All of us are at fault.
Yesterday evening almost every single post I saw on LinkedIn was about the unfortunate demise of Anna. And how the culture of EY is to be blamed.
Is a lot of corporate culture toxic? Yes.
Is it shocking to hear what Anna went through? Beyond shocking.
However, beyond that toxic culture is also people like us who idolise everyone by what their professional accomplishments are, and perhaps easily look down upon those who aren’t as professionally driven.
“She has a huge corpus while being so young. Wow.”
“He wears Prada shoes while driving in a BMW. Super successful!”
“She continuously posts her successes on LinkedIn. I also want to be like her.”
Combine that with the social likes and validation at parties, most of us as a society believes THIS is success.
Respectfully, I disagree.
This is just one part of success. Financial/professional success. It is important. Necessary. But we have glorified it greater than God, goodness, and grit.
While all of us wrote about mental health, physical health and quitting our jobs when faced with pressure, I think all of it begins when we stop glorifying external achievements as the only signs of success.
Celebrate people who aren’t as ambitious.
Celebrate people who don’t make it to the big companies.
Celebrate people who quit their jobs because they did not want stress beyond the roof.
True success is a building that lies on the foundation of good physical and mental health. You can’t do the interiors first and then lay the foundation next.
You might never know, your way of applauding might save another 26 year old’s life, which is perhaps what Anna’s mother wants the most now.
What kind of culture have we built?
