A Switzerland-based software engineer has claimed he was laid off from his job at a major tech company days after accidentally taking a senior executive’s towel at a gym sauna. The techie, who said he had worked at the company since 2022, shared the account on Reddit after becoming unemployed.
He claimed he earned around CHF 100,000 (around ₹1 crore) a year and described the incident as an example of how little control employees have over their careers.
“Here is an insane story about what it means to be an employee and totally shows that employee = slavery. This happened to me,” he revealed.
‘Start to look for a new job’
“I was working as a software engineer at a big tech company in Switzerland. The salary was good (about 100k CHF annually) and the work environment was decent enough to keep me there since 2022. Since this week, I am now officially unemployed so I can write this now,” he explained.
According to the techie, he regularly went to a gym on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Friday, May 8, he went to the sauna after his workout and accidentally picked up another member’s towel.
{{/usCountry}}According to the techie, he regularly went to a gym on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Friday, May 8, he went to the sauna after his workout and accidentally picked up another member’s towel.
{{/usCountry}}He later realised that the towel belonged to a member of his company’s upper management.
When the executive realised that the techie had used his towel, he remained outwardly calm but told him that he could “start to look for a new job”.
The Swiss executive also asked the software engineer to go to the gym reception and get him a new towel, which he did.
Laid off five days later
Five days after the sauna incident, on May 13, the techie said he received a Teams call at 7:30 am with HR.
He was told that he was being laid off for “economic reasons”.
The engineer said his company was already carrying out large-scale layoffs at the time and believed he was simply added to the list of employees being let go.
However, he suspects the sauna incident may have played a role.
“I asked ‘Rechtsschutzversicherung’ about this and they said that nothing can be done as layoff due to economic reasons is always legal and without evidence there is nothing possible,” he wrote.
The techie also pointed out that there were no cameras inside the sauna, meaning he had no way to prove that the executive had threatened him with dismissal.
“In addition, I am now on a "hidden" blacklist containing "antisocial" people which should never be hired. These lists exist unofficially and employers share them,” he claimed.
The techie said he was particularly frustrated because he was laid off while working on several projects.
“My performance at the company does not matter as I was fired in between of several projects and due to my layoff the deadlines had to be postponed indefinitely,” he wrote.
He described the experience as a reminder of what he sees as the lack of power employees have over their careers and often suffer at the whims and fancies of upper management.
“I am now unemployed for 3 months and do not expect to find anything in the future so I am probably forced to create my own business somehow,” he wrote.
(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.)