EY India employee’s death exposes hidden costs of hustle culture

Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant, who worked at Ernst & Young in Pune, died due to “excessive workload”, as revealed by her mother in a heartbreaking letter to the company.
“The workload, new environment and long hours took a toll on her (Anna) physically, emotionally and mentally. But, she kept pushing herself, believing that hard work and perseverance were the keys to success,” the mother wrote.
The culture of high pressure at the workplace, overworking, and extremely short deadlines have taken a toll on our health. The ‘hustle culture’ is a modern work environment that emphasises working hard and working for long hours as the key to success.
Kritarth Mittal, a 25-year-old software developer and founder of Soshals app, landed in the hospital after pulling all-nighters, getting less than five hours of sleep and following an unhealthy diet.
Sharing a picture from the hospital, Kritarth cautioned his social media followers about the ugly side of “hustle culture.”
Earlier this year, Zerodha’s Chief Executive Officer Nithin Kamath suffered a mild stroke, reasons for which the CEO stated could be stress because “his dad passed away, poor sleep, exhaustion, dehydration and overworking.”
Hustle culture has become a normal routine for most professional employees to take up 9-10 hour shifts, extending their work hours almost every day.
It promotes the idea that working long hours and prioritising work over personal needs can help in higher promotions and higher salaries. It’s often associated with the idea that you can achieve anything if you work hard enough, and that busyness is a sign of productivity.
It could lead to burnout with an attitude of toxic positivity.

It could lead to burnout with an attitude of toxic positivity. (Photo: Getty Images)

“Modern lifestyle has led to three risk factors – unhealthy diet, prolonged sitting and sleep deprivation. These three are unhealthy because sleeping for less than 7 hours increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart attack and strokes. It also reduces your longevity,” Dr Sudhir Kumar, Senior Neurologist, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, told India Today.
Dr Kumar advised that to “break the cycle of sitting”, one should go for a short walk or do 10 squats every 45 minutes.

Modern lifestyle has put three risk factors – unhealthy diet, prolonged sitting and sleep deprivation. (Photo: Getty images)

“Hustle culture becomes toxic when we start to put aside and just focus on work. People are working 15 to 16 hours a day and are not getting enough sleep. We have normalised this practice and I’ve been both an aggressor and a victim of this because I always thought this is the right way to do things,” Kritarth Mittal, who landed in the hospital for his strenuous lifestyle, told India Today.
Sleep expert Dr Sibasish Dey earlier spoke to IndiaToday.in about the concept of sleep health awareness being poor in India.
“One is that the medical community studies very little about sleep and its consequences. The other aspect is the growing urbanisation. We no longer prioritise our sleep. Even if we are aware, we don’t feel that it’s important. And even if there are people who are aware about sleep somewhere, that lack of sensitivity is there,” said Dr Dey.
To step away from the hustle culture, experts believe that taking a break, concentration on mental health and prioritising health can help lower several diseases.