Boss tells employees on Ganesh Chaturthi holiday they might still be called in for work, leave approved by him a month ago

A WhatsApp message from a senior manager to employees ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi has gone viral after being shared online, with staff saying their approved festival leave was disrupted at the last minute. The message told employees that leave was not being cancelled, but that people already on approved leave could still be reached out to for a few hours of work if needed.

The screenshot was posted on Reddit by an employee who said the leave in question had been approved a month earlier. The post read, "Senior manager cancelling leaves for Ganesh Chaturthi which were approved a month ago. Working in corporate is not easy."



What the message said

The manager's WhatsApp text read, "Hi all, for tomorrow we might need some assistance. People whose leaves are approved, we might reach out to you for some time." The message went on to clarify, "We are not cancelling any leave as of now. But we might reach out to you for few hours of assistance if required."

What drew the most attention was a separate line in the message where the manager wrote in capital letters, "Again, please don't take any unapproved sick leave for tomorrow."

The user working in a round the clock support project wrote that their team gets no festival holidays at all through the year, and that leave requests must be filed a month in advance. They said companies tend to over hire staff during slow periods and later spread them across projects, only to expect everyone to log in once workload increases again.

Employees react online

The post triggered a wider conversation on work culture once it spread on Reddit. One user said approved leave means people have already made plans around it, and that being told they might be needed for a few hours effectively turns leave into being on call. A separate comment said poor staffing on the company's part should not become an emergency for the employee to solve.

Several users also questioned why leave and work matters were being handled through WhatsApp rather than official company systems. One commenter joked that using WhatsApp for such communication does not fit the image of a typical MNC. In response, the original poster explained that their team of 200 people relied on a WhatsApp group for urgent issues since many employees did not have access to Outlook on their phones due to device management policies at the company.

Disclaimer: This article is based on user generated content shared online. The claims made in the original post have not been independently verified.