A Bengaluru-based founder has sparked a debate on workplace trust after claiming an employee fabricated evidence to justify an emergency leave. Sharing screenshots of their WhatsApp conversation on X, the founder alleged that the employee edited an old flight ticket and then "tried to gaslight" the company after being confronted.

The founder claimed the employee “tried to gaslight” the company after being confronted. (Representational image/Unsplash)

In the post, entrepreneur Unnati Bagga wrote, "An employee lied to my face today, fabricated proof to support it and then tried to gaslight when we caught it."

Bagga said that the employee had claimed to have left 2 days earlier due to a family emergency. However, the flight ticket submitted as proof allegedly did not match the claim. "Said she left two days ago for an emergency. The flight ticket she sent as proof was dated for today, which turned out to be an old ticket she edited," Bagga wrote.

The screenshots shared by the founder show the employee explaining that her mother had been hospitalised and requesting to work from home. In another message, the employee wrote, "Ma'am, it's okay, I completely understand if you have doubts about me or the situation. If you feel I'm lying or anything, you can honestly tell me. If you don't want me to work from home, I understand that too. You can even ask me to leave the internship if that's what you feel is right."

Bagga then shared screenshots of what she claimed was the edited flight booking. In one message, she pointed out that the employee's PNR could be used to verify the booking details, adding that the employee had claimed to have travelled on Saturday even though the ticket showed a different date.

"She is obviously an ex-employee now. Moral of the story, low agency people lead to low agency companies," Bagga wrote in the X post.

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One user wrote, "Asking for tickets and proof says a lot about the company itself. She shouldn't have lied but the win would be on leaving rather than stuck in a place asking such validation for a simple leave."

"If people are comfortable and know their job and rapport doesn't depend on them taking leaves, they don't lie. I would've wanted to understand why they lied," commented another.

"Next you ll ask for certificates when it comes to bereavement," wrote a third user.

Several users also questioned the company's leave policy.

"But why does she need to submit "proof" to be able to take a leave?" questioned one user, while another said, "What's your attrition like? Is this happening often? And this is an intern, ideally it's not a high/deep engagement profile so not much is lost if they take a 3-4 day off."

However, not everyone sided with the employee. Supporting Bagga's decision, one user commented, "Removing these people is better than holding for no reason!"