'Take care of mummy, papa...never asked for anything': Bajaj Finance employee dies by suicide due to toxic work culture, unrelenting stress

An employee allegedly belonging to the finance company, Bajaj Finance has died by suicide in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi, with the police saying the man had complaints of severe and undue work pressure.

Tarun Saxena, in his suicide note, revealed harrowing work conditions, with office seniors putting undue pressure on him to meet deadlines, failing which they threatened that they would deduct his salary. On Monday morning, Tarun was found dead in his home and, according to the police, he had locked his wife and children in another room before taking the extreme step.

In the harrowing letter, Tarun named Bajaj Finance and detailed how he was under undue and immense stress to meet targets, 'despite trying his best.' His job description entailed collecting EMIs for Bajaj Finance. "I am very tense about the future. I have lost my ability to think. I am going," he had written.

In his note, Tarun mentioned how he and other employees were coerced to pay up the amount of the EMIs they were unable to recover and the same was brought to the notice of his seniors several times, but to no avail. "I have not slept for 45 days. I have hardly eaten. I am under a lot of stress. Senior managers are pressuring me to meet targets at any cost or quit," he mentioned.

"You all take care of Megha, Yatharth and Pihu. Mummy, Papa, I have never asked for anything, but am doing so now. Please get the second floor built so that my family can stay comfortably," the note further read.

Bajaj Finance is yet to respond to the allegations, however.

Tarun's cousin Gaurav, speaking to India Today, also spoke about the stress the former was under. "Tarun Saxena was my elder cousin. He worked as an area manager at Bajaj Finance. The company had been pressuring him to bring in more collections from the market. When he failed to meet the targets, his salary was deducted. As we learnt earlier this morning around 6:00 am, Vaibhav Saxena and Prabhakar Mishra, who are based in Bhopal, held a conference with him and instigated him, following which he died by suicide" he said. 

Tarun's suicide comes in the wake of a national outrage over the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a former employee of Ernst & Young (EY), who had died due to work stress. Earlier this month, a letter penned by Anna's mother created a furore on social media. The letter was addressed to Rajiv Memani, and in it she had lamented that her daughter had passed away just four months after joining the company. She urged the leadership to reconsider a work culture that "appears to glorify overwork while overlooking the human being behind the role." She shared that her daughter, Anna, consistently worked late into the night and even during weekends, leaving her with "no opportunity to catch her breath."

In response, Memani expressed his profound sorrow, stating, "I am deeply saddened and, as a father, I can only imagine Ms. Augustine's grief. I have conveyed my heartfelt condolences to the family, although nothing can truly fill the void in their lives."

The Chairman of EY India acknowledged the discussions surrounding the company's work practices on social media. He emphasized, "The well-being of our people is my top-most priority, and I will personally champion this objective. I am fully committed to fostering a harmonious workplace and will not rest until this goal is achieved," he declared in a LinkedIn post. Amid the backlash prompted by the letter, the Union Labour Ministry has initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her daughter's tragic passing.