‘Don’t want to make it a habit’: Senior Redditor asks new employee to work after hours,

A young employee recently wrote on Reddit that a senior employee asked him to work after normal work hours, sparking a larger conversation about respecting work-life boundaries and the potential exploitation of new students in India’s corporate culture. The employee explained that their working hours start from 12 noon until 9 p.m.

Although they are willing to work extra hours sometimes when there is a real requirement, they do not want this to become routine.

“Honestly, my shift timings are from 12 noon to 9 pm IST and I can personally work some days when there is a requirement. But I don’t want to make it a habit or routine and give the idea that they can take advantage of my time after work hours,” the poster wrote.

The situation became more complicated when the administrator asked the employee to send the same statement via email. After sharing the message with their senior, they wrote: “However, I have said the above to my senior and now he is asking me to mail the same. I am not sure why. Is he to take advantage of me in this mail saying I am not flexible? Or is he to send this to any of the HR departments or my manager to show that I am suddenly refusing?” the employee wrote.

The post quickly went viral, with fellow professionals sharing advice based on their own experiences.

One commenter suggested a tactful way to handle it, writing: “Yes. Tell your manager. Sure, I’ll share this with you via email. Can you email me and ask to work outside of my shift, and I can do the same in the email thread.”

Another user commented, “Ask him to email about this first and say when you need to be available outside of business hours. Once you respond, you can reply that you will only be available during emergencies.”

“Stop normalizing overtime. Boundaries need to be maintained. I’m proud of the current GenZ population,” another commenter commented.

A fourth commenter said: “Stop your teams. I don’t associate myself with WhatsApp groups in the office. I tell them clearly that WhatsApp is personal. Give me a work account, a company phone, and then I’ll be part of a WhatsApp group. I’ve turned off notifications after office hours.”