Techie earning Rs 1 crore in Switzerland fired after accidentally taking executive's towel post-sauna

A Switzerland-based software engineer has claimed he lost his job at a major tech company just days after mistakenly using a senior executive's towel at a gym sauna, sharing the account on Reddit following his dismissal. The engineer, who said he had been with the company since 2022 and earned roughly CHF 100,000 (approximately Rs 1 crore) annually, described the episode as evidence of how little control employees ultimately hold over their own 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 wrote.

"Start to look for a new job"

Detailing the events leading up to his dismissal, the techie explained, "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."


According to his account, he regularly visited the gym on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Friday, May 8, following his workout, he went to the sauna and inadvertently picked up a towel belonging to another gym member, who he later discovered was part of his company's upper management.

Upon realising the mix-up, the executive reportedly remained outwardly composed but told the engineer he could "start to look for a new job." He then instructed the engineer to visit the gym reception to obtain a replacement towel for him, which the engineer did.

Laid off five days later

Five days after the sauna encounter, on May 13, the engineer said he received a Microsoft Teams call from HR at 7:30 am, during which he was informed he was being laid off for "economic reasons."

He noted that the company was already conducting large-scale layoffs around that time, and initially assumed he had simply been included among the affected employees. However, he said he suspects the sauna incident may have factored into the decision. "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.

He further pointed out that the sauna had no cameras, leaving him unable to prove that the executive had threatened him with termination. "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.

"My performance does not matter"

The engineer said his frustration was compounded by the fact that he was let go while actively working on multiple ongoing 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 characterised the experience as a stark illustration of what he views as employees' lack of genuine power over their careers, often left subject to the decisions 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 added.