Indian Woman's Praise For Intern's Late-Night Work Backfires, Sparks Debate On Work Culture

A well-intentioned praise post by an Indian woman in the United States backfired on social media. The woman, identified as Aiswarya Sankar, praised her intern for extending the shift and working late hours to complete a project. However, online users criticised her, with the post triggering a debate on work-life balance.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the woman praised the intern's dedication, stating that he had gone above and beyond her job requirements.

"Be like our new intern refusing to leave past midnight to finish testing a customer ask that got dumped on him at 9 pm today. 9-9-6 is actually 9-12-6 for this guy," the woman wrote as the caption of the post, attaching the intern's photograph.

See the post here:

Be like our new intern Anindhya refusing to leave past midnight to finish testing a customer ask that got dumped on him at 9 pm today

9-9-6 is actually 9-12-6 for this guy pic.twitter.com/dLiXGn0WWm

— Aiswarya Sankar (@Aiswarya_Sankar) November 14, 2025

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But the post didn't sit well with the users as they slammed her for perpetuating a toxic work culture that prioritises work over employee well-being. Some users also pointed out that the intern was likely not compensated for her late-night work, making it exploitative.

"Damn yall intern doesn't always mean unpaid does it ...? I hope he got paid for the extra time or if it's a commission job that he gets a big chunk of the sale," one user wrote in the comment section.

"This is dumb, live life just even a little," another wrote.

"Sadly he is gonna be very disappointed one day when he is gonna be laid off due to company's restructuring or financial constraints and his whole morale is crushed. Best of luck to him!" a third user wrote.

"No hate against him, but people like him are the reason why managers start having the same expectations from others," one user said.

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Woman's response

The woman also responded to the criticism, saying, "To everyone complaining, I asked him to go home but he was operating on his own work ethic."

As per her bio, she is the founder and CEO of Entelligence.AI, a San Francisco-based company that builds artificial engineering intelligence solutions. She previously worked at Uber.