A conversation between a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and his employee has gone viral on social media and has sparked a discussion on leave policies. Taking to LinkedIn, Ankit Aggarwal, the founder and CEO of Unstop, shared a screenshot of his chat with the employee without revealing his identity. "This arrived in my WhatsApp this morning," he wrote in the caption of his post, explaining that an employee requested a leave of absence because the party and its afterparty are still going on.
"Employee asking for a leave because the party and it's after party is still on. This openness is critical within a team so that you can trust your team and they are ensured that you will back them," Mr Aggarwal wrote while sharing the screenshot of the chat. It showed the employee asking for a "late-night party leave", to which the CEO instantly agreed.
Take a look below:
"When colleagues feel comfortable being open and honest with each other, it builds a foundation of trust that can lead to better communication, collaboration, and overall success," Mr Aggarwal's post further read.
The CEO's response was lauded by several social media users. "This is what I needed to read today. In my past work experience, there were instances where my team and I were honest and gave our manager the true reasons why we needed leave - it could be a weekend getaway, to attend weddings, or just "we're mentally exhausted, we need a day off to do nothing". We weren't permitted to take a day off until someone from our family was either hospitalized or dead! I must say, all of us lost a lot of our relatives for us to get leaves," a LinkedIn user wrote.
"This is called real team building, team leader, leadership," expressed another. "How refreshing it is to witness such camaraderie between a founder and their work partners. Most organisations lack even basic levels of transparency, honesty, and candidness. They believe the so-called 'employees' will take them for a ride and stop respecting them. What they really fail to understand is the concept of mutual support and recognition. Perhaps why they have a high attrition rate and zero happiness quotient amongst the people working with/for them," commented a third user.
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However, some were not impressed with how Mr Aggarwal handled the situation.
"While I understand employees may occasionally need urgent last minute vacation I don't think this would be a valid reason. The problem here is the employee was not asking, but merely sent a instruction to their employer. This is not a respectful way of working as the employer was not left with a choice as to approve or not," wrote one user.
"Hmmm....does anyone else not think it's a bit selfish and self-entitled to txt last minute saying you're not coming in to work??? In many professions, mine included, this is unfathomoble. Perhaps that's why I don't understand the point," commented another.
Mr Agarwal shared the post a few days back and since then it has accumulated more than 10,000 reactions from LinkedIn users.
