In yet another case of a ‘toxic’ boss expecting employees to give their ‘souls’ to work and tasks- a Chennai man was eventually laid off after he refused to work on Saturdays. Taking to Reddit, the man shared about his office- which he allegedly joined a few months back. Work was mostly smooth- until one of his colleagues left, leaving his share of work under the Redditor as well. Soon, the man’s boss began to ask him to work on Saturdays as well. Finally giving in to the compromise, the man began to work on Saturdays, but used to work from home. The working Saturdays allegedly went on for a while, after which the manager began to ask him to come to the office too, which did not sit well with the employee for long.
He rarely worked from the office on weekends, and was also missing his volunteer work at NGOs that he used to do on Saturdays. Finally, he received a rather disheartening message on Sunday. He was let go by his manager- citing that their priorities were different.
The post was quick enough to spark the good-old ‘poor work life barnacle’ and ‘toxic workplace’ debates. The post went viral in an instant. Times Now, on the other hand, could not confirm the details and the authenticity of the post.
At the end of the post, the man also shared his resume, asking the internet for job openings and related leads. Luckily for him, a few did approach him in the comment section.
“Got laid off because I refused to work on Saturdays,” the post read.
“Well, I’ve been working at this agency for the past 6-8 months. Initially, things were good but around March 2025 one of the employees resigned so I was assigned to do his work which is handling clients. Man, these clients were annoying as h*ck. They would nitpick every single design mistake as if we’re doing it for them & not their end customer. This was the 1st challenge,” the post read.
“The 2nd challenge was the designer was using a system which was almost 15yrs old and caused issues here and there. Because of that, a lot of work got delayed. I tried explaining this to my boss but he’s saying that I’m just making excuses and that the work that takes 2sec will take 5sec that’s it,” the post continued.
“3rd challenge was that as time passed, he asked me to work on Saturday, saying that client satisfaction is important, the market is down & that they aren’t able to get new clients. Initially, I did WFH on Saturdays, co-ordinating with the clients & the designer in order to get the work done but it got exhausting at one point of time so I rarely came to the office on Saturdays. According to my boss, if there’s any pending work, it should be done even if it means working on Saturdays and Sundays. Basically, I was asked to work even if it means neglecting my own priorities which I have on weekends because I volunteer at an NGO on Saturdays. To him client satisfaction is more important so that they’ll be paying the company,” it continued.
“I got the message on a Sunday morning saying that I need not come to the office from Monday cause my priorities are different from his,” the post concluded.
The post was shared on Reddit, by the handle ‘Junaid0010’. The post was shared today and pulled many views from people.
“Hey! Would you be interested in an in-house marketing role? My team is hiring a senior specialist- performance marketing,” a user said. “Lodge a complaint against them in the labour commission with proofs. Ask 10 lakhs compensation for mental agony, labour exploitation. Ask for severance separately,” added another.
“This is a classic example of Indian work culture. Anyways, he probably couldn’t afford you and was looking to lay you off the first chance he gets. He’ll hire someone now with less experience and a lower compensation than yours. Don’t worry, you’ll be glad you’re not working there 3 years from now. All the best for your job search. Will reach out if there are any leads,” commented another.
“Just 1 year in your career and you are unwilling to even stretch.. ok thats ur choice. Just telling that you are willing to do extra work since ur easiest to be replaced from many numbers of people who will do anything to get even this role,” added another.
Source – https://www.timesnownews.com/viral/chennai-man-gets-laid-off-for-reluctance-to-work-saturdays-internet-reacts-work-life-balance-workplace-toxicity-viral-article-152440016