Employee quits after 6 months of burnout leads to hospitalization; in a shocker, boss offers promotion, salary raise of their choice and 3 months off in bid to keep them

It’s not preposterous to call employee burnout the new normal now, when you could see frustrated staff ranting in your daily feed about their miserable situation before ultimately taking the last option, resigning. Sadly, there might exist an uncanny situation before the last option, that is, hospitalization due to work pressure, and one employee shared their story about that. The bright sight is the ending, a rare one though, with a feel-good factor.

In Reddit, one user says that happened after 1.5 years at a company where excessive workload gradually pushed them toward burnout. After being hospitalized for fatigue and gastrointestinal issues, the employee finally decided to resign. Then came an unexpected counteroffer from the department head.

The employee shared this confusing situation on Reddit's popular r/work community and asked whether they should accept the offer or take a career break.

Employee says workload led to burnout and hospitalization

According to the post, the employee was struggling with burnout for around six months. They said they were regularly taking on urgent work, delayed deadlines and overflow from other departments because their manager were heavily reliant on them.

Last month, the situation became serious enough for the employee to be hospitalized, and the reason was stress. “My doctor also raised concerns about possible autoimmune gastritis and said stress could trigger/worsen it,” they added.

Despite that, the job itself had several advantages. It was fully remote and paid around $30,000 a year, which the employee said “goes a long way” in the Philippines.

Still, they eventually decided to resign without any job in hand and told the company they wanted a career break to recover from burnout.

Department head offers promotion, raise and 3 months off

The department head made a counteroffer that was hard to ignore, even though their life was in jeopardy a few days back.

The offer included a promotion and a pay raise as per her demand. And for recovery, there was an offer of three months of unpaid leave.

The company also proposed restructuring the employee's role. Their current workload would be divided across three positions, including a new junior employee whom the Reddit user would supervise. On paper, it sounded like almost everything the employee had been asking for.

But there was one major problem.

Employee worries the same workplace chaos will return

The employee said they had already been raising concerns about their capacity for months. Despite promises that things would improve, more work continued to be added.

“So my concern isn't really whether they'll give me the promotion or raise,” they wrote. “It's whether the underlying chaos will actually change.”

They also worried that hiring and restructuring would take time, with no guarantee that the new arrangement would work.

Reddit commentator’s advice

The post received advice from Reddit users who largely focused on one thing: get the promises in writing. One commenter said, “Sounds like a great deal, take it. Worse case quit 6 months later if the company doesn't follow through.”

Another agreed, writing, “It’s a job, not a life sentence.” That commenter also advised the employee to make sure every part of the counteroffer was documented, warning that bosses can sometimes make promises without having a real plan to follow through.