via that other site
The absolute absurdity of work without pay becomes blatantly obvious when you reverse the situation.
Imagine you going to your boss and asking them if they could pay you for 10 hours of work even though you only worked 8 today.
It’d be considered ridiculous. But it’s the same thing.
In a employment relationship you got a contract stating the conditions in which you trade your time and skilled labor for money and benefits.
Neither side should feel entitled to free handouts on top.
The problem arises when one party of the contract has much more control over the other party in said contract.
How is PTO ridiculous, exactly?
PTO is a finite resource and the equivalent of being paid overtime. Demanding your employees work overtime without pay is an infinite resource, much like demanding your boss to pay you for an unscheduled day off or time you didn’t work that doesn’t get covered by PTO.
That would be part of the benefits he is referring to.
pay you for 10 hours of work even though you only worked 8
This is PTO.
PTO is necessary because life happens.
Overtime is only needed when the company isn’t being managed properly.
You are still comparing something that a regular person can only have one of at a time, to a business which has multiple employees. Its like comparing 100% of time to <5% of a company.
You’d have a point if every single employee would take PTO at the same time. Then they would be paying and no work would get done.
Wow this site is cancer on mobile
I guess I missed it having mine on default to reader mode in Voyager
I’m running Thunder on iOS. It automatically goes into reader mode.
No problem.
It’s a “news” article reporting on a Reddit post. My expectations were already low.
It’s literally unreadable to us. Thank you for the run down.
I couldn’t even glean that info.
For those complaining about the ads even though they are using adblockers, I’m using Mull as my browser with uBlock Origin on medium mode. There were absolutely zero ads or other pop-ups.
Unfortunately from my experience lots of Indian news websites are ad-infested hell-holes even with a good adblock. Nevertheless I felt this article was fit to post on this thread.
It does. I would have commented with the text of the article though. Considering the source. Live and learn.
I had to see for myself and I think my phone is infected.
I’m so sorry :c
Firefox+simple page mode+ uBlock Origin fixes most of the cancer.
I don’t care enough to read the article.
Fair enough, but that combo does make the internet much more enjoyable and ad free.
If you don’t care go be a cretin somewhere else
What? Like Crete?
from French crétin, from Swiss French crestin ‘Christian’ (from Latin Christianus ), here used to mean ‘human being’, apparently as a reminder that, though deformed, cretins were human and not beasts.
What crawled up your butt and died?
I wish it was that guy, he’s super annoying
I’ve gotta remember this in case someone ever asks me what crawled up my butt and died. I don’t know how annoying or whatever the other person is, but this is like, the perfect response to this question.
I’d be one uncomfortable BM away from being rid of him. Worth it.
Are you ok?
You ain’t kidding. FFox with ad blockers don’t even do anything to all the shit that popped up.
its fine here on firefox with ublock origin.
seriously guys why to you put up with ads.
I’m using those and it still popped shit up, impressively cancerous site
did you enable the annoyance filters?
nothing came up here with those enabled. they really should make them enabled by default.
Pihole at home
Jeez that site is awful. Article text:
Man Resigns on First Day After Indian Boss Expects Overtime Without Pay: Work-life Balance is ‘Western Behaviour’
October 10, 2024, 00:59 IST
A product designer called it quits on the first day of work after his boss expected him to work beyond normal working hours without compensation and dismissed the concept of work-life balance as a “fancy term” and a “Western behaviour”. The boss also pressured him to “burn the midnight oil” in a threatening manner, which the designer found to be “unreasonable, inhumane, and inconsiderate”. Additionally, he felt belittled when the boss scolded him and subjected him to treatment he deemed “unacceptable”. The man, named Shreyas, shared his experience on Reddit and even turned to the online community to refer him for UI/UX roles.
“At the end of my first day, October 7, my reporting manager made it clear that he expected unreasonable commitments—work beyond normal hours without any compensation,” Shreyas wrote on Reddit.
He added, “When I tried to establish boundaries, he mocked me for talking about ‘work-life balance’, calling it a ‘fancy term’ and ‘Western developed nation behaviour’. He also ridiculed my desire for time to read and exercise, dismissing it as an excuse.”
“Just to avoid any misunderstanding, it is not that I am unwilling to work for a minute post work hours, it’s about the personal attacks, belittling, ridiculing me for mentioning that I have a life outside of work and have hobbies like reading, underpaying, not having any overtime policy and still expecting to work over and beyond work hours every day. (12-14 hour workday every day). I am mature enough to understand there’s a difference between exploitation, toxic environment and those that aren’t,” he further explained.
Shreyas was offered the role of an Associate Product Designer with a package of Rs 7 LPA, which he considered “below fair median pay” given his two years of experience. He accepted the offer because it was fully remote, noting that he is open to working in an office, hybrid, or fully remote setup.
He also attached a screenshot of his resignation email in which he expressed serious concerns about his boss’s approach to work. “You’ve repeatedly made remarks about my activities outside of work hours, which I believe is highly inappropriate and unprofessional. What I choose to do in my personal time – whether it is exercising, spending time with my family, sleeping or reading books – is my prerogative and should not be subject to criticism,” Shreyas mentioned.
“Expecting work without fair compensation undermines both legal standards and the respect that every employee deserves,” he added and concluded the email with the words: “I believe it would be best for you to find another person who is willing to meet your expectations in the manner you desire. I hope you understand my decision, as I prioritise both professionalism and respect in my work relationships.”
Shreyas also shared the response he received from his boss over email. The boss acknowledged that both parties should find an employee and employer that align with their expectations. He noted, “Trying to close the gap between what was said and what was understood by both sides is not fruitful in this situation when there is a clear consensus on parting ways. There are definitely a few lessons that I have taken from this entire encounter, and I thank you for that.”
The boss also wished him luck in his “future endeavours” and confirmed that the payment for his one day of service would be processed by the accounts department.
Take a look at the Reddit post here:
Quit My Job on the 1st Day After Standing Up to a Toxic Boss. Email attached in the comments. byu/Old-Ad169 inindia
Earlier, a 42-year-old Bajaj Finance employee died by suicide after bosses allegedly forced him to pay for EMIs. Tarun Saxena, who had worked for Bajaj Finance for around eight years, left behind a suicide note addressed to his wife. In the note, Saxena revealed that he had been under immense stress due to pressure from his bosses, who were allegedly pushing him to either meet his targets or call it quits.
Responding to the incident, the company said in a statement that they are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of their employee and expressed their heartfelt condolences and full support to his family.
“Based on allegations, we have relieved the concerned employees of their current responsibilities and placed them on administrative leave, allowing for an unbiased and thorough investigation of the matter. We are also extending our full support to the authorities investigating the matter. We stand in support of Tarun’s family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” read a part of the statement issued by Bajaj Finance.
Work-life Balance is ‘Western Behaviour’
As a westerner, I rate this statement FALSE
Yeah, I quit one of my MSFT contract jobs a decade ago after 2 weeks. Team Lead verbatim told me he expected me to work overtime without pay, which is actually a breach of the contracting firm’s terms.
Applied as a DB admin and data analyst.
What this guy wanted me to do was make perfect little graphs in powerpoint for his slide deck meetings with superiors that were not actually possible to do with the visualization software provided.
So use paint! Use photoshop! Ok, follow his instructions verbatim. He comes back 2 hrs later, oh actually I think this minute detail should change and this color should be slightly less ‘bright’.
Ok, do that. 2 hrs later: No no no that’s too dark! That other change I asked you to make doesn’t look good, put it back!
But anyway, at other contract jobs for MSFT, I routinely saw Indian managers from a higher caste being horrifically rude and abusive to Indian temp workers from a lower caste, just screaming profanities and threats in Hindi.
HR’s line was that actually that’s just a cultural difference and it would be rude and untoward to stand up for those guys because it would be perceived as racism.
… So yeah I don’t work in tech anymore.
But anyway, at other contract jobs for MSFT, I routinely saw Indian managers from a higher caste being horrifically rude and abusive to Indian temp workers from a lower caste, just screaming profanities and threats in Hindi.
Yeah, see that shit first person got me all sorts of uncomfortable…
Can’t even really say anything since they got so e wierd dynamic either without looking like culturally insensitive shit lord
The battle for work-life balance is in a far better state in most western economies (including the US) than it is in many developing economies like India. The middle class in India is like 2 generations old. The grandparents of the current middle class are still around and they remember how poor they were and how much has changed. Basically , for many Indian workers, hard work and perseverance on its own (from their perspective at least) has actually been a path to a better life. That social contract hasn’t yet broken the way it has in the west.
The problem with this is that it results in the workplace culture in the private sector in India being utterly abysmal. Workplaces where the work expectations align with what this toxic boss is aiming for are incredibly common to the point of being the norm. Somewhat comparable to western economies a century ago. The fact that such overwork is not actually productive beyond a point is not an idea that has penetrated into the culture to any appreciable degree.
There is awareness of this of course, but change on this scale takes time.
The battle for work-life balance is in a far better state in most western economies (including the US) than it is in many developing economies like India.
Easy to say from an office suite in the downtown financial district than a slaughterhouse in Iowa or an Amazon Work Fulfillment Center or a prison farm in Alabama.
The problem with this is that it results in the workplace culture in the private sector in India being utterly abysmal.
Bosses will exploit their workforce as far as the workforce tolerates it (typically with the assistance of “business-friendly” state officials to compel obedience through debt or bondage). One of the major conflicts in India today is in the northern districts, where the Hindu nationalist state is trying to break the agricultural workers unions that date back to the 1950s when India was aligned with the USSR. If conditions are deteriorating abroad, it is largely because of the expansion of the police and military and the functional enslavement of working people under their domain. If they’re deteriorating at home… gestures towards the suppression of BLM street protests and the mass imprisonment of migrant workers… it’s the same picture.
change on this scale takes time
Conditions can change for the worse, and regularly do. But people quitting day one and making their outrage known is a good first step towards reversing the trend.
Damn boy… Keep this attitude up and I will assign a mandatory 1 hour “mental health” seminar in the middle of the day
Just looked at the chart of labor productivity per country, of the top 20, only found 1 non-western: Singapore ranked 19^th. Maybe western way is the better way
It’s not.
You think bosses demanding unpaid overtime is good?
No, the opposite, hence why the Western way is worse, despite it’s higher productivity.
Wage theft, which includes unpaid overtime, is a larger category of theft in the US than all other categories combined.
Guess you missed this was an Indian boss demanding unpaid overtime.
Fuck you, and let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And I get paid.
But when you’re paid, do you always see the job through?
Certainly.
By the way: Nice hat.
Brutal article. There’s exactly zero details of any of the involved parties.
It’s based on a reddit thread
Why are they bringing up INDIAN so many times, as if that makes any difference between a bad boss and a good one?
They’re bringing up Indians because the article is from an Indian news site. They mention the employer is Indian to show why some random Reddit thread is relevant to the Indian audience.
It’s completely devoid of any information. It reads like someone’s deranged aunt wrote it.
Gotta bring the racists in.
Also it is at least anecdotally known by a lot of people that Indian/Chinese and general Asian work culture is bad. A large supply of workers, caste systems, etc mean capitalism has been riding very high and very strong for a long time.
Somebody at a news organization, being generous there probably, wrote an entire article about a Reddit post?
