Employee fired for refusing overtime, sparks debate on social media

The employee anonymously shared that their refusal to work for an extra 20 hours resulted in their laying off from a mid-sized advertising firm.

In the Sub-reddit post, the employee narrated that their boss tried to assign them an additional project which would've demanded their extra time. When the individual expressed concerns about fitting this into the existing schedule, the boss compared the person's workload with the other employee who worked until 2 am, implicating that the person could also do that.

The employee said, "I told him I don't want to be like this worker because she takes meetings until 2 am (She also likely makes triple my salary)."

Days after this meeting, the employee got a call from HR, a clear sign of the person's forthcoming termination.

He said in the post, "After disagreeing a few days later, he gave me the call, and once I saw the HR person, I knew it was over. It felt especially greedy because the team I managed broke record revenue this year, much of it due to changes I made."

After mulling over the experience, the employee further said, "I don't really feel upset, to be honest. It feels like a giant weight off my shoulders. I also took a significant pay cut for this job."

"My prior job was at a large tech company for 6 years and layoffs were massive and not based on performance (I was exceeding expectations on track for promotion while the person they left behind was almost on grounds of being fired)," the individual added.

"Anyway, how’s the job market been for you guys? Still seems kinda rough but I have enough saved to last me for a bit of time, insurance is the main concern as I was the sole income earner in my family," he further said.

"What type of jobs did you have before retail?" a user asked.

The person responded, "I was trying to work my way through college. I didn't work before my 30s; I was disabled and listed as terminal until I was 25. My dreams of being an accountant are pretty much dead. I just hope to find something I can live on. The problem is I'm not suited for manual labour, and my PTSD and other issues are overwhelming at the moment."

Many social media users expressed their opinions in the comment section.

A social media user commented, "The tech job landscape is pretty bad but does seem to be improving slightly. Crappy time for a layoff, but I'm glad you held your ground."

"Yeah after my only time getting fired from a job for a bullshit reason I got a job that’s unionized," wrote another.