An unusual workplace incident has gone viral online, where a CEO reportedly punished a senior employee for addressing her by name instead of using “Ma’am.” As per a Reddit post, the CEO instructed the employee to write the phrase “I will not call you by your name” 100 times on paper as a form of punishment, echoing old-school disciplinary methods.
The post, shared by a Reddit user recounting an incident involving a friend at the company, described the situation as shocking. The friend had initially texted, “You won’t believe what happened with my senior today,” before revealing that the CEO had resorted to extreme measures to enforce her preference for being addressed formally.
Got asked to write a line 100 times as punishment
byu/CombinationOdd3809 inIndianWorkplace
Although the senior employee had been addressing the CEO by name for over a year, the punishment was unexpectedly imposed. The Reddit user noted, “She was acknowledging her by her name since 1 YEAR but chose to punish her today.” The user also questioned the CEO’s approach, suggesting, “She could’ve given her a private warning instead.” Instead, the CEO reportedly demanded that the employee submit the written lines by the end of the day and even share them in the company group, making the punishment public.
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Reddit Users Reactions
The post has drawn widespread attention online, with users condemning the CEO’s behavior. “Due to the influence of people from the ITES companies and others that have to do with export and all, a lot of people address even their seniors in office by their first names only. But many chacha chachis who live in the babugiri era don’t like it. That’s why I tend to be careful and observe how each person is being called. I used to call a much senior person by her name because I saw she didn’t mind it while I used to say “sir” or “ma’am” while addressing several others junior to her,” one of the Reddit users wrote.
“The CEO is on an ego trip. Whereas the rest of the world doesn’t care what you call them, irrespective of even a company’s top leader, Indians are proving themselves to call them as per their corporate status. Top employees didn’t need to write unless they thought they were incapable or not worth the CEO level. Fuck this CEO; thousand of CEOs will come and go, be a leader, not a follower,” added a second user.
