“Mental health was not even a discussion,” she said. (Representational)
The death of a 26-year-old EY employee, allegedly due to work stress, has put focus on workplace pressure across the country. Professionals from various industries have come forward with their stories of excessive overtime, abusive company cultures and the glorification of burnout. Now, a Bengaluru-based chef and nutrition coach, Nayantara Menon Bagla, recounted her experience of working at a luxury hotel.
Ms Bagla described having 18-20 hour shifts, being denied time off for personal emergencies, “seniors exploiting younger staff, constant sexual innuendos” and an environment rife with abuse.
“When I was being inducted into a luxury hotel, the programme director told us, ‘Welcome to hell,’” Ms Bagla told The Nod magazine. The phrase, once thought of as a joke, quickly became a reality for her and others working at the hotel.
She admitted that kitchens and restaurants were “high-pressure environments”, but she said it went up to the point of “covering up suicides or mass bullying.”
“Mental health was not even a discussion,” Ms Bagla said.
Ms Bagla also shared how the hotel normalised over time and reinforced outdated gender norms. I was asked to lose weight, she said, adding women were expected to be “subservient in the kitchen.” She also detailed the punishments, including having to stand outside with hands raised for hours and cleaning “every refrigerator in the hotel with bare hands”, for being late to work.
Following Anna Sebastian’s death at EY India, former and current employees of the global consulting firm have spoken out about the toxic culture at the company. The husband of a former EY employee disclosed that 18-hour workdays were not unusual and explained how his wife left her job due to its “toxic work culture.”
Responding to the outrage, EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani expressed condolences to Anna’s family and said that her death was “alien” to EY’s work culture and that he “would not rest” until the issue was addressed. Memani also said that, as a father, he deeply empathised with the grief felt by her family, vowing to ensure a “harmonious work environment” at the firm.
