In the middle of the debate for toxic work culture, a video of Ashneer Grover, the former CEO of BharatPe, has gone viral again. In the clip, Grover shares his rather short story of working at Ernst & Young (EY) company and how he pretended to have a health issue in order to leave the company on the first day of work, saying that the atmosphere in the office was “dead” and the employees resembled the “corpses” waiting for the last rites.
Grover’s comments have gone viral in the wake of the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old EY employee whose mother claimed that stress at work killed her daughter. This incident has led to the increased focus on the cultures in the workplace environments in the corporate world in India.
The chairman of RPG Enterprises, Harsh Goenka, who was also a regular contributor to the discussion, reacted to Grover’s comments by saying that he could not believe that there is someone who would call for a poisonous corporate culture. He stressed the importance of changing the corporate culture as soon as possible, as well as the programs for mental health and the responsibility of the leaders.
Goenka’s critique is timely with a new trend among former EY employees to report their experiences of stress and overworking. He provided the following six strategies to enhance the health of the workplace: focusing on the health of the employees and encouraging work-life balance.
The controversy over Grover’s remarks is an extension of a larger problem of accepting cut-throat corporate cultures in high-stress professions. As people continue to engage in the discussions on social media, the demand for change in corporate cultures increases, leading to the need for the corporate world to embrace healthy working environments where the well-being of the employees is a priority rather than pushing for productivity.
