At the Big Four, work stress is taking a toll on both employee and employer

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : The Big Four global consultancies—KPMG, EY, PwC, and Deloitte—rely heavily on one key asset: manpower. This workforce is also their most expensive, making the business model heavily dependent on utilising their employees to the maximum.

But it has now come at a cost—the recent death of a 26-year-old chartered accountant four months after she joined EY in Pune. Her parents have blamed work stress for her passing. While EY on Wednesday said it was “deeply saddened" by the employee’s death and that it “will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace", senior executives at the Big 4 audit firms acknowledged the demanding work pressure.

“Unlike other sectors, in consulting firms, the manpower is their only asset. Here, the utilisation of the workforce is at maximum. And unlike in IT, there is no concept of ‘bench’," said a senior partner at Deloitte, speaking anonymously.

“Hence the pressure is high, especially in teams where the billing is outcome-based." Utilisation rate indicates the percentage of staff engaged in active projects, while ‘bench’ refers to employees not yet assigned a project. To be sure, long hours and high work pressure aren’t unique to consultancy firms. The startup sector’s so-called ‘hustle culture’ is both condemned and celebrated.

If Infosys Ltd co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy and Ola Electric Ltd’s Bhavish Aggarwal found cheerleaders for their advocacy of a minimum of 70 hours of work in a week, they also attracted stone-throwers in equal measure. Also read | Run a firm in founder or manager mode? There’s no clear answer But the Big 4 are starting to pay a price.