Friends Of "Overworked" M'sian Auditor Call Out Unhealthy Work Culture After His Death

In Adam Chan's Facebook post, which has garnered close to 4,800 shares at the time of writing, he explained that his friend left the office at 2am and met with an accident while travelling home.

According to their mutual friends, the victim worked late despite wanting to go home earlier because "it's the culture in the audit department that no one should leave the office before works are completed and before your senior leaves."

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

"Those of you who are in auditing line, please take good care of yourself and make sure you get enough rest, or a little rest if you're too busy," he said.

He ended the post by saying, "May you rest in peace my good friend. You'll be missed forever."

In her post, Hoo Xinyi recalls leaving the office at 2am, being surrounded by colleagues too afraid to ask their manager when they could leave or eat dinner, and getting gastritis from eating at irregular times.

"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 a show of respect," she said.

"Not only the audit culture but also the Asian working culture." she said.

Acknowledging that nothing will change unless more people speak out, Xinyi wrote that, "Together we can make a difference."