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‘Look at my tasks vs bank account’: Gen Z employee resigns with brutally honest email
When Pratishtha Gupta decided to quit her role as a content marketing strategist at a Lucknow-based firm, she minced no words in her resignation letter.
When Pratishtha Gupta decided to quit her role as a content marketing strategist at a Lucknow-based firm, she minced no words in her resignation letter. On the contrary, her letter unleashed months of pent-up frustration with her toxic workplace culture and low salary.
The 21-year-old professional shared a screenshot of the letter on Instagram, where it is going steadily viral for its brutal honesty.
In her resignation email, Pratishtha announced her immediate exit while pointing out all the ways in which she did more work than she was paid for.
The toxic workplace
Over a telephone call with Hindustantimes.com, the Gen Z employee explained that she worked at two interconnected firms operating out of the same residential property in Lucknow. She said one company was an IT solutions/software development agency run by a man, while the other was a media and marketing agency run by his wife.
Pratishtha said that she worked first with the wife’s media agency as an intern for 6 months. Later, she worked with the husband’s IT/software firm for around 8 months. She repeatedly described the work environment as “toxic” and “unprofessional”.
The Lucknow-based professional claimed the wife lacked knowledge of marketing and design work and often criticised her behind her back. “She particularly hated me for being Gen Z,” Pratishtha claimed.
She also alleged the design tests and work quality coming from management were poor, that expectations from interns were unrealistic, and the pay was low.
‘Daily tasks vs bank account’: Resignation letter goes viral
In her resignation letter dated March 9, Pratishtha laid out this and other issues she had with the firm.
“I’m hitting you with this email to announce my departure officially. My last day is today, March 9th, 2026. Consider this my final log-out,” she wrote. “To be Fr (for real), the math has stopped mathing, the vibes have rancidified, and the ROI on my sanity is in the negatives.”
“I took a look at my daily tasks vs. my bank account and realized I’m out here playing a 5-man battle royale as a solo traveller.”
She went on to sarcastically list the many roles she allegedly handled at the company despite modest pay.
“The Video Editor & Designer: Making sure the brand doesn’t look like a 2005 PowerPoint. The Analyst: Auditing data while questioning my life choices. The SEO & WordPress Dev: Fighting Google’s algorithm and faulty under designed and under optimised pages,” the letter read.
She also claimed she worked as a content strategist, director and even an HR liaison “while secretly crying inside”.
Pratishtha said she juggled all these roles for “the price of a sourdough toast”.
The bluntness of the resignation letter amused many on Instagram. “Crazyy,” wrote one person in the comments section. “Mam please reveal company's name as well,” another requested.
‘HR kept calling me after I quit’
Speaking to Hindustantimes.com, the 21-year-old said she initially joined the media agency as an intern after applying for a videography-related role, but was later pushed into sales and marketing work because of her prior freelance experience.
She said she did not serve a formal notice period because she had already secured another opportunity, though she offered to help train replacements on Saturdays.
She claimed the company HR later kept contacting her for help with basic operational tasks even after her resignation.
“They were calling me for making a CSV file and asking for passwords,” she said, expressing frustration over what she described as unprofessional functioning.
(Also read: HR calls out colleague, management in resignation email over employee treatment)
