A screenshot of a boss’s message asking employees to declare their planned leaves well in advance, including sick leaves, has gone viral on Reddit. The screenshot was shared by an employee who claims they were laid off by the Indian company.
“Your thoughts on this? These are the screenshots from the company where I got laid off,” read the title of the Reddit post shared in the “Indian Workplace” community with “Workplace Toxicity” tag.
‘Even if it is planned sick leave’
One of the screenshots is from Google Chat, where the boss asked employees to inform them about their leaves. “Hi Team, I need a data like who are all planning to take leaves on next week? Even if it is planned sick leave also, inform here,” read the boss’s message.
The post also carries a screenshot of an email from the management outlining situations that do not qualify for work-from-home. These reportedly include sick leave, accident-related injuries, mental health issues, pregnancy, and post-delivery complications.
Mental health, injury, pregnancy not eligible for WFH
According to the email, employees who fall sick should rest at home and return only when fully recovered. For injuries resulting from accidents, employees are instructed to use their paid time off (PTO), and once exhausted, shift to unpaid leave.
“If you have broken hands and legs, please take PTO and once you run out of them, take loss of pay and stay home and return once you are fully functional,” the email stated.
The company’s stance on mental health has also started a discussion. Employees facing mental health challenges must take unpaid leave, the email stated, claiming they are “not qualified to work on a customer project” and could be a “liability” to the organisation.
Pregnant employees or those with post-delivery complications are told to either use their paid leave or take unpaid leave, with the justification that working during physical discomfort is “not good”.
It added, “We understand that you need to take care of your baby at the same time, we need to ensure we run a company, so please make arrangements to take care of your baby at home and be present at work at least 3 days a week.”
There is also guidance for employees with elderly or ailing parents. The email states that while staff may take PTO or unpaid leave for caregiving, using parents’ illness as a reason to permanently work from home is “not acceptable”.
“…If it’s a prolonged illness, you need to figure out a caretaker at home to take care of your parents and be back to work. Taking parent sickness as an excuse to fully work from home is not acceptable.”
The message ended with the words, “My request to all of you is instead of finding 100 reasons to stay back at home, think of 1 good reason to get back to a normal, healthy life that is working with people in an environment that would make you a better engineer/designer/Leader!”
‘Adhere to 8 AM to 10 PM schedule’
What’s even worse is that, according to the screenshot of yet another email, the company follows an 8 am to 10 pm shift – 14 hours – and has instructed employees to “adhere” to it. The email also stated that attendance will be monitored through biometric tracking.
The post soon received close to 500 upvotes and numerous comments from Reddit users. “What is planned sick leave? Hello sir, I’m planning to get violent diarrhoea next week, pls consider?” asked one Redditor.
Another added, “Reminds me of the time when my school teacher asked me why I didn’t inform him of my sick leave before I took it. I told him if I knew that I would be sick beforehand, I would have become a psychic.”
“8AM – 10PM? That’s a torture chamber,” commented a third.
Yet another social media user joined, “Planned sick leave? I will have a fever next week. Lmao.”
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