An employee at a multinational corporation has sparked discussion online after claiming that a senior manager asked staff to remain available for work during Ganesh Chaturthi despite their festival leave having been approved more than a month in advance.
The employee said their organisation operates a 24x7 support project and does not provide festival holidays as part of its regular schedule. As a result, employees have to request leave well in advance. The employee claimed that even after such leave was approved, management told workers they could be contacted if additional support was needed.
Approved leave turns into standby request
In the social media post, the employee said they had planned their Ganesh Chaturthi leave in advance because the company did not offer festival holidays.
“I work in an MNC on a support project, which is 24 7 365 days a year. We don't get any festival holidays we have to ask them a month in advance,” the employee wrote.
The employee also criticised the organisation’s staffing practices, claiming that the company initially hired more workers than required and later moved employees to different projects. According to the post, management was now asking employees to log in because the workload had increased.
“They firstly over-hire and then release people to different projects, and now when the flow is high, they expect people to log in. I literally hate them,” the employee said.
The employee also shared a screenshot of a WhatsApp message sent by a manager to the team.
Manager says approved leave will not be cancelled
The message stated that additional assistance might be required the following day and that employees whose leave had already been approved could be contacted for a few hours if necessary.
The manager said the leave was not being cancelled but asked employees to remain available if the situation required additional support. The message also asked staff not to take unapproved sick leave.
The employee's post questioned the expectation that workers should remain available despite having secured leave in advance.
Social media users question company’s approach
The post drew reactions from users who questioned the company’s handling of leave and staffing requirements.
One user questioned the manager’s reference to “unapproved sick leave”, arguing that employees generally do not seek advance approval to become sick. The user also questioned why an employee would need permission in connection with illness.
Another user compared the communication practices with those at their own workplace, saying that even though their company was a startup, official business was not conducted through WhatsApp. The user added that they had not seen an MNC use WhatsApp for official communication in this manner.
A third user argued that approved leave normally means an employee has already made personal plans around those dates. The user said asking workers to provide “a few hours of assistance” effectively turns approved leave into an on-call arrangement.
“Poor staffing should not become the employee's emergency,” the user wrote.
Another commenter questioned why leave had been approved for employees working on a project that operates around the clock if the organisation later needed additional staff during the holiday.
The user suggested that management should have retained a few employees as standby resources if additional support was expected.
The discussion has centred on the distinction between approved leave and being required to remain available for possible work, with several users questioning whether staffing shortages should affect employees whose time off had already been sanctioned.
