An Indian entrepreneur has revealed that his friend, a software developer based in Bengaluru, turned down a ₹20 lakh salary hike in order to maintain his work-life balance. Rohan Dhawan, founder of UAbility, shared a LinkedIn post elaborating on his friend’s unusual decision.
Turning down ₹20 lakh hike
In this day and age, where cost of living is increasing and job security is decreasing, not many people would turn down the opportunity to earn more money. But that’s exactly what Dhawan’s friend did.
“A 31 y/o developer friend in Bengaluru turned down a ₹20L hike last month. His father finds his reason absurd,” the Delhi-based founder of UAbility said in his LinkedIn post.
Dhawan explained that his friend earns ₹45 lakh per annum. The raise would have taken his salary to ₹65 lakh.
However, he chose to turn down the raise for a reason that his father deemed “absurd”.
“His father called the same evening he said no and said: ₹20 lakh extra mil raha hai. Problem kya hai? Aaj kal log 10% hike ke liye job badal lete hain.”
Reason behind refusal
According to Dhawan, his friend turned down the offer because the hike came with a set of unwritten terms and conditions.
If he accepted the raise, he would have had to compromise on work-life balance. It would have meant working on weekends, managing a bigger team, and staying up at odd hours for meetings.
“The problem was everything that wasn’t written in the offer letter. Calls with the US team 4 nights a week. Travel he wouldn’t be able to refuse. A team almost double the size, which means his calendar stops belonging to him and starts belonging to 12 other people. Weekends that stay technically free and never actually are,” Dhawan explained.
He added that his developer friend was planning to have a child next year. Taking up the ₹20 lakh raise would have meant compromises he was not ready to make.
“He and his wife are planning a kid next year. He trains five mornings a week. He eats dinner at his parents’ place every Wednesday.
“People don’t realise that past a certain salary, the extra lakhs stop coming out of the company’s pocket and start coming out of yours. His evenings, and the version of him his wife married,” he explained.
The founder of business consultancy firm UAbility ended his post with a profound thought — “Every offer letter tells you exactly what you’ll be paid. None of them tell you what you’ll be paying,” he said.
(Also read: ‘At 5 pm, your manager leaves before you’: Indian man explains why Canada’s work culture stands out)
