Software engineer Pratik Pandey was driven to death by the ‘unbearable stress’ of working for Microsoft, his grieving mom has told the Daily Mail.
The 35-year-old was toiling until 3am to hit targets and impress bosses ahead of a crucial performance review, according to his shattered family.
He had no obvious medical problems, but his parents became so worried they urged him to consider quitting his coveted $200,000-per-year job for the sake of his health.
The high-flier was found slumped face down in a courtyard at Microsoft’s futuristic campus in Mountain View, California, in the early hours of August 20.
His loved ones from the central Indian city of Indore will have to wait 90 days for a formal cause of death but a provisional assessment suggested Pratik succumbed to a cardiac arrest.
‘He was overburdened and stressed by work,’ his distraught mom Meena Pandey, 60, told Daily Mail.
She paid tribute to hard-working Pratik as ‘a kind soul, wonderful brother and a truly responsible son.’
And in a heart-rending appeal to the ferociously competitive tech industry, Meena added: ‘To these big corporations, I want to say – please, do not crush your employees under the weight of unrealistic expectations. I lost my son because of this.
Grieving mother Meena Pandey told Daily Mail her son Pratik, 35, was driven to death by the ‘unbearable stress’ of working for Microsoft as he tried to impress his bosses ahead of a crucial performance assessment by consistently staying late at work
His family in India had pleaded with him to step away from the job, but his determination to keep pushing himself is thought to have contributed to what initial assessments suggest was a fatal heart attack on August 20
‘And to the younger generation, my message is – if your job is causing you unbearable stress, please walk away.
‘Your life is far more precious than any position or paycheck.’
Pratik immigrated to the US a decade ago to get a master’s degree from San Jose State University and pursue the American dream.
He landed one sought-after tech job after another, working for Apple, Illumina and Walmart Labs before joining Microsoft – the world’s second biggest company – in July 2020.
But in recent months Pratik was juggling multiple tasks and working late into the night ahead of an important August 31 performance assessment.
‘My mother used to tell him, why are you stressing yourself so much? If it’s that hard, leave the job and come back to India,’ said Pratik’s younger sister Prakriti Pandey, 26.
‘But he had so much will power. He wanted to show them all how good he was and that he could complete all his projects.
‘He was a person who refused to give up.’
A keen sportsman who loved table tennis, cricket and won trophies for chess, Pratik played soccer with colleagues on August 19 before clocking back into his office at 7.50pm.
He was still wearing his soccer shorts and sneakers and had his iPhone and Apple watch with him when he was found unconscious between 2 and 3am the following morning.
Security attempted CPR but Pratik was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
It took Microsoft around 42 hours to relay the shocking news to Meena, a teacher, and Pratik’s retired auto engineer dad, T N Pandey, 65.
Pratik’s younger sister Prakriti Pandey, 26, told Daily Mail that the Microsoft engineer was ‘a person who refused to give up’, despite family pressure to walk away
Pratik was found slumped face down in a courtyard at Microsoft’s futuristic campus in Mountain View, California, between 2 and 3am
The agonizing call from a Human Resources official lasted barely ten minutes and left them with many more questions than answers, Prakriti said.
‘We thought it was a prank call until my father received an email from Microsoft,’ she explained.
‘There was immense work pressure, that’s for sure, and my brother had some review which he was working really hard for. He was stressed out and working on several projects simultaneously.
‘But when he was in India in February, he had a complete body checkup, and he was completely fit and fine.
‘There was no indication that he had high blood pressure or anything wrong with his heart. We really can’t understand what has happened.’
Pratik’s only relation in the US, his uncle Manoj Pandey, travelled from Chicago to Silicon Valley to repatriate his nephew’s body for a traditional Hindu funeral that took place Sunday.
Colleagues and friends told Manoj that his nephew would arrive at work between 9 and 10am and eat all his meals on Microsoft’s sprawling 32-acre campus.
He would stay as late as 3am, before driving back to his home in San Jose, 30 minutes away, barely getting enough sleep to function.
It took Microsoft 42 hours to deliver the shocking news of Pratik’s death to his parents T N and Meena Pandy via a short 10-minute phone call
Detectives found ‘no signs of any suspicious activity or behavior’ and Pratik’s death is not being treated as a criminal investigation, Mountain View Police Department says
Nobody at Microsoft could tell Manoj, 59, how long his nephew was lying unconscious on the ground before security stumbled across him.
‘He could have been there for half an hour or a few hours, it’s a complete mystery,’ Manoj told the Daily Mail.
‘I asked Microsoft if we can see their CCTV footage, but they say they don’t have many cameras inside the campus for privacy reasons.
‘The lack of answers has been troubling. The police should do a full investigation, and it should be done with an open mind, considering all the possibilities.’
Daily Mail was able to speak with one of Pratik’s colleagues who said he seemed his usual cheerful self on August 19.
The worker said nobody knew about Pratik’s death until they noticed he hadn’t showed up for work for several days.
‘His laptop is still on his desk along with his name tag and a packet of chips,’ the shaken co-worker said.
They continued: ‘There was no meeting, no email, as far as I know. Microsoft didn’t say a word to us.’
Pratik’s colleagues at Microsoft were shocked to hear the news of his death as the company allegedly failed to inform the team, with his belongings including a laptop and name tag left on his desk
One co-worker defended the work environment, saying there was no culture ‘of working late’, but recognized the pressure working at the company causes
The staffer, who asked to remain anonymous, nonetheless defended the working culture at the $3.68trillion company.
He said bosses laid on numerous perks, including free checkups, gourmet food and elite sports facilities, for the roughly 3,000 employees stationed in Mountain View.
‘There isn’t really a culture of working late here. If Pratik was working late, nobody knew about it,’ he added.
‘It’s actually quite a chilled place, I love working here. But there’s undoubtedly a lot of pressure.’
Detectives found ‘no signs of any suspicious activity or behavior’ and Pratik’s death is not being treated as a criminal investigation, according to the Mountain View Police Department.
A spokesman for Microsoft said: ‘Given investigations are ongoing, the company has nothing to share at this time.’
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