On Oct. 4, Adam Chan wrote a heartbreaking Facebook post after his friend who passed away the night before.

It’s the culture in audit industry that no one should leave the office before work is finished and before your superior leaves for the day or night.

Overtime culture

Chan's friend had left the office at 2am, and met with an accident while travelling home.

Chan's post focused on why his friend was forced to work till that late.

I'm not entirely sure why did he continue staying in the office even though he wanted to go back home early, but from a reliable source (his colleagues who are also my friends) was saying that it's the culture in Audit department that no one should leave the office before works are completed and before your senior (from the highest hierarchy to the lowest) leave accordingly.

He also told World of Buzz that his friend had been working those late hours for the past few weeks.

Chan also offered this heartbreaking observation.

Nobody cares if you are tired, have someone waiting for you to go home or any excuses that could delay the work done or affect the overall audit team performance and image.

Before ending with this call to action of sorts.

Those of you who are in Auditing line, please take good care of yourself and make sure you get enough of rest (or a little rest if you're too busy) while you're working for the company. My good friend deserves an article written to voice out his heart feeling to everyone around us. That's the last thing I can do for him.

Post resonated

Well, that post struck a nerve with many Malaysians, and Hoo Xinyi, a former employee of a Big four firm, which refers to the four biggest accounting firms -- Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers -- came forward with her own story.

She first got into the auditing sector as an intern:

Like everyone else, I was so excited when I got an offer from one of the Big Four accounting firms 4 years ago to work as an intern because it would make my resume look good.

Hoo wrote her post in the form of memories she had during work.

Here are just some of her points about the toxic work culture there.

I remember asking my manager if I could leave work early because I had to attend my friend’s father’s wake but my manager told me to finish my work first.

I remember taking the train back home alone at night because my seniors were still working and nobody was able to give me a ride home.

I remember leaving work at 2am and waking up at 8am every day to go to work.

I remember worrying about my appraisals because according to the hierarchical Asian culture or audit culture, you can only leave when your boss or seniors leave. Of course, your boss and seniors may have more on their plate and take on longer hours, so young workers like me ended up staying late without any real reason other than as show of respect.

Hoo then brought up the quote by Chan.

“Nobody cares if you are tired, have someone waiting for you to go home or any excuses that could delay the work done or affect the overall audit team performance and image”

Hoo also clarified that it wasn't the concept of overtime she was against, but overtime should be within reasonable hours.

I can accept overtime but reasonable hours with overtime pay. I don’t mind working hard but why work hard if our work wasn’t appreciated? Oh did I mention that we don’t get overtime pay too?!

Before ending off with her reason for writing the post.

I am writing this because I am not just sad but very angry with the death of my friend. I am writing this in honor of my friend who passed away due to overworked. I am writing this in hopes that the audit culture in Malaysia will change. Not only the audit culture but also the Asian work culture.

“Nothing will change, it’s the culture”

That’s because nobody was doing anything to make the change. Someone needs to do something so here am I, doing as much as I can do. Please share this post with all your friends and family. Together we can make a difference.

Top photo via Stanmopictures/ Vimeo