Internet Backs Redditor Who Caused 'Mass Quitting' After Sending Company-Wide Resignation

The internet has come to the defense of one Redditor who claimed in a viral post that they caused a "mass quitting" at work after sending a company-wide resignation email.

Posting to Reddit's "Am I The A**hole" forum on Wednesday under the username u/pthrowaway98p, the Redditor explained that they'd been upset with the company for a while, but finally decided to quit after they witnessed their boss reduce an intern to tears.

Already, the post has received more than 9,600 votes.

"I was done with the company as they cut our pay to 'avoid laying off anyone' but then we posted record profits [and] they didn't increase our salaries or give us the 10 percent bonus everyone was promised," the Redditor wrote.

As a result, 20 percent of the Redditor's department quit, but the Redditor hoped to stick with the company until next year. That is until he overheard their boss yell at an intern who requested to leave early because her "cat was dying" and she needed to rush to the vet. She also hoped to have a few days off to mourn the loss.

But, the boss "basically told her cats were animals and she wasn't allowed to request time off unless it was a human dying," said the Redditor.

The exchange ended with a teary-eyed intern running out of the office.

In their company-wide resignation email—"which is standard"—the Redditor cited the incident as their reason for leaving. As a result, more than two dozen others quit as well, and the Redditor's boss is now at risk of losing his job.

Nearly half of those surveyed in a 2018 Udemy study said that they quit their job because of their manager, Inc. Magazine reported. Additionally, two-thirds of those surveyed said they felt their manager lacked proper training.

"Among the many relationships employees will develop at a company, those formed with one's manager have a significant impact on overall workplace experience, even more so than one's relationships with other peers," said the magazine.

"More specifically, it is important that employees feel as though they have a supportive and open communication channel with their managers, to the extent that they would feel comfortable discussing topics such as compensation and their job," Inc. continued.

The magazine reminded readers that "[p]eople leave managers, not companies."

The Redditor shared that they were "berated" by their boss, who blamed the Redditor for his potential job loss. But commenters were quick to point out that it was the boss's actions that caused the company's mass exodus, not the Redditor's.

"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?" asked u/OsaWyld.

"Also...OP [original poster] didn't cause this mass quitting, the company and its treatment of people did. What the boss did was the tipping point, and what OP did facilitated the reaction. [The] root cause was the p**s poor behavior of the company," added u/Beecakeband.

"NTA you did nothing to get him potentially fired. His own actions did that," wrote u/yourlittlebirdie.

Redditor u/Xennial_Wonderland said: "NTA! That boss is reaping what he's sowed. Treat people like garbage and they leave."

Newsweek reached out to u/pthrowaway98p for comment.