Boss Berates Employee Over Dying Cat, ‘Over Two Dozen’ Employees Resign From Job

We live in a world where empathy is getting lost day by day and people think it is completely fine to be more selfish and less understanding.  This person took to Reddit to share that they caused a 'mass quitting' at their office after overhearing a boss cruelly yelling at an intern after she simply asked for time off to visit her dying cat.

Furious and upset, the IT professional then sent a company-wide email citing the incident, without naming names, as one of the main reasons for their resignation. After the news spread, “over two dozen” people quit.

Posting to the Am I The A**hole subreddit, the OP then sought fir advice from fellow Reddit users on whether or not they were in the wrong to cause the “mass quitting”.

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They explained that they were “done with the company” before this as they cut their pay to “avoid laying off anyone” but then the company posted about record profits. They estimate that 20% of their department has already quit, but they were hoping to “ride it out until next year”.

Things then took a dramatic turn when they heard the boss yell at an intern. Apparently the intern asked for a few days off as she received her mom's call telling her that her cat was dying.

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The boss flatly told her that cats are animals and she “wasn’t allowed to request time off unless it was a human dying”.

And even though the boss could have talked to her in a more private space but he just went to the corner of the office where the OP and his team could overhear the whole situation clearly.

The intern cried and left the office after the encounter.

The OP was criticised by the boss as he was getting disciplined and might lose his job following the incident.

“I don’t feel sorry for him because he’s a jerk but his family is going to be hard hit because he doesn’t have any marketable skills other than PowerPoint,” the post concluded.

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Following the incident, OP sent a company-wide email saying they were quitting and cited the interaction between the boss and the intern as the main reason.

OP explained that around 10 people mailed back asking for the name of the manager. To avoid leaving any trace, they told their colleagues in person and within a few days, most people knew.

They said they found a new job within two weeks and added:

“There [have] been over two dozen people sending quitting emails and now the company is shutting down people’s emails a few days before they leave so they can’t send goodbye emails and link their LinkedIn or phone numbers so current employees can’t find them to piggy back to the next company.”

Internet extended their support to OP and made it a point to tell that what happened was the result of manager's own mistakes

Internet assured OP that they are NTA and what they did was the right thing to do.

The top comment with over highest upvotes reads: “NTA [not the a**hole] and why do people think they’re morally obligated to protect their employers from the consequences of the employer’s own actions?”

Another questioned who the boss is to tell someone how to feel, how to mourn, and judge the value of a life. They added: “I’m sorry for your intern’s loss.”

“You did nothing to get him potentially fired. His own actions did that,” another remarked.