A corporate employer has faced flak for their strict Holi policies after they refused to grant leave for the festival and warned that employees arriving with traces of Holi colours would be barred from entry and marked absent. The controversy erupted after a disgruntled employee, Sahil Sakure, shared a screenshot of the manager’s message on Reddit.
According to the message, Holi was considered a “Business Critical Day”, and any leave taken without prior approval would be marked unapproved and unpaid. The company also enforced a “sandwich salary deduction” policy, meaning that if an employee took leave before or after a weekend or public holiday, extra days would be deducted from their salary.
Adding to the restrictions, the manager advised employees to avoid falling sick or having emergencies on Holi.
The employer’s message read, “We will not bring colours on the floor tomorrow. You will not be allowed to enter premises if you are coloured yourself, and it will be marked as unapproved since it’s a ‘Business Critical Day’. Take extra care of yourself and do not fall ill/have emergencies tomorrow.”
Not only my Employer has the audacity to not grant any leaves for Holi but also to mark them unapproved/unpaid for those who take forcefully with sandwich sallary deduction and consequences of warning behaviour issue letters and much more. and to term every festival as business critical day????
byu/SahilSakure23 inIndianWorkplace
The strict policies have sparked criticism online.
A user commented, ” ‘Do not have emergencies tomorrow’ bro the whole point of emergencies..”
“This sounds more like a school than a workplace,” another wrote.
Someone wrote, “The third point is absolute BS, it’s not like people love to fall ill on purpose and how TF are we supposed to avoid emergencies the next day.”
“Mass resignation is the only solution for this,” a comment read.
“This has toxic written all over it,” read a comment.
Last year, in Bengaluru, a man was seen attending a Durga Puja pandal while juggling a client meeting on his phone and laptop. The video of this multitasking moment quickly went viral. Online reactions to the video were mixed, with many calling it an example of toxic workplace culture.
