil had not yet learned how to set boundaries at work and advocate for herself. But the simple fact is that she shouldn't have needed those skills — what was demanded of her, even after she DID speak up, is barbaric.
Reddit
"This is not just about my daughter; it's about every young professional who joins EY filled with hopes and dreams, only to be crushed under the weight of unrealistic expectations," Augustine wrote.
She went on to note that Sebastian Perayil's experience runs counter to EY's own published human rights statement. "I cannot reconcile the values expressed in that statement with the reality my daughter faced," she wrote to Memani.
"No one from EY attended Anna's funeral," Augustine bluntly added. "This absence at such a critical moment, for an employee who gave her all to your organization until her last breath, is deeply hurtful. Anna deserved better, and so do all the employees who continue to work under these conditions."
EY India has since released a statement addressing Perayil's death after Augustine's letter went viral.
Sadly, many of us can likely identify with Perayil's experience to some degree, and unsurprisingly, her mother's letter has exploded online. Now, it seems the negative press has at last compelled EY to respond to Augustine's anguish and Perayil'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," the statement read. "That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us" — a frankly diabolically patronizing thing to say given that it has been months since Anna passed and it took a mounting international scandal for anyone at the company to so much as acknowledge it.
The statement went on to make empty promises to "continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace for our 100,000 people across EY member firms in India" without bothering to offer any specifics about how they plan to do this. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this horrifying story and EY's response have even led members of the Indian Parliament to call for an investigation.
The company's response is as indifferent and inhuman as the treatment that precipitated Anna's death in the first place.
To anyone in the business world who still has a beating heart, however, Anna and her family's story should land as a cautionary tale. It was only a matter of time before a story like this took the world by storm; the horrifying reality is that there are surely scores of others that simply haven't gone viral.
The story should also strike business leaders as an opportunity. "I don't know if anyone can truly understand a mother's emotions when she lays to rest her child," Augustine concluded in her letter. "I hope my child's experience leads to real change so that no other family has to endure the grief and trauma we are going through. My Anna is no longer with us, but her story can still make a difference." Here's hoping it does.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.