It has been revealed that an Ernst & Young employee who died in a suspected suicide at the company’s Sydney office only returned to the building 20 minutes before her tragic death.
Initial reports suggested the woman attended an EY social function at The Ivy bar and nightclub from 5:30pm on Friday, before returning to the offices at 7:30pm.
Now, initial investigations have revealed that he left the EY George St offices around 7:30pm and returned to the office after midnight, the financial services firm confirmed to news.com.au.
It is understood that security guards raised the alarm shortly after midnight, with police calling the office at around 12:20am following a report of a welfare concern.
The new timeline has raised questions about what happened in the mystery four hours after she was reportedly escorted out of The Ivy for being intoxicated.
The woman’s identity and position have not been released, however police are not investigating the incident as a suspect and believe her death was related to self-harm. the australian reports
Earlier it emerged that the husband of the EY worker was on a plane when she died.
The 33-year-old woman’s partner was on a flight from Singapore to Sydney and only learned of her death after landing in Australia.
In a statement shared with news.com.au, EY CEO and Regional Managing Partner David Larocca said the company is “deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic events of the weekend”.
“We are assisting police with their ongoing investigation, which has confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances,” Larocca said.
“Our hearts go out to the family and we have reached out to offer our support and condolences.”
A “comprehensive and wide-ranging internal review covering health and safety, security and social events” was also initiated, and advice was offered to all staff and team members.
In the wake of the death, posts on online forums have highlighted the “high-pressure, workaholic culture” at the Big 4 financial services companies. In addition to EY, they include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and KPMG.
“He had a lot of nights and weekends, so I can definitely see what he may be experiencing. I took a six-month leave of absence to reset myself mentally. Ultimately quit after that,” wrote one Reddit user, who claimed to be a former employee of a Big 4 company.
“Working for B4 (Big 4) can often feel like working in a sweatshop. They don’t care about your well-being. They only care about the way out, the way out, the way out,” read another comment.
News.com.au does not suggest that the work culture at EY contributed to the employee’s death.
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