A Noida startup employee asked for leave after falling ill. The boss termed it as ‘leave without pay’ and said that he did not seem ill. This incident has sparked a huge debate on India’s toxic work culture.
There is no dearth of bosses and companies in the world who do not care about the health or mental peace of the people working in offices. In India, such cases keep coming to the fore often. Now one such case is being discussed a lot on social media. The story is about a startup employee who asked for leave when he was sick, but the response the company owner gave has sparked debate.
This case pertains to a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) startup company from Noida. A boy working here has narrated his ordeal on Reddit’s ‘r/IndianWorkplace’ group. He has also shared a screenshot of the email he received from the owner of the company.
The employee told in his post that where he lives, there was no electricity the whole night. Because of this he could not sleep and his health deteriorated due to fatigue, due to which he was not in a condition to go to work. He emailed HR in the morning and applied for leave. But after a while, the reply that the company owner sent to HR was shocking. The owner wrote, ‘Record this as leave without pay. And do not approve the holidays sought on the same day.
The young man also told that the owner called him immediately after the email. When he repeatedly said that he was ill, the owner replied, ‘Looking at your voice, it doesn’t seem that you are ill.’ The employee says this was only his second leave in the last six months.
Thousands of people have commented on this post. Most of the discussion is about India’s ‘toxic work culture’, where no importance is given to the health of employees. One user wrote, ‘Companies that can’t even believe that their employee is really sick are very dangerous.’ At the same time, many people advised the employee to give priority to his health and find another job as soon as possible.