A founder from Gurgaon has sparked a wider debate around workplace expectations after sharing his take on notice periods and accountability. Nikhil Rana, who launched his startup The 15 just five months ago, posted on LinkedIn about an incident involving an employee, attaching a screenshot of what looked like a WhatsApp exchange.In the conversation, the employee informed him he/she wouldn’t be able to attend an event but was willing to help from afar. “Hey Nikhil, I won’t be able to make it for the event today. I tried to manage, but won’t be able to join. Let me know if there’s anything I can support with remotely,” the message read.Rana’s response came within minutes: “You’re fired. Take today as the last day.”Check out the post:In his post, he went on to defend his stance, saying startups require individuals who step up without hesitation and take full ownership. “Startups need: People who take ownership. People who founders can depend upon. People with high agency. People who don’t wait for the perfect time and situation. People who can ‘make it happen,’” he wrote.Speaking to indianexpress.com, Rana elaborated on his side of the story, explaining the reasoning behind the sudden termination and his company’s ‘no notice period’ policy. While he said he shared the screenshots as he “wanted people to learn something out of it”, he also insisted that much of the context was missing.According to him, startup environments function very differently from corporate setups. “There’s a lot of hustle and no structure for a long time,” he said, adding that he had multiple conversations with the employee before the incident but ultimately felt “the employee wasn’t culturally fit.” He also revealed that the individual held a 5 per cent equity stake in the company.The tipping point, Rana said, was the employee pulling out of an event at the last minute. He claimed both of them were involved in organising it, with an investment of Rs 3-4 lakh from his end, but the employee backed out just an hour before it began. “It clearly goes to show ki uska kaam karne ka mann nahi hai (it clearly shows that they don’t feel like working). It shows they are not ready to take the responsibility,” he said.Story continues below this adWhen asked whether he tried to understand the reason behind the employee’s absence, Rana said he followed up the next day. “Next day I personally texted the employee, ‘Exit or feedback call karna hoga toh happy to jump on a call (if you want to do an exit or feedback call, I’m happy to get on a call),’ but didn’t get a reply on this.”Indianexpress.com was unable to independently contact the employee, as their identity was not disclosed, meaning only one side of the story is currently available.In his original post, Rana had described notice periods as “theatre” and “a waste of time.” Expanding on that, he said, “Nobody does anything on notice period,” referring to it as a “honeymoon period.”He also made a striking claim that “skills have taken the last seat now” and added, “Nobody gives a dime for skills. They’re commoditized.” Explaining this further, Rana said, “With AI in the picture, skills are commoditised, only ownership isn’t.”Story continues below this adThe post, however, did not sit well with many online. Several users criticised his views and the manner in which the firing was handled. One comment read, “Ah yes, what an inspiring take! ‘skills have taken a back seat.’ Exactly what anyone wants to hear. Why bother building expertise when you can just be on-call 24/7, shape-shifting to every founder’s whim, and calling it dedication? Clearly, the real benchmark now is how well you can function like a machine, but guess what – the only thing built for nonstop availability is AI, not people. And if this is being spun as some clever marketing gimmick, that’s even worse, it’s not bold or aspirational, it’s a pretty toxic that deserves to be called out and shut down.”Another user pointed to hiring decisions and workplace dignity, writing, “You didn’t hire well or just hired because you wanted to. Each fire would kill the velocity if the person was needed Plus we are humans and everyone deserves dignity. It’s a foreign concept to a lot of Indians.”Responding to the backlash, Rana maintained that the criticism largely came from those outside the startup ecosystem. “Most of the comments are from corporate people and people working in MNCs. Jinko badhiya kaam karna hai, paise kamane hai, jaldi grow karna hai, woh saare log startups mei kaam karte hain (those who want to do good work, earn money, and grow fast work in startups), and nobody from startups commented on my post,” he told indianexpress.com.