An employee from a top IT firm in Bangalore refused to leave the office premises after he was served with a pink-slip early this week. According to reports, he carried his laptop into an empty conference room and locked himself in. He sat in one corner of the locked room and continued working for almost two hours. According to other team members, he even fixed two application defects that were assigned to him that morning.

As per internal reports, a total of 40000 IT employees will be losing their job by the end of the first quarter of 2020. In most cases, underperformance, and lack of upskilling has been cited as the key reason by the harsh decision. 

12:30 PM – Employee Locks Himself for 2 Hours. Fixes Application Defects.

As the employee remained locked for almost two hours, fellow-colleagues went into a frenzy posting Social Media updates using the hashtag – #SaveOurJobs and #WhoNext. Panic and distress were evident.

The Human Resource executives sprang into immediate damage control. They issued public statements confirming that the company had performed extremely well and every employee enjoyed an exceptional work-life balance. A senior VP, HR confirmed – “We regularly organize employee engagement programs ranging from Yoga and sudoku sessions to inter-project cricket tournaments.”

3:30 PM – Crisis Takes Dramatic Turn Post-Lunch

The crisis eventually took a dramatic turn post-lunch when fresh News emerged that six HR executives had also been served pink-slips just before recess. According to management statements, these HR executives had failed to “control” the social media outrage related to the hashtag #SaveOurJobs and #WhoNext. The viral posts had supposedly maligned the company’s decade long reliable reputation. 

4:00 PM – Employee Walks Out: Addresses Media

Finally, the employee walked out of the locked room at 4 PM, completed the exit formalities,  and was escorted out by the security personnel. The young 26 yrs old engineer also spoke to a huge media gathering at the campus gates. “I am unsure of what to do next. I have spent from 9 AM to 11 PM almost every day, including weekends at the office for the last four years of my employment. I hardly had a chance to interact with anyone beyond my office colleagues and the cab drivers. I hardly know anyone beyond these gates. This is like my home. This is an identity loss for me.” 

6:00 PM – Students Organize Candlelight Protest

Meanwhile, college and university students, mostly engineer graduates in New Delhi organized a candlelight march.