Big 4 boss' unexpected act of kindness goes viral - urges employee to ‘take a break’, offers his own leaves

It is not every day that an employee feels compelled to share the kindness of their manager with the world. But in the vast sea of toxic Indian managers on the Internet, a Redditor shared an “exception” — the support and care he received from his boss, a Director at one of the Big 4 firms.

“Every day I come across posts on this subreddit highlighting the highly toxic Indian managers who have zero compassion or humanity,” the Redditor said, observing the trend on the social media platform.

In the viral Reddit post, the man said that he wanted to share something from the other end of the spectrum, and shared that the screenshots were from his chat with a Director at one of the Big4s, “someone everyone in the office is intimidated by.”

“Turns out, he's the most supportive and caring person once he realises you're a dedicated employee who doesn't half-ass his way through work,” the Redditor said.

In the screenshots of the chat, his boss was urging him to take two days off to rest, as the employee had worked overtime to meet a last-minute project deadline.

The Director, who addressed his employee as “dost,” thanked the man for the support and said, “Don't burn yourself”, while insisting that he take a couple of leaves.

However, the employee shared that he was in the hospital for kidney stones and had no leaves left for the year, since he joined mid-year. When the Director learned about the situation, he asked the man to transfer 2 of his personal leaves to rest.

“In the second screenshot, he found out I was in the hospital for kidney stones and that I had no leaves pending for the year (I joined mid year so leaves are given on pro-rata basis) and just a week before, I had planned a 7 day trip and had only 3 leaves remaining,” the employee shared.

“He had offered to transfer 2 of his leaves back then as well and asked me to take 5 days off and not work just because I didn't have sufficient leaves,” he added.

The employee, who held a client-facing role and was stationed at the client's headquarters, said that he was required to report all leaves taken. However, he highlighted that he was never questioned on “why or how many leaves I need”.

“Big4s are toxic, but you do get lucky if you're in a good team with a good leader,” he noted in the viral post.

Netizens gush over Big4 boss

Netizens were in awe of the Director and said that the employee was “blessed”.

“Man, you're giving me too much hope. I was scared to join the big4 consulting and rethinking lol,” a social media user said.

Another added, “It heavily heavily depends on your team. You can join a great company and be under a horrible manager, or you can join a horrible company, but a good manager will shield you.”

“This reminds me of my first Big4 team. I had the best seniors who were so patient, supportive, and appreciative of our work. Team really felt like a family and we would be ready to go extra for our manager,” said another user.