An employee has sought advice online after being questioned by HR for arriving 15-20 minutes late at work, despite regularly working overtime and weekends.
Sharing the situation on Reddit, the employee said they joined an event company in May and are currently on probation. Their official working hours are 11 am to 7 pm, with weekends supposed to be off. However, they said the demands of the job often meant staying late or coming in on days off.
“Most Saturdays in July were working days for me, and there were also random Sundays where I had to work,” the employee wrote. They said their manager has told employees that if work demands it, they have to stay late or work weekends. The manager jokingly calls this “udya teer”, which the employee described as putting the work or event first and dealing with the consequences later.
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The employee said they did not mind working hard and enjoyed their job, but things changed when their workload decreased. Since they live far from the office and have a commute of more than two hours each way, they began arriving around 11:15–11:20 am on some days instead of 11 am.
That led to a conversation with HR. When asked why they were late, the employee cited their commute. HR then asked what time they had left work the previous day.
{{/usCountry}}That led to a conversation with HR. When asked why they were late, the employee cited their commute. HR then asked what time they had left work the previous day.
{{/usCountry}}“I told her 6:45 pm. She asked, ‘Then why are you late today?’” the employee wrote.
The employee said they reminded HR that they had been working overtime and coming in on Saturdays throughout July. They also pointed out that their manager had told them employees could leave accordingly when there was less work.
The conversation became tense, with the employee admitting they were frustrated and may have sounded more irritated than intended. When they pointed out that they had been putting in extra hours, HR reportedly responded, “What can I argue about that?”
Things escalated after HR spoke to the employee’s senior. The employee said their manager then called them into a meeting and “shouted” at them.
The situation became even more frustrating when HR reportedly emailed their senior saying they had been taking “too many leaves”. The employee said they had taken only two days off in August and one day in July, along with an additional day for an important festival.
They also said they have a complete attendance sheet because their manager had made it compulsory for employees to manually record their working hours.
“I have records of the days I worked late, Saturdays I worked, etc., going back to July,” they wrote.
Despite their frustration, the employee said they do not want to turn the situation into a fight with HR or management. They stressed that they are willing to work when required but do not want their overtime to go unnoticed while being questioned over arriving 15–20 minutes late on quieter days.
The employee also said they had been unemployed for around four months before getting the job and genuinely did not want to lose it. “I like the company, the people and the work I’m learning,” they wrote, adding that they would rather handle the situation professionally than create a confrontation.
Read the full story here.
Social media users react
The post sparked a discussion, with several Reddit users advising the employee to be cautious about their situation.
“Hey OP, it looks like they are looking for excuses to fire you. Next will come PIP and then the exit. This may sound cynical, but I would look for alternatives.”
“I would suggest first asking for forgiveness if you were rude. In the events industry, the standard is to finish work and not care about hours, so unless you want to get fired, don’t keep to contracted hours only. Yeah, it sucks, but that’s the work you chose.”
“Best is to say sorry with a simple reason like due to travel and traffic and come to the office on time and leave on time from now on.”
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“Frankly, policy is policy; the rest doesn’t matter to HR. We have three days a week in the office and have to compensate by applying for leave because we couldn’t come to the office, although it doesn’t matter if we regularly work late at night. No manager is going to fight with HR or upper management for you.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)