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Should You Attend a Colleague's Funeral? EY CA Death Sparks Debate

Pradeep Pramanik |178 Answers |Ask -Follow

Career And Placement Consultant - Answered on Sep 19, 2024

Pradeep Pramanik is a career coach, placement consultant and director at Fast Track Career Consultants, which provides career counselling, soft skills training and placement consultancy services.
Pradeep, who hails from Bhagalpur in Bihar, has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years in sales, marketing, training and product management roles in companies like Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Elder Pharmaceuticals and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
During his tenure in the pharma industry, he has worked in different states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
In 1998, he launched Fast Track Career Consultants with the aim of helping youngsters find jobs through the right career counselling, training and placement services.
They also offer HR analysis and appraisal services.
Over the years, he has been invited by management and engineering institutions to discuss education and employment policies, entrepreneurship, soft skills and emerging careers in India.
He has published four books on career counselling and contributed articles to print publications.... more

Asked by Anonymous - Sep 19, 2024Hindi

Dear Mr Pradeep, how does one deal with workplace burnout? A young CA working for EY recently succumbed due to work pressure and no one from the office attended her funeral. Is this normal? What are your thoughts? What should one do in a situation like this? What is your advice to young professionals

Ans: Dear ,

You have raised a valid point which most of the young professionals are passing through.
What a paradox in Indian context ?
At one hand,. public sector companies do have quite liberal working conditions and virtually no direct accountability to push your stress level to that high of opting for ending life., whereas in most private or proprietorship companies , right from reaching office in time to achieving the set objectives days after days , months after months which keep on increasing.

There is limit of tolerance of abusive behaviur or working styles , hence many find ways to move to other comanpies, some quit the job , some move out to other industries .

There are many companies or companies from different sectors , why only talk about EY , I can give true exampples of BFSI /NBFCs/Telecom/ Industrial products companies / Real Estate cos/ FMCG/FMCD/Pharma cos where many professionals avoid to opt for even when they are offered high packages.
Reason, - High work pressure , abusive work conditions , Job Uncertainity , worst approach of top management where you are treated like slavesif you fail to achieve your assigned tasks or objectives which is also called target..
However taking own life as this CA at EY did was really heartwrenching . Moreso the approach of the management .
After all a young talented girl . lost her life due to work pressure as mentiioned in her notes. To be honest , no one attending funeral from management side is not normal .

In most cases some one from management side representsor send their condolences .

There are good companies who even clear the dues and add ex gratia amount from their side so that family doesn't suffer financially . I have seen some companies offering job to another member of the family too. .

May be, in this case , due to legal complications, Sr managers avoided attending the funeral .

As far as my advice to young professionals is concerned - Be bold , take challenges as part of your life and when you feel . it is crossing your limits , You must expose the truth to top management as many a times , putting so much pressure on young professionals are the handiworks of Line managers or HR managers , which top management might not be aware about .

She being a CA should not have any issues in finding another good paying job or even joining any CA firm as Sr manager taxation or in auditing could have not difficult. She should have fought back.

You must have seen many Army /Police /CISF or Bank professionals commit suicide under work pressure which is really painful . One should fight back or find better options available than ending own life. Remember Tough times never last but tough people do. Thanks

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Question by Dinesh - Apr 07, 2021Hindi

Dear Mayank,My name is Dinesh Kumar, age 38.I am working as an EHS coordinator (in the environment health and safety department) in a corporate office in Noida since the last 15 years.But since the last three years, management has given extra work of the quality dept.I am coordinating with approx 300 site safety and quality engineers (admin role), managing the safety store at the Noida office (safety uniform, personal protective equipment, safety promotional material, etc), managing the upkeep of documentation part of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, distribution of safety uniform kit to sites approx 600 persons, MIS of safety reports, etc.I am feeling overloaded and stressed and not interested in my job.I am giving 100 per cent in my job but work not completed always.Please advise me on how I can control my stress at the workplace and find a new job.Dinesh Kumar

Ans:

Dear Dinesh,

I understand you are overloaded, like many people in the corporate world.

The first step to streamline your work is to clearly list down the tasks that you do and how much time it takes.

Then sit with your manager and explain to him the support you want from the management in terms of resources like manpower, online system, etc.

You are a valuable resource and if you can systematically explain the situation, then I am sure you will be heard and allocated resources to optimally carry out the critical tasks related to ESH of your organisation.

Many of the ESH activities are legal requirements, so the company will definitely support you.

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