‘Over two dozen’ employees leave job after boss berated intern over dying cat

A Redditor caused a “mass quitting” after overhearing a boss yell at an intern when she asked for time off to visit her dying cat.

The IT professional 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, they sought second opinions on whether or not they were in the wrong to cause the “mass quitting”.

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

However things escalated when they heard a boss yell at an intern. Apparently the intern’s mom called to say her cat was dying, and the intern wanted a few days off.

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

Although this is something that was supposed to be discussed in private, the boss just went to a corner of the office where the Redditor’s team were able to overheard him.

The intern cried and left the office after the encounter.

The Redditor then send a company-wide email saying they were quitting, and cited the interaction between the boss and the intern as the main reason.

They explained that around ten people emailed them back asking who the manager was. 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.”

The Redditor was berated 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.

The top comment with over 10,000 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.

What do you think?