Ankur Kapur, CFA’s Post

The number of friends, family, and acquaintances who've reached out to check on me after recent events has been quite overwhelming. At the same time, it feels as though people suddenly believe that working at one of the Big4 is like entering a war zone every day. In reality, the experience depends on many factors, most importantly, the PEOPLE you work with. Personally, I only have positive things to say about my employer. In my experience, I feel that the leaders here genuinely care about your personal growth and wellbeing. In fact, if I had to rate all the companies I've worked for in terms of culture, EY would be at the top. Every coin has two sides, and not every experience is the same. Here's mine: I work at EY and I enjoy my job, quiet a lot actually. PS—My intention in sharing this positive experience is not to dismiss or diminish anyone who has felt differently. #EY #WorkLifeBalance #WorkCulture #BetterWorkingWorld

My EY days..#Good #Managers are to be cherished. Organizations are made of good people..not of the few monsters only ..!!! It’s heartbreaking to see people blaming the entire culture of an organization for loss of a soul. Indeed there are always some scope of improvements all the time. Moreover it’s not the organizations it’s the people make a work culture liveable or hell. I proudly remember my EY days and the people I worked with, those smiling faces have given me the best memories of my life. In recent case I feel not raising the voice against the atrocities done my manager was equally tragic. Parents putting pressure for being employed in continuity can also not be written off. Youngsters joining high pressure sectors needs to be firm and clear about their employment. It’s not slavery to an individual, your life is not the right of your manager ..!!! Though getting a good manager and team is also a matter of fate but if you do not a get a good one you can always try making them better by giving feedback’s and raising against wrong done by them. I thank Venkatesh C from the core of my heart for being such a #superhero and making my #EY days as one the best days of life. EY #bestdaysofmylife #dreamteam #Superheromentor #workpressure #worklifebalance

Things I wish someone had told me before entering corporate - . . 1. Your work here is a part of your life and not your whole life. Work-life balance is a must thing. 2. You have to learn to say no to people. If you master the art of it, it's gonna be the greatest gift to yourself. 3. Don't blindly believe people at work. Everyone has their own perspectives and opinions. 4. You don't find friends at work. You find good colleagues (some of you might not agree on this ;) 5. Keep a notepad /diary and a pen with yourself all the times. You obviously don't want to miss important instructions. 6. Be polite to everyone, doesn't matter if the person is a senior or a junior to you. Kindness goes a long way in corporates. What do you think? LinkedIn #ey #deloitte #big4s #corporates #corporatelife

'I left EY.' 'Wait. What! 😮 But you were doing well there and you told me how great learning you were having? How you met Mr. XXX of ZZZ company? And all the amazing stuff. What now?' 'Yes.....ah....but they were sucking life out of me. I started to ques why I started this? Also, I happened to have a small anxiety attack recently.' 😵 I had this conversation with one of my acquaintances who left EY after 2 years. He left in time, unfortunately #AnnaSebastian couldn't. Now this is not another #EY bashing post. Just wanted to address some key problems with us as employees. #Problem 1️⃣ - Misplaced Identity with a brand. 🆔 So, a few months back before leaving EY, this acquaintance of mine was boasting before me about working with EY. Why? Due to false sense of superiority. Why? coz he identified his life as valuable by working with a valuable brand. Now, big firms do provide quality/valuable services but that it is for their clients. People fail to ask does it make their life valuable. So, problem is not in identifying with your workplace. Problem is identifying with a workplace that is not aligned with what YOU value in your life. #Problem 2️⃣ - Misplaced Priorities. 🔢 This acquaintance explained his decision of leaving EY as , "I began to ques why I started this? To take care of my parents, earn well and have a good professional career. But now I am just always irritated when my parents call. No time to visit hometown. No time to spend what I earn. Just accumulating knowledge and money." Now, when you don't know what you value then you value anything that comes your way & then fall for problem 1 - Misplaced identification. CRUX: 1st Anchor your values - what is important for you. This can change in diff phases/ circumstances of life. 🔷 Today you might seek balance - so you work with a company whose brand is balance. 🔷 Tomorrow you might seek money at the cost of balance - so you work with that kind of brand. 🔷 Later you might seek learning - so you work where balance goes off toss but you learn. 🔷 & if you seek it all together - go join that kind of brand. Your values make a brand valuable for you & not vice-versa. Stop identifying with brands for false sense of superiority. Rather put in place those who do that. $$ Governments, Corporates, Institutions all have a role to play to set things in order for a healthy workforce. But before that let's put our thought process in order 1st. #AnnaSebastian #CAs #Worklife #Priorities #Falsesenseofsuperiority [In Pic: Trees 🌳 continue to stand tall not just because they grew in height but in width too. That's balance.]

I felt sad when I read about the EY employee losing her life because of work pressure. No one should lose their life because of work. We all take up a job and then work hard because we believe we can achieve something for the organization and for us. Most importantly, we take up a job for our livelihood. But if the same job takes our life, then it cannot be more ironic. In my opinion, it finally boils down to us. The choice always lies with us and the fact is that we are afraid of making the right decision due to, call it - peer pressure, work culture, or anything else. Things will change only when we change. If we want the situation to change, then we have to take steps. There was a phase in my career when if I was not sleeping I was working. No one asked me to work that way. I thought I had to. But at the same time, no one stopped me from working that way as well. Believe me, no one will. After some 6 months, one fine day, I decided that I am not going to work after 6 pm. Surprise, surprise, surprise....no one noticed that I was not working after 6 pm. My personal experience is that we put undue pressure on ourselves. The issue is that we have accepted the work pressure as the norm. If we do not work the way we think we are expected to, what will happen at the max - we will not get a good rating, we will not be promoted, we will not get the increment that we deserve, etc. The list could be endless. But when you compare all these against our life, what is more important? It is this choice that we have to make. You can ask, how does I alone changing, change the system? The system may change over time or may not change, but it will change your life for sure. Make the right choice for yourself, for your family. #work #workplace #culture #workculture

🎉 7 years at EY - A blink of an eye, yet a universe of experiences for me.   Reflecting on my journey at EY, I am filled with immense gratitude. 🙏   My first days at work were not easy. I felt I wasn't good enough, and my German wasn't sufficient for a professional environment. I questioned my abilities. The best decision I made at that time was to express all these concerns to my first counselor. Together, we navigated the challenges, turning them into opportunities, instead of me running away. It was also one of the best decisions I've ever made. I still remember my very first training on consulting skills. Speaking in front of unfamiliar faces, heart pounding as I stumbled over words. Despite this, my team pushed me to the edge, encouraging me to embrace challenges. With each presentation, I grew bolder and more confident.   Those moments became significant stepping stones, boosting my confidence and determination for my future work.   As I look back today, I'm filled with gratitude and I've never lost that initial spark of excitement of the first days. The work and people, particularly colleagues who pushed me beyond my comfort zone – they’ve all shaped me into the professional I am today. I'm grateful for a workplace that values #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion, where I've never felt hindered by my background or gender. My everyday at work is like my favourite saying in German "Wenn du liebst, was du tust, wirst du nie wieder in deinem Leben arbeiten" (If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life).   Here's to seven incredible years at EY, and more to come 😊 PS: My pictures at EY FSO Town Hall 2018 & 2024 🧡

What a riveting 7 yrs it has been with EY! I am definitely walking away with my head held high having been able to work with some of the best professionals in the field and - with everything that’s happening around the UK - an institution that stands firm against discrimination and continues to embody the core values of diversity and inclusiveness. As my curtain closes in the corporate stage, I realised how working at EY has broken these corporate myths that I’ve always been made to believe as a googly-eyed young professional: 1. Corporate only rewards extroverted behaviors. I can’t recall the no. of social media posts and career coaches I’ve heard saying that you have to be the loudest in the room and the person that knows everyone to get ahead in corporate. I kid you not when I tell you, I wasn’t any of these yet here I am typing this post so I have something to look back to yrs from now and say “Hey, I got promoted to Manager by simply being me”. I guess the stereotype is just it - a stereotype. An overly simplified image of what a successful career person is. 2. You have to work 24/7 to show your “commitment”. It’s been 3 yrs since I started my Consulting journey yet I rarely had to sacrifice any of my weekends nor my daily nighttime routines over work. I am part of a Team where efficiency is highly rewarded and not the no. of hours worked. 3. As a woman of color, you have to fight for a seat at the table. As a proud Filipina, moving continents and embracing a new culture has definitely intimidated me at first especially in the workplace. I felt insecure and diffident thinking “What if I don’t belong here?”. Then there came a moment where I was the only woman in the room. I looked around as I was speaking and realised - all ears were on me. That’s when it hit me. I didn’t need to fight my way through, I was given every equal opportunity to earn my seat at that table. You may ask how I broke through the glass ceiling. My dearest gentle readers, there was no glass ceiling to break. I am grateful to be part of a firm that embraces inclusiveness - where my quietness is not perceived as timid but thoughtful; my absence in socials as nothing more than getting time to rest and recharge. Similar to how flowers bloom in the right environment, I hope everyone finds themselves in a workplace that doesn’t force them to fit into a certain mould. Where individuality is celebrated and recognised. My utmost appreciation to the people who have nurtured and inspired me - Neil Mathur (He/Him) Sanchit Mittal Caly Shui, BA, FCCA - Will always be grateful for the doors you’ve opened for me throughout my tenure at EY. Thank you for seeing my potential and putting faith in me. You are truly inspirational. Charlene Tseu - the “Best Counsellor of My Career”, for going above and beyond in giving me the right support and relentlessly motivating me to where I am today. I couldn't have overcome it all without you. Officially signing off, Wendy Baga-Chiang

I have been reading the news about Anna from EY since yesterday and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. As I reflect on her story, I can't help but empathize with her journey of pursuing her dreams of working in a Big4 in a new place away from family - it hits close to home. I read the letter and was disgusted that her superiors used her ambition and desire to prove herself as a means to give more and more work. It is already a red flag if multiple people have quit due to immense pressure – not a challenge! I REPEAT – dealing with a red flag/toxicity doesn’t make you stronger than others, it only hurts you. An important thing we aren’t taught is knowing when to say no. Its particularly hard when you are starting a new role because you are there to show you are a dedicated employee – not someone who has boundaries to maintain work-life balance (not a KPI in companies sadly). The last straw is nobody from the company (for which she worked hours to meet 'urgent' deadlines and weekends) attended her funeral. Unfortunately, while we can’t change what happened, I truly hope that we can be kind to ourselves, learn to recognize toxic work culture and figure a way out. Because work is a part of life, not our whole life. #linkedin #worklifebalance #big4

I too was the victim of toxic work culture at #EY.... The passing away of our 26 year colleague Anna Sebastian Perayil has taken me back to 2011 when within 15 days of qualifying as a #CharteredAccountant at age of 21 years, I joined EY in August 2011. The first day I step in and take the stairs to the 4th Floor, I vividly remember employees sitting on floors and smoking cigarettes on every second step or consuming high sugar aerated cold drinks. I thought it was out of some personal preferences, but so many of them took me to surprise. I never imagined it was stress levels which were pushing them to this. However, when I started my job, a few days till the time the laptop wasn't issued were good. But once I was fully in the system, my God what toxic culture it was. "Humiliation by managers", "2 AM reviews ", "Working on Sunday just because the manager had time", I remember all of them very clearly even now. Coming from a small City like #Chandigarh to #Gurugram I thought that was the only way to cope up. However, In October 2011, I was assigned a client in my own city and while I was there at my job, there came a medical emergency at my home (4 km away) and hence I requested for a leave to my manager. That cold blooded man refused and told me to carry on the assignment. I didn't give a damn to his permission and left the client place and rushed my home. By God Grace, the things came to control. On returning back to the Gurugram office, I was humiliated for my act and for leaving work when the leave was denied. It is at that moment I decided to quit #EY and hence resigned. Despite writing about the toxic culture in my resignation letter, the #HR did not bother to even conduct an exit interview or fix the responsibility of my manager. But what I was told is that one day I would repent my decision of leaving #EY Passing Away of Anna is an eyeopener which now calls it high time for making drastic changes at the workplace. Have you also gone through this #trauma We work to Live, We don't live to work... DM your thoughts please, Should professionals raise voice against the rat race they are forced into..... #worklifebalance #life #mentalhealth #EY #CharteredAccountants Neeraj Arora Nandini Agrawal #professional #NCR #Delhi #Gurugram #Pune #Chandigarh #India Bhanwar Borana Anna Sebastian Perayil

As a fellow EY employee my heart goes out to Anna's family. I hope no parent has to ever go through such heartbreak. Unlike others, I won't talk about how my 1.2 years of journey has been so far at EY. Otherwise, I'll be tagged as another member of the PR team doing Damage Control. To every corporate employee reading this post : Please prioritize your health and family above over anytime. A word of advice from my side particularly to those transitioning from Campus to Corporates this year : Workload and stress are the byproducts of corporate job, and is almost inevitable (the sad reality). Maintaining proper work-life balance is required to sustain in the long run. Yes, there will be work pressure and stress quite frequently. But if it is taking a toll on your physical and mental well-being, then it's time to take a break & re-think because the corporate sector comes with plenty of opportunities and has almost no restrictions. It's crucial to understand your limits and NOT to exceed them. Remember you're REPLACEABLE for an organisation, but NOT for YOUR PARENTS! Lastly, I would like to thank my entire team for their constant support, fostering a positive work environment and encouraging flexibility. Views are Personal. #ey #corporate #job #worklifebalance #ernstandyoung #audit #mentalhealth