Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7 -- What happens when you don't reply to a work message during your holiday? For one software developer, it allegedly ended in a sudden layoff. A Reddit post by a 29-year-old techie claiming he was fired for missing his manager's message during the Christmas-New Year break has sparked a heated online debate on workplace boundaries and employee rights.

In his post titled "Laid off from Software Job just bcz I didn't responded to manager's message during holiday," the techie said the termination came without prior warning or a performance improvement plan. He alleged that his manager took offence after he failed to respond to a message while travelling in a remote, high-altitude area with poor network connectivity during...