A workplace incident shared on Reddit has sparked discussion online after a young intern claimed he was dismissed on the very first day of his job for declining a late-evening request to return to the office.
The man posted about the experience in a discussion thread, explaining that he had recently joined a coaching company that prepares students for the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). According to him, the internship came with clearly defined working hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On his first day, he said he wanted to make a positive impression. After completing his assigned work, he stayed back until about 6:30 p.m. to ensure that everything was properly wrapped up before leaving for the day. Believing that the day had gone smoothly, he returned home.
The situation changed later in the evening. Around 7:30 p.m., he received a phone call from one of the company’s partners asking him to come back to the office immediately. The intern said there was no indication of an urgent issue during the call. Since he had already reached home and could not return at such short notice, he declined the request.
According to his account, the refusal resulted in his immediate termination. He claimed the partner told him that the organisation prioritised efficiency and profits over employees’ personal time, suggesting that their professional values did not align.
The intern also mentioned that the internship offered a daily payment of about 200 RMB, which he calculated to be roughly $28 per day. He said the experience was not about the compensation but about what he described as unrealistic expectations around personal time and work boundaries.
The post quickly drew reactions from users on Reddit, many of whom criticised the company’s alleged approach to workplace expectations. Some commenters suggested that the intern share the experience on job review platforms so that other students could be aware of the company’s work culture. Others said unclear or excessive expectations around working hours are a common challenge faced by early-career employees.
In a later update to the post, the intern said another leader from the organisation contacted him to apologise for the way the situation had been handled. He added that the apology helped him move on from the incident, which he said was ultimately about professional respect rather than compensation.
