Employee was demanded unpaid overtime on day 1 of job—his response in his resignation letter is receiving praise
It is never too early or too late to stand up against injustice and disrespect. At a time when work-life balance and efficient professional lives are being advocated, it is an employer’s duty to maintain them. An Indian product designer named Shreyas was glad to join a new company, the Free Press Journal revealed. Unfortunately, on his first day of work, he soon understood that his boss was taking him for a ride. He was expected to go above and beyond and prioritize work over everything else in his life. The man drew a line when he was told to work overtime without being paid and highlighted it all in an epic resignation letter.
In a since-deleted Reddit post that has received 2.4k upvotes, people are praising the man’s clarity on boundaries. As he shared his story, it was revealed that on his first day of work, his boss noted that he should work beyond the nine projected hours. Immediately, the man knew how to respond. He quit on the very first day with a clear and bold email. “I must convey that our professional alignment does not seem to match,” Shreyas began. He added that the boss’s “approach towards work expectations and personal boundaries is seriously concerning.” He called out his employer for making “remarks” on his activity outside of working hours and clarified that “my personal time is my prerogative and should not be subject to criticism.”
Furthermore, he straightforwardly explained that expecting employees to put in ridiculously strenuous hours is intolerable. “Ridiculing the concept of work-life balance and calling it a ‘fancy term’ and ‘western-developed behavior’ is dismissive, toxic, and uncalled for,” he stated. The employee also mentioned that the tight deadlines that his boss assigned him required him to "burn the midnight oil" over threats. What was more unbelievable was that there was no extra pay for this overload of a job. “Expecting work without fair compensation undermines both legal standards and the respect that every employee deserves,” he confidently wrote.
The designer stated that he would not be a victim of a toxic work culture nor would he support it in any manner. Every single unprofessional act was recorded in the letter and called out firmly. “Your behavior during our last interaction, particularly scolding me, was unacceptable,” he said. After revealing that he would no longer be working with the company, he added, “If you believe that your conduct is defensible and humane, I welcome and challenge you to make any Slack recordings of our conversations public.” With society having a look at things out in the open, he was certain they would understand his perspective, too.
People were uplifted and appreciated Shreyas’ response. His resignation and clarity spoke for so many overworked and burnt-out employees who suffer silently. u/cactusfruit9 said, “Bold decision, appreciated. Be careful with such people again.” u/machisman added, “Kudos to you. Well crafted email. These long work hours are borderline human rights issues.” u/Rein_k201 remarked, “Damn that email was a f**king weapon.” u/alphcobra99 said, “I really hate this kind of mindset. It was very brave of you that you left when you had the time.” u/VisibleMistake4060 wrote, “You seem to be a really confident person, who has well-developed his skills. You’ll definitely find a bigger and better opportunity! What you did takes a lot of courage.”
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