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Kamala Thiagarajan

The tragic case of a 26-year-old Ernst & Young employee who, her parents have claimed, worked herself to death has been dominating headlines in India. Four months into her first job as a chartered accountant in the western city of Pune, Anna Sebastian Perayil died of cardiac arrest, leaving behind shattered parents and a federal investigation into India’s toxic work culture and labour laws.
Her grief-stricken mother wrote to the chairman of EY India to point out how work stress had taken a toll on the young woman. Perayil worked long hours with barely enough time to rest, and was given assignments with impossible deadlines.
Her story resonated with many young Indians, who took to social media to express their fury under the hashtag #JusticeForAnna.
According to a 2023 report on work-life balance by the International Labour Organization, South Asia as a region had the longest working hours in the world – 49 hours per week on average.
Perayil’s case has shone a light on labour problems in India, particularly the lack of respect for an employee’s boundaries and the exploitation of young people in the workforce.
Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys – one of India’s largest tech companies – has, for example, refused to back down from his suggestion that millennials and Gen Z employees should work a 70-hour week so the Indian economy could progress. He said employees should learn to work as hard as those who are less fortunate.
But this isn’t just an Indian issue; it’s an Asia-wide problem. According to a 2022 survey by McKinsey Health Institute, one in three Asian employees face burnout, which is higher than the global average of one in four.

Many Asian countries glorify overwork, leading to unrealistic expectations – often at the cost of an employee’s mental and physical health. Health technology provider Telus Health polled 1,000 workers across a range of industries in Singapore earlier this year, and found that nearly half felt physically and mentally exhausted by work and were very close to burnout.
In Hong Kong, Axa’s Mental Health Study 2024 found that up to 77 per cent of respondents said they had experienced at least one mental health problem due to work.
The so-called 996 work culture in mainland China, where employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, originated in its booming tech industry. The “military style” discipline imposed on workers in China’s tech industry has been called “bloodthirsty” and wolf-like by the American press.
China’s top court warned employers in August 2021 that demanding employees work 72 hours a week was illegal without extra compensation, but not before video games emerged mocking this exploitative work culture.
At 48.7 hours, the average working week in mainland China is still long. In contrast, the average in the US is around 34 hours, 36.6 hours in the UK, and 37.5 hours in the European Union.
There are specific regional terms for toxic work culture. In Japan, karoshi, or death from overwork, is recognised as a real danger, with the health ministry linking long working hours to such fatalities. In South Korea, gapjil is the term given to a culture of entitlement, harassment and workplace abuse, where workers must be at the beck and call of their bosses 24/7.

Meanwhile, surveys have found nepotism to be a problem in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Cultural factors certainly play a role in shaping toxic work spaces, and this can be especially hard for younger people to navigate. In Malaysia, for instance, rigid hierarchy can interfere with the independent decision-making capacity of employees, setting the stage for dissatisfaction at work.
According to a work satisfaction survey this year by human resource company Employment Hero, 67 per cent of Malaysian workers had experienced burnout over the past three months due to work stress, and 47 per cent were uncomfortable discussing mental health issues with their manager.
As a result of these long-standing issues, according to a 2023 report from Aon and Telus Health, a startling 82 per cent of employees in Asia had a moderate to high risk of developing mental health issues. The researchers warned of the increasing financial risk to organisations, as a result of higher healthcare costs, increasing insurance claims, and declining productivity due to sudden absenteeism.
Some Asian nations are taking steps towards a better workplace, having learned the hard way. After facing severe labour shortages, the Japanese government has expressed its support for a four-day working week, which was proposed back in 2021 and lawmakers endorsed it. However, the government’s campaign to reform work practices will face challenges from a cultural tendency to see long working hours as a symbol of virtue.
In India, the authorities’ probe into the death of the young accountant has so far found that EY India lacked a labour welfare permit, which is a state permit that regulates working conditions, including employee rights, welfare and safety.
Governments certainly let down their citizens when poorly drafted labour laws leave workers vulnerable, but to see real and lasting change, it’s not just laws that need to be enforced or strengthened. People’s attitudes to a toxic work culture must undergo a sea change, too. For instance, don’t ask people to call on their formidable reserves of inner strength and resilience to handle bullying and work pressure; they shouldn’t have to face it in the first place.


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It’s time Asia stopped normalising long working hours

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Labour sector lawmaker Kwok Wai-keung has labelled the findings as consistent with the city’s problem of excessive working hours. Photo: Edward Wong

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Anna Sebastian Perayil, the late 26-year-old audit executive from Ernst & Young India. Photo: LinkedIn/Anna Sebastian Perayil

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking at a conference in New Delhi. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Employees should not work more than eight hours per day, or 40 hours per week, on average, according to China’s labour laws. Photo: Reuters

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Opinion

Asia Opinion

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Asia

The death of an overworked young woman in India has focused attention on the ills of exploitative work cultures across the region


The death of an overworked young woman in India has focused attention on the ills of exploitative work cultures across the region.


India

Health & Fitness

Hong Kong workers and labour rights

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


It’s time Asia stopped normalising long working hours

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The death of an overworked young woman in India has focused attention on the ills of exploitative work cultures across the region

The death of an overworked young woman in India has focused attention on the ills of exploitative work cultures across the region