'Day 2 was a very short conversation': Delhi founder on firing employee within 2 days of appointment; netizens divided

A Delhi-based founder has triggered an online debate after saying he fired a newly hired employee on the second day of work, with some LinkedIn users calling the move decisive and others criticising it as poor leadership. The post, shared by Varun Gupta, has drawn wide attention for its blunt defence of immediate termination. 

What happened

Gupta said the employee joined on the day of a major internal event and was not expected to lead but was expected to participate. According to Gupta, the team stayed back after working hours to support the event, while the new hire reportedly walked in, looked around, and left without informing anyone.

Gupta wrote that when he called the employee, the new hire said he had just joined and believed it was the responsibility of his peers, not his own, to manage the event. “I asked him, ‘But don’t you want to know what’s happening?’” Gupta wrote, adding that the employee seemed hesitant and unsure in the conversation. "He hemmed and hawed," he said. 

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Why he acted

The founder said the team was short-staffed again the next morning during one of the busiest days of the quarter, after learning the employee had left the previous day without informing anyone. 

Varun Gupta shared the incident in a post, saying he ignored advice from his HR team and colleagues, who felt he was being too harsh. "I once fired an employee on Day 2. HR advised me to wait. My team thought I was being too harsh. But somewhere I knew waiting would make it worse," Gupta wrote. “Day 2 was a very short conversation,” Gupta wrote. “People said I was too harsh. I said I was too slow.”

He argued that technical skills can be taught, but ownership and intent reveal themselves early. “Skills have a learning curve. Knowledge can be transferred. But intent? Intent shows up before the ID card does,” Gupta wrote.
"He walked into a room full of people carrying something heavy and didn't once stop to notice. That's not nervousness. That's not being new. That's just who you are. He showed me who he was before he even had a desk. I believed him," he added. 

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Netizens react 

The episode ignited discussion around startup culture, expectations from new employees, and how early leaders should judge intent versus adaptability. For some, Gupta’s decision reflects a tough approach to responsibility; for others, it shows how quickly trust can be broken in a new workplace.

A user said, “Transforming people is one of the toughest aspects of leadership. That's precisely where leaders are expected to make a difference. Firing an employee on just the second day, before giving them a fair opportunity to learn and improve, struck me as a poor example of leadership." 

Another user took a harsher line, saying, "Just because you happen to be the CEO of a company doesn't mean you are always right. You saved that guy from a toxic environment that you must have built over the years." 

A third user said,  "This is not about expecting a new hire to be perfect; it is about expecting basic ownership and communication from day one.” A fourth user wrote, “Your judgement is valid if you have asked him to do something and he left without showing the output or progress to anyone."