A Delhi founder recently shared a powerful reminder that employees shouldn't have to "negotiate" for their personal lives. After granting a month-long paid leave to a staffer in need, he observed that she returned with renewed energy and focus.
Divye Agarwal, co-founder of the social media growth company Bingelabs, shared his employee's story in a LinkedIn post. “Someone on the team needed a month off last year. Her mother was sick. Needed full-time care.”
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Agarwal shared that the employee began explaining that she would manage work in the evening and would be available for calls. However, the management asked her to take a month off, with no evening work or calls, and said she would receive her full salary.
“She looked surprised. Like she was expecting conditions. There weren't any.”
{{/usCountry}}“She looked surprised. Like she was expecting conditions. There weren't any.”
{{/usCountry}}The founder recalled that, due to this decision, two of their projects were delayed, but when the employee resumed work, she delivered some of the best work the company has done all year.
“I don't think it was because she felt she owed us. I think it was because she stopped wondering if we meant it when we said we'd support her.”
The Delhi-based founder shared that his company has a simple leave policy: “You need time, you take it.”
He continued, “We decided we'd rather build a team that doesn't spend energy wondering if we mean what we say.”
How did social media react?
An individual recalled, “I once worked at a place where my pay was cut because I logged out 30 minutes earlier due to period pain, even though I had finished all my work. It is so heartwarming to see that there are still companies that treat employees as humans.”
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Another commented, “You don’t see this kind of leadership often. When support doesn’t come with invisible terms, people stop holding back. Not out of obligation, but because they finally feel safe. That’s how great work happens.”
A third posted, “This is what trust looks like in practice, not policy. When people stop worrying about whether support is real, they bring their best work back with them. So well said.”
A fourth wrote, “There’s also a second-order effect here that often goes unnoticed: psychological safety frees cognitive bandwidth. When people stop bracing for consequences, they do better work—not out of obligation, but out of clarity and commitment.”