When a Bengaluru marketing head opened his October salary slip, he thought it was a mistake. Nearly 40 per cent of his pay had vanished overnight. The culprit? His company’s HR team, which decided it would be a “brilliant” idea to tie a huge chunk of employees’ salaries to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that could change every month.
What was meant to be a “performance booster” instead sparked chaos and anger across the firm. Within a day, he quit — leaving his old-school, family-run company (which he jokingly called a “Lala company”) in complete disarray.
In a Reddit post that has since gone viral, the marketing head shared the ordeal. He said he worked at a medium-sized, family-owned firm where he led the marketing department. The team was small, the budgets tight, and the hours brutal — six days a week, often longer during festivals. “And since it’s marketing, we have to work more during festivals!” he wrote, hinting at how relentless things already were before HR decided to stir the pot.
The real trouble began when HR introduced what he described as an “insane idea.” Without consulting anyone, they restructured pay so that 40 per cent of everyone’s salary depended on monthly KPIs — targets that HR and the company’s directors could change whenever they pleased. Among them were “laughably unrealistic” goals: grow Instagram followers by 5 per cent every month, raise “Stock At Hand” (a proxy for demand) by five points every quarter, and conduct 32 on-ground events each month. “They actually went ahead with it,” he wrote, still incredulous.
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The breaking point came in October when his bank account reflected only 70% of his usual salary. That was the final straw. “I just put down my papers the next morning,” he wrote. “My trust is completely broken now.”
What followed sent the management into “full panic mode.” They begged him to stay and promised to roll back the KPI-linked pay plan — but the damage was done. He agreed only to serve his notice period and move on.
He wasn’t the only one. The firm’s National Sales Head had already quit over the same issue. Now, with word spreading fast, the company is reportedly struggling to fill key positions.
Fortunately, his story had a happy ending. He revealed that he had already landed a new job as a Category Manager at an FMCG company — with a 20% salary hike. “Feels good man!” he concluded, signing off his post with relief and satisfaction.
The story struck a nerve online, drawing hundreds of comments from fellow Redditors. One user advised, “Never stay after putting off your paper. Once a quit, it’s a quit.” Another slammed the HR department, writing, “These HR people are the most stupid, low IQ individuals with zero knowledge of the business process.” A third chimed in, “Even if you end up staying, you’d be giving them a chance to replace you just a few months down the line. 100% win for them, 100% loss for you.”
As one Redditor summed it up perfectly, it was deeply satisfying to see a toxic company get the “tight slap” it deserved — while the employee walked away towards a better, healthier workplace.