Employee fears losing job after manager confronts him over private Teams chats
An employee shared how his manager confronted and humiliated him after monitoring private Microsoft Teams chats. The Reddit post triggered warnings about workplace surveillance and advice to find another job.
An employee explained how he was publicly humiliated by his manager after private messages on Microsoft Teams were monitored, saying the confrontation left him expecting to lose his job the very next day.
The employee shared his experience in a Reddit post on r/IndianWorkplace titled, “Got Humiliated Today, Getting Fired Tomorrow.”
According to the post, his manager called him into a meeting and questioned whether he came to the office “for work or for fun” after reviewing his Microsoft Teams conversations.
The employee said he objected to his chats being monitored, but claimed his manager became angry and warned that screenshots of the conversations would be sent to the company owner, who would then decide his future with the organisation.
Providing more context, the employee alleged that the company's HR had resigned a week earlier after refusing to carry out tasks such as monitoring employees and handling dismissals.
He then claimed that the company owner had developed HR management software that tracked employees' check-in times and even monitored restroom breaks. According to him, he typically spent around six and a half hours in the office each day and was required to compensate for every minute of late arrival by using his leave balance.
The employee said he earned a monthly salary of Rs 28,000, along with a performance-based incentive that varied each month. He also claimed the company did not provide benefits such as health insurance.
Addressing his punctuality, the employee explained that he was often around ten minutes late because he suffered from hypothyroidism and managed household responsibilities while caring for his wife, who he said was dealing with nutritional deficiencies as the couple tried to conceive.
He said preparing meals in the morning often delayed his commute, adding that sacrificing sleep would leave him unable to work effectively.
He also shared that that employees had to share a single ChatGPT subscription among five team members, prompting him to purchase his own subscription to complete his work.
The employee further claimed that he had redesigned the company's outdated website by teaching himself coding, only to be criticised by the owner, who allegedly dismissed the effort by saying that "anyone can code" using AI tools and accused him of being lazy.
In another instance, he said he created blog infographics during his free time after previously being asked to do so, but was later reprimanded for taking the initiative without explicit approval.
According to the employee, the latest confrontation stemmed from a message he had sent to a colleague expressing frustration over poor office hygiene and the money he spent on medical treatment after developing health issues that he believed were linked to mould in the workplace.
While he admitted feeling uncertain about what lay ahead, the employee said he was more disappointed than emotional, adding that he no longer believed moving to another SEO-focused content writing company would solve the underlying issues he had experienced.
He also wrote that the company had begun hiring fresh graduates on low salaries while relying heavily on AI-generated content for client work.
Take a look at the post here:
The post prompted many users to advise the employee to start looking for another job rather than trying to salvage the situation.
Some commenters suggested staying on only until another offer was secured, while others warned that employees should assume workplace communication platforms could be monitored and avoid using them for conversations they would not want shared.
Several users argued that the work environment described in the post appeared deeply problematic. They pointed to the employee's claim that the HR representative had resigned over similar issues and said that, if the allegations were accurate, leaving the organisation would be the best course of action rather than trying to endure the situation further.
An employee explained how he was publicly humiliated by his manager after private messages on Microsoft Teams were monitored, saying the confrontation left him expecting to lose his job the very next day.
The employee shared his experience in a Reddit post on r/IndianWorkplace titled, “Got Humiliated Today, Getting Fired Tomorrow.”
According to the post, his manager called him into a meeting and questioned whether he came to the office “for work or for fun” after reviewing his Microsoft Teams conversations.
The employee said he objected to his chats being monitored, but claimed his manager became angry and warned that screenshots of the conversations would be sent to the company owner, who would then decide his future with the organisation.
Providing more context, the employee alleged that the company's HR had resigned a week earlier after refusing to carry out tasks such as monitoring employees and handling dismissals.
He then claimed that the company owner had developed HR management software that tracked employees' check-in times and even monitored restroom breaks. According to him, he typically spent around six and a half hours in the office each day and was required to compensate for every minute of late arrival by using his leave balance.
The employee said he earned a monthly salary of Rs 28,000, along with a performance-based incentive that varied each month. He also claimed the company did not provide benefits such as health insurance.
Addressing his punctuality, the employee explained that he was often around ten minutes late because he suffered from hypothyroidism and managed household responsibilities while caring for his wife, who he said was dealing with nutritional deficiencies as the couple tried to conceive.
He said preparing meals in the morning often delayed his commute, adding that sacrificing sleep would leave him unable to work effectively.
He also shared that that employees had to share a single ChatGPT subscription among five team members, prompting him to purchase his own subscription to complete his work.
The employee further claimed that he had redesigned the company's outdated website by teaching himself coding, only to be criticised by the owner, who allegedly dismissed the effort by saying that "anyone can code" using AI tools and accused him of being lazy.
In another instance, he said he created blog infographics during his free time after previously being asked to do so, but was later reprimanded for taking the initiative without explicit approval.
According to the employee, the latest confrontation stemmed from a message he had sent to a colleague expressing frustration over poor office hygiene and the money he spent on medical treatment after developing health issues that he believed were linked to mould in the workplace.
While he admitted feeling uncertain about what lay ahead, the employee said he was more disappointed than emotional, adding that he no longer believed moving to another SEO-focused content writing company would solve the underlying issues he had experienced.
He also wrote that the company had begun hiring fresh graduates on low salaries while relying heavily on AI-generated content for client work.
Take a look at the post here:
The post prompted many users to advise the employee to start looking for another job rather than trying to salvage the situation.
Some commenters suggested staying on only until another offer was secured, while others warned that employees should assume workplace communication platforms could be monitored and avoid using them for conversations they would not want shared.
Several users argued that the work environment described in the post appeared deeply problematic. They pointed to the employee's claim that the HR representative had resigned over similar issues and said that, if the allegations were accurate, leaving the organisation would be the best course of action rather than trying to endure the situation further.
