Worker Quits Their Job On Day One In All-Staff Email Because Their Boss Ridiculed The Concept Of 'Work-Life Balance'
"I will not tolerate such treatment. I suggest finding someone whose approach aligns with your demands."
freedomz | Canva Pro A worker is going viral after sharing how they handled things when it quickly became clear the demands of their new job were entirely unreasonable — and so was their boss' approach to management.
People applauded the worker for taking the kind of risk most of us would shy away from, and for not ignoring their instincts about a job that was obviously a bad, and maybe even dangerous, choice.
The worker quit on day one after their boss ridiculed work-life balance when they protested the job's insane requirements.
The worker is believed to be a tech worker from India, a country that is having something of a national reckoning about the very topics at the center of this worker's complaints: excessive workloads and a downright dangerous attitude toward work-life balance.
This worker's email comes just weeks after mother Anita Augustine wrote a searing letter to Rajiv Memani, Chairman of the Indian division of accounting firm Ernst & Young, or EY, after her 26-year-old daughter Anna Sebastian Perayil lost her life due to a workload that left her unable to sleep for months and landed her in a cardiologist's office.
The worker who wrote this viral email even seems to reference this horrific story in their text, telling their boss that his demands with regards to overtime and work-life balance are "especially concerning given the increasing national attention on toxic work culture… employee well-being and workplace ethics."
Judging from his email, the man's boss has a similarly shocking callousness to Sebastian Perayil's. When her boss couldn't even be bothered to attend her funeral, he openly mocked him in front of the staff for enjoying his weekends and wanting to keep reasonable work hours.
In his email, the worker called out his boss for mocking the way he spends his free time.
The email is the kind of searing takedown most of us have dreamt of writing at one time or another, but the echoes of Sebastian Perayil's experience give it an eerie gravity that is impossible to ignore.
"I find your approach toward work expectations and personal boundaries seriously concerning," the man wrote in the email. "You have repeatedly made remarks about my activities outside of work hours, which I believe is highly inappropriate and unprofessional."
u/adamf1414 | Reddit
"What I choose to do in my personal time — whether it is exercising, spending time with family, sleeping, or READING BOOKS is my prerogative and should not be subject to criticism," he went on to say.
He then excoriated his boss for "ridiculing the concept of work-life balance" and dismissing it as a "western-developed behavior," which the man called "dismissive, TOXIC, and uncalled for."
The worker also called out his boss for his unreasonable workload demands and insistence he be available round-the-clock.
What led to Sebastian Perayil's passing was precisely the same work environment this man outlined in his email: A workload that was untenable, coupled with the expectation of round-the-clock availability.
In a previous Reddit post believed to be from the same man, he described how these expectations started during the interview process, during which he was asked to complete more than 80 hours of work as a sort of try-out. The company then used one of his try-out assignments for one of its products without disclosing this to him.
The job itself turned out exactly as you'd expect — the man wrote of his boss' "unreasonable, inhumane, and inconsiderate… insistence" that all work be submitted within 48 hours "outside of normal working hours, without compensation for overtime, coupled with demands to 'burn the midnight oil' in a threatening manner."
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He noted that these conditions came despite the HR department's insistence that the company lacks an overtime policy because one is simply not needed because no one is expected to work overtime.
In the end, it seems being berated in the office was the last straw—and one that left the worker so furious he invited his boss to share recordings of their interactions if he felt he was being unfairly maligned.
"I will not tolerate being subjected to such treatment," the man went on to say. "...I have decided it is best to part ways. I suggest finding someone whose approach aligns with your demands."
Experts say that you should never ignore your gut feelings about a job and don't hesitate to leave on day one if necessary.
"Never doubt your intuition," executive coach and former CEO Denise Conroy said in a recent video. "It is there to inform you, guide you, and ultimately perhaps save your life."
She's absolutely right — not just about the purpose of the "brain-gut connection" scientists are increasingly discovering is a very real thing, but especially as it pertains to our careers.
I'll give you an example from my own experience. I had a job several years ago where my gut told me during the interview that I was in a toxic environment when the boss very subtly but shockingly belittled an employee in front of me.
I shrugged it off, figuring I was being hypersensitive. Then I got the job, and similar things happened on day one. I knew then and there I was in trouble, and I was right. The place was so toxic I had nightmares and jumped any time my phone rang.
But I was broke, the market was bad, and I desperately needed health insurance, so I was terrified to leave and hung in for almost two entire years. I am still, nearly a decade later, dealing with the impacts it had on not just my mental health but even more so on my physical health.
It was 100% not worth it, and I wish I'd had the guts to do what this man did on day one instead of what took me two years to muster the gumption to do — see the writing on the wall and refuse to stand for it.
As recruiter Tammie C Ballis put it in a TikTok, "if you have that bad gut feeling now, imagine what it's like working for them."
Our toxic work culture is killing us in myriad ways metaphorical and literal. Kudos to those who refuse to tolerate it. Enough is enough.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.