‘Could barely spend time with my child’: MP man quits Big 4 bank job over ‘toxic’ Indian manager

He moved to Australia in 2022 hoping for a better career. But repeated after-hours calls, a stream of “urgent” assignments and little time with his newborn eventually pushed a Madhya Pradesh man to quit his job at one of Australia’s Big Four banks.

Ankur Sachdeva, who now works for the Australian government, has opened up about his experience with an Indian manager, saying the workplace pressure became difficult to manage alongside his family responsibilities.

Sachdeva said his manager would frequently contact him after office hours and ask him to complete tasks the same day.

“He would call me even after office hours and say, ‘This is urgent — you need to finish it today.’ He would also make me do his own work, and almost everything was marked as ‘urgent,’ with the expectation that it had to be completed the very same day,” he said.

The situation became harder after the birth of his child.

“I had reached a point where I could barely spend any time with my family, and I especially wanted to be there for my newborn,” Sachdeva said.

Despite the difficulties, finding another job was not straightforward. Sachdeva said Australia's job market was challenging at the time and he received relatively few interview calls.

He eventually landed a role with the Australian government, a move he described as a rewarding one.

Sachdeva also posted a video about his experience, triggering a wider discussion among social media users about Indian managers, workplace boundaries and work culture overseas.

Several users claimed they had experienced similar situations with Indian managers in countries including Australia and across Europe. Others shared contrasting experiences, suggesting workplace culture can vary significantly between organisations and individuals.

The reactions also highlighted a familiar workplace debate: how much responsibility should employees be expected to take on outside official working hours, particularly when “urgent” tasks become routine?

For Sachdeva, the answer became clearer when those demands began cutting into time with his newborn and family. Sachdeva moved to Australia in 2022 and later transitioned from banking to government work.

He also runs an Instagram page with his wife, Priyanka, where the couple shares humorous and relatable content about life in Australia.