It is very common for the corporate world to ask its employees for proof such as medical bills to submit after taking a medical leave. But a boss in Hong Kong is under fire for demanding a bizarre proof from his employee.
An employee, who wanted a 12-day leave to participate in the Ching Ming Festival, which is an event when Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors, was asked to submit tombstone photos as proof for the break, reported the South China Morning Post. During the event people clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings to their ancestors.
The man took to his Facebook page to talk about the odd demand from his boss and outline his encounters with unfairness at work.
"I took time off to pay respect to my ancestors, but my boss made me take photos of the graves to prove it," he wrote.
Elaboratin further he wrote that his boss asked him, "Do you really need to take 12 days off to pay respect to your ancestors?"
The post shared by the man, who hails from Foshan, a city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong bordering Hong Kong sparked a heated online discussion. There were several sympathetic comments on his post; some of them also suggested he resign from the post.
As reported by the news outlet, Hong Kong residents are returning to the mainland for this month’s “tomb-sweeping” festival, Ching Ming, for the first time in three years following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
On the same Facebook page, anther user had reportedly described how his boss at an insurance company asked poor-performing employees to slap each other in the face for “motivation”, the South China Morning Post reported.