‘Hong Kong bosses are getting crazier’: grave situation as city employer demands tombstone photos ahead of granting leave for ancestor festival
- Staff member asks for 12 days off to go to mainland to pay respects to ancestors and is shocked when boss asks him for grave photos as proof
- Bosses’ request sparks heated online debate in which most side with the worker but some see employer’s point of view
Hong Kong bosses are coming under fire online for making increasingly strange and unfair demands on their staff.
The apparent rise in unjust, top-down demands has led one city worker on the receiving end to complain online that “Hong Kong bosses are becoming crazier”.
On a Facebook page which shares experiences of unfairness in the workplace the city worker said: “I took time off to pay respect to my ancestors, but my boss made me take photos of the graves to prove it.”
His anger reflects that of many Hong Kong residents 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.
The poster said: “Hong Kong bosses are getting crazier, they are driving me crazy too.”
He said he asked his boss for 12 days of leave to pay tribute to his ancestors in Foshan, a city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong which borders Hong Kong.
But to his surprise, his boss asked him to send photos of his ancestors’ gravestones before his days off to prove the purpose of his break.
The poster said that his boss asked him: “Do you really need to take 12 days off to pay respect to your ancestors?”
The post quickly sparked a heated online discussion, attracting more than 100 comments.
One angry social media observer said: “It’s better for you to resign.”
Others suggested the poster: “Ask your boss if he has any relatives in Foshan, and tell him you can help him pay respects to his ancestors too.”
However, another expressed understanding for the boss: “It’s normal to ask you for a reason for taking such a long period of leave. Many companies don’t give long leaves during peak seasons.”
Recently, on the same anonymous platform, another person said that his boss at an insurance company asked poor-performing employees to slap each other in the face for “motivation”, sparking a similar online debate.
