Delhi man claims his salary was cut after he got stuck in office elevator for 3 hours

A Reddit user claims he was stuck in a malfunctioning company elevator for three hours (Representational image)

Getting stuck in the company elevator for three hours was, surprisingly, not the lowest point in the day of an employee who was informed, after his rescue, that he would be marked absent from office for the day and his pay would be deducted accordingly.

This shocking example of toxic work culture came to light after the employee took to Reddit to share his grievance anonymously. Posting on the ‘India’ subreddit, the Redditor claimed that he got stuck in his company elevator during a power cut.

He said the elevator had been facing issues for the past few weeks and the company had already been informed of it. The elevator was prone to stopping randomly, and sometimes its doors would not open – inconveniencing dozens of employees who used it regularly.

Last week, the Redditor got stuck in the elevator while going to the seventh floor of the building, where his office is located. The elevator stopped during a power cut, leaving him stranded inside, unable to contact his office or the maintenance team.

The man, who is apparently from Delhi, said that he was eventually able to inform the human resources (HR) department about being stuck in the elevator. He was rescued after 3 hours.

However, this wasn’t the end of his ordeal – while the man was punching into office, HR informed him that he would be marked absent for the day and his salary would be deducted. On hearing this, the irked employee said if he was being marked absent, he would take the day off and go back home – but that wasn’t acceptable to the company either. Instead, he was told, he needed to stay in office and continue working despite being marked absent for the day.

“I told them it's not my fault. If you allow me to punch in and correct the ‘in time’ I will work, otherwise I am taking day off,” the man wrote on Reddit. “They started threatening me about appraisal and my work ethic, and how I was making excuses and do not put effort and lack motivation,” he said.

The man ended his post by saying he is considering complaining to senior management about the incident. “So I recorded the elevator accident and documented the conversation between HR, AM and me word to word. [I am] thinking I should send grievance report to higher level,” he wrote.

Got Stuck in Elevator at office they marked me absent.
byu/OPIUmTUXEDO inindia

His post has received much support on Reddit, where several people advised him not to take the mistreatment lying down.

“If the company rules specify that you have to be marked as on leave - they cannot compel you to work while on leave. If they do - then they will need to compensate you with another day off,” one person wrote.

“The audacity, they should be paying you extra for being stuck in a faulty elevator that is company property,” another outraged.

The Reddit user did not disclose the name of his company.