‘Sick Leave Loge Aaj? Inform 7 Days in Advance’: Manager’s Leave Policy Leaves Internet Baffled

'Sick Leave Loge Aaj? Inform 7 Days in Advance': Manager’s Leave Policy Leaves Internet Baffled
Confusion erupts online after an Indian manager’s unusual sick leave policy goes viral.
When one Indian manager told his employee that sick leaves must be applied for seven days in advance, people across the world were confused. Anyone can tell you that there is no way to predict minor illnesses with any degree of certainty in life. So when one Indian manager told his employee that sick leaves must be applied for seven days in advance, people across the world were left scratching their heads in confusion.
How to know if I am going to be sick in next 7 days?(NOC)
byu/faj-707 inantiwork
The employee shared a screenshot of his WhatsApp exchange with his boss on the “antiwork” Reddit forum. “My health is not well, so I won’t be coming to the office,” the employee informed his senior, as per the screenshot.
To this, the manager asked if he was planning to take a sick leave. On receiving an answer in the affirmative, the boss replied: “To take sick leave or casual leave you need to inform at least 7 days prior.”
“How to know if I am going to be sick in the next 7 days?” the employee wondered in his now-viral post.
People in the comments section were left bemused by the boss’s demand:
“Send an email every day: ‘This is to inform you that I may get sick seven days from now and may thus need to use sick time,’ See how long it takes,” suggested one Reddit user.
Malicious compliance time…..every Monday morning submit a preemptive sick leave notice, then cancel it the following Monday when you submit a new one,” another said in agreement.
Some shared their own experiences of dealing with unreasonable company policies. “I used to work in a supermarket. One day I had an evening shift. At some point in the early afternoon, I fell down a flight of stairs and had a bruised knee and a minor concussion. I called in sick and got told I needed to come in anyway or be written up because calling in sick must happen before 8 am. Yeah, I’ll schedule falling down the stairs next time,” a Reddit user recalled
“It’s as if they expect you to have a crystal ball to foresee your sickness,” one commenter joked.
Others shared their own experiences with rigid or unreasonable workplace policies, highlighting a broader issue of workplace inflexibility.
“This is a clear example of how some employers fail to understand the basic human condition,” another user noted.
The post has sparked a conversation about employee rights and the need for more empathetic and realistic leave policies in workplaces. While it’s unclear if the manager’s policy was an isolated incident or a miscommunication, the viral post has certainly put a spotlight on the importance of reasonable and compassionate leave policies in the workplace.