Founder says employee resigned in 15 days after accountability discussion: 'Skills can be trained, attitude can’t'

Founder says employee quit within 15 days, not over pay or workload, but after a discussion about accountability at work.

A founder has sparked a debate online after claiming that a newly hired employee resigned within just 15 days, not over pay or workload, but after a discussion about accountability at work.

The founder said that the employee was “doing fine” until a deadline issue surfaced. (Instagram/@ronitthakur18)

Ronit Thankur, founder of Be Rolling Media, shared the incident in an Instagram video, detailing how the employee had joined recently but stopped coming to the office after two days due to a “personal emergency,” and was allowed to work from home. Thakur said that the employee was “doing fine” until a deadline issue surfaced.

He said that a video scheduled to go live a few minutes after working hours got delayed because the employee was unavailable. “It was just 15–20 minutes post working hours on paper, and that person wasn’t available at all,” he said, adding that the team had to step in and manage the delay.

Thakur said that the next day, he spoke to the employee about accountability and the need to be available during urgent situations. “It’s not like I don’t believe in work-life balance… people in my office are very chill… but they understand that if something has to go out, you have to be accountable,” he said.

However, the conversation didn’t land well. “Later in the day, that person got offended… and they wrote their resignation saying expectations didn’t align,” he added. He concluded his video with two key learnings: the importance of hiring people whose attitude aligns with the company’s culture, and the role accountability plays in career growth.

In the caption of the post, Thankur said the incident became a key learning moment for him as a founder. “15 days in. Resignation submitted. Not because of the pay. Not because of the workload. Because of one conversation about accountability,” he wrote. “It taught me more about hiring than any framework ever did. Skills can be trained. Attitude can’t. When you’re building a small team, cultural fit isn’t a bonus criteria — it’s the only criteria. A 15-person team where everyone owns their work will always outrun a 50-person team where no one does,” he added.

Social media reactions

The post triggered mixed reactions online, with users debating what accountability should actually mean in modern workplaces.

One user supported the founder, writing, “I agreee on that part. You should be accountable to your work as if that work has been delegated to you, it is your responsibility to fulfil it.”

Another questioned the expectation itself, asking, “What % of equity in your organization did you offer that they took no accountability?”

A third user pushed back, saying, “Accountability is about ownership of work—not 24/7 availability to meet an employer’s demands.”