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‘Your company truly never cared, never will’: MNC employee cries over no leaves or work-from-home on Diwali thumbnail

‘Your company truly never cared, never will’: MNC employee cries over no leaves or work-from-home on Diwali

A recent post on Reddit has ignited a conversation about the disparities in leave and work-from-home policies for Indian employees compared to their western counterparts within American multinational corporations (MNCs).

The anonymous user’s candid account of an emotional confrontation with their senior manager over Diwali leave has resonated with many, putting focus on the alleged ‘toxic work culture’ in these MNCs.

Alleged biased company policies

The original poster, who is a woman identifying as an employee of an American MNC with a hybrid work model, expressed deep disappointment with the company policies. “I understand at the end of the day we’re just cheap labor for them but god forbid I believe we’d have some policies that treat us like human.”

She also bashed the company for favoring their western colleagues by stating, “American/European colleagues can take long vacations and happily take the weeks of spring break, Thanksgiving and Christmas off.”

Original post on Reddit

The user further added that similar considerations are not extended to Indian employees, even for major cultural festivals such as Diwali.

In-office mandate during Diwali

The core of the user’s grievance centers on her company’s ‘no work from home or leaves’ policy during the Diwali week.

She revealed that, “We’re all working Diwali week except 1-2 people will be off on different days so there’s some support each day.” The user’s plight intensified when their request for work remotely from their hometown during the festival week because someone needs to be in the office.

“Believe me, we’re still working on a week we deserve to be off. But now they want us in office. We’ve saved leaves and WFHs all year for this,” she added.

‘Never cared, Never will’

The situation turned quickly got heated, which led to a ‘crying sobbing angry argument’ with the user’s senior manager as she asserted “I HAD TO GO HOME. It’s the ONE time I get to.”

A resolution only came when another colleague from the same city as the original poster decided to cancel their leaves to come into the office since they’ll suffer the least damage. “So technically this wasn’t resolved, someone just sacrificed,” she said.

The reddit post ended with a comment on corporate empathy as the user stated, “Your company truly never cared, never will. Always knew this, but some days are truly frustrating.”

Netizens react to the post

Most of the comments on the post emphasised with the user, while some others shared their personal experiences of working with a western MNC. 

A Reddit user said, “Well, that’s pretty much how things work in Indian MNCs. I do empathize with you, but unfortunately, you wont find any respite here. Everything is 24/7 and #1 priority.” 

Another user mirrored this thought and said, “It is not you, it is your managers. I am Indian working in Germany. Our project has a small team in Pune, and the managers always keep proudly proclaiming in the meetings that his team is so dedicated that they can work on weekend and holidays as well.” 

Among those negative experiences, some users had a completely different story about working with an MNC. 

A user claimed that not all workplaces are toxic, further reiterating “I work with a small performance marketing shop, the client is based in Europe, for some reason I can’t get into to maintain secrecy, they have the entire first half of August off. They told us no one at their end is going to be working till the 20th atleast. We decided to do the same.”

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