Techie exposes remote work reality after losing job in 6 months: ‘I’m just gutted and exhausted’

A techie has claimed that he was terminated just 6 months into his contract role at an Indian IT firm despite delivering a significant share of the team’s work. In a Reddit post titled “This is what happens when you join a Non-Remote-Friendly company as a Remote Employee,” the techie described the dismissal as abrupt, alleging that there was “no warning, no feedback, no transparency, no notice” before he was asked to leave.A techie shared that he had joined an Indian IT service-based firm 6 months ago as a contract worker. (Pexels/Representational Image)In the post, the software professional shared that he had joined an Indian IT service-based firm 6 months ago as a contract worker and was assigned to work with an onshore client team. He claimed that when he was terminated, the company cited performance issues but did not seek feedback from the client team that worked with him daily.Sharing details about his work, the techie claimed that he had delivered 40 of the team’s last 90 stories despite being part of a 7-member team. However, he said that the company flagged a 14% bug rate against an expected 10% as one of the reasons behind the decision. He argued that the metric was misleading because it included production defects he handled regardless of who had originally worked on the feature.He also claimed that his habit of joining daily stand-up meetings about 5 minutes late due to a medical appointment was cited as a performance issue, despite informing the team in advance each day.”The onshore team and my engineering manager had absolutely no problem with it. But the Indian manager, who didn’t even react to it for three months, suddenly picked it up as a performance issue,” he wrote.The employee further alleged that attendance at mandatory AI training sessions was brought up during the discussion, although he described the sessions as repetitive and largely irrelevant to his day-to-day work.(Also Read: ‘They wanted extroverts’: Gurgaon software developer claims he was fired over personality test)‘Slavery-like work culture.’Beyond the dismissal itself, the Redditor criticised what he described as a culture of excessive monitoring for remote workers. He claimed that team members were allegedly asked to track each other’s Slack and Teams statuses. He said that remote employees were expected to remain constantly available, maintain an active status and respond immediately, similar to office-based expectations.”They expected the same office behaviour from remote employees too-a person should be available anytime for calls, Slack/Teams status should always be green, and responses should be immediate,” he wrote.At the same time, he also claimed that his efforts to support the client during late-night production issues – sometimes working until 3 am – went unrecognised.The techie also suggested that being fully remote may have worked against him, as most of his teammates were based in Delhi-NCR and regularly met in person.”I always called her her first name, with complete respect,” he wrote while reflecting on what he believed may have contributed to the strained relationship with his manager. He also claimed he did not engage in the “buttering” culture he felt was common in the organisation.Describing the workplace as having a “slavery-like work culture”, he concluded the post saying that he felt “gutted and exhausted”.”I genuinely tried to keep everything balanced, delivered my work, supported the client late into the night whenever needed, and still it wasn’t enough for these morons,” he wrote.(Also Read: ‘Companies won’t think twice before firing you’: Man advises private-sector employees to choose growth over loyalty)Social media reactionsThe post resonated with many Reddit users, several of whom criticised the work culture described the employee.One user wrote, “these things are becoming so common that , IT professionals need to sit down in jantar mantar and demand better working rights !””Reach out to the client on LinkedIn and tell them what happened,” suggested another.”Contact the client & ask for a job. If they liked your work they might hire you,” wrote a third user.(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.)