- Employee faced psychological harassment from CEO at Bengaluru startup for seven months
- CEO micromanaged, imposed unrealistic deadlines, and yelled during work video calls
- Employee suffered a breakdown during a Google Meet and was hospitalised
In recent months, Reddit has become a popular platform for employees to share their job struggles and workplace concerns. Several subreddits have emerged where employees anonymously share their stories and also connect with others who face similar challenges. Recently, one employee took the platform to share his toxic workplace experience. In his post titled 'I had a complete breakdown during a work video call because my CEO kept screaming - still dealing with the trauma', the original poster (OP) claimed that he faced constant harassment from the CEO during the few months he spent at the company.
"Survived 7 months of relentless psychological harassment at a Bengaluru startup where the non-tech CEO micromanaged everything, imposed unrealistic deadlines, and yelled constantly. Finally suffered a complete breakdown so severe during a Google Meet that I collapsed breathless and was rushed to the hospital. Company and HR continued their vindictive behavior even after I resigned," the Redditor wrote.
I had a complete breakdown during a work video call because my CEO kept screaming - still dealing with the trauma
byu/energized_maverick inIndianWorkplace
The employee shared that he joined a small events discovery startup in Bengaluru in 2024. As a Junior Data Scientist, he had hoped that it would be an amazing learning experience. But the user claimed he faced months of "psychological torture" at the hands of the CEO, who believed himself to be "some kind of data science mastermind" despite having zero technical background.
"He'd (the CEO) create these completely unrealistic deadlines from thin air, change project requirements whenever he felt like it, and then lose his complete mind when reality didn't match his delusions," the employee wrote.
"Every. Single. Day. This chap demanded I explain every minute detail of my work directly to him. If my explanation wasn't flawless, or if he couldn't understand something technical, he would completely explode. I'm talking about full-scale screaming sessions where he'd destroy me both professionally and personally," the Redditor continued.
The employee said that he believes that the CEO was specifically targeting him because he is "quiet and physically thin". He also claimed that the CEO bypassed his reporting manager and made him deal directly with him.
"For seven consecutive months, I worked 12-14-hour days. Weekends included. I took exactly TWO sick days the entire period. Not once did he acknowledge this commitment. It was always criticism, always fault-finding, always something I was supposedly doing incorrectly," he wrote.
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Eventually, the employee said that he could not take the harassment any more and submitted his resignation. A week later, during an online meeting, the CEO started attacking him verbally. "The verbal attack was so brutal that I literally couldn't breathe properly. My chest started tightening, I began struggling for air, and I completely collapsed in my chair," the employee said.
Thankfully, his mother heard the chaos and rushed him to the hospital immediately.
His ordeal, however, did not end here. "Even after resigning, the torture continued. The HR department handled by a single person was equally malicious. She had the audacity to frame my medical emergency as some kind of charity they were providing by paying my final settlement...She actually claimed that providing my experience letter was a "gracious gesture" on their part. Like they were performing charity by fulfilling basic legal requirements," the user wrote.
Concluding his post, the OP said that he shared his experience because he wanted other people who are facing similar harassment to know they are not alone. "To anyone currently trapped in a similar nightmare: your mental health is infinitely more important than any salary. Trust your instincts. If someone consistently makes you feel worthless, the issue is with them, not you," he wrote.
