Delhi startup founder grants employee month-long paid leave to care for ill mother: 'No conditions'

The post received widespread engagement on LinkedIn, with several users sharing personal experiences and reactions to the approach described.

A Delhi-based startup founder has shared details of a decision to grant an employee a month-long paid leave to care for her ailing mother, saying the move ultimately had a positive impact on both the employee and the company.

Divye Agarwal, co-founder of social media growth firm Bingelabs, described the episode in a post on LinkedIn, where he recounted how the employee approached the management last year seeking time off due to her mother’s health condition.

“Someone on the team needed a month off last year. Her mother was sick. Needed full-time care,” Agarwal wrote.

According to the founder, the employee initially attempted to explain how she would continue contributing to work despite the situation, offering to be available in the evenings and attend calls as required. However, Agarwal said the management declined that proposal and instead asked her to take the entire month off, without any work-related expectations.

He stated that the employee was informed she would remain on full pay during the period and would not be required to handle evening work or calls.

“She looked surprised,” Agarwal wrote, adding that she appeared to be anticipating conditions. “There weren’t any.”

Agarwal acknowledged that the decision led to delays in two ongoing projects. However, he said that when the employee returned to work after the leave period, the output she delivered stood out.

He noted that the quality of her work following her return was among the strongest produced by the company over the year.

“I don’t think it was because she felt she owed us,” Agarwal wrote. “I think it was because she stopped wondering if we meant it when we said we’d support her.”

The founder said the company follows a straightforward leave policy, which he summarised in his post as: “You need time, you take it.”

He added that the organisation consciously prioritised building trust within the team rather than expecting employees to manage uncertainty around whether support offered by management was genuine.

“We decided we’d rather build a team that doesn’t spend energy wondering if we mean what we say,” he wrote.

The post received widespread engagement on LinkedIn, with several users sharing personal experiences and reactions to the approach described.

One user commented, " I once worked at a place where my pay was cut because I logged out 30 mins earlier due to period pain even though I had finished all my work. It is so heartwarming to see that there are still companies who treat employees as humans."

"This really stands out, in the world where the advertising/media culture punishes you for every unbilled hours, or not showing up. Such unconditional support really is rare!" another response read.

"You don’t see this kind of leadership often. When support doesn’t come with invisible terms, people stop holding back.

Not out of obligation, but because they finally feel safe. That’s how great work happens," another user commented.

A third user added, "This is such a morale booster for any employee when leadership truly means what they say about being transparent and supportive."