A Gurgaon-based founder’s views on notice periods have triggered a discussion online about workplace culture and accountability. Nikhil Rana, founder of The 15, , shared a post on LinkedIn, outlining his belief in a “no-notice period policy”, calling notice periods “theatre” and “a waste of time”. He accompanied the post with a chat screenshot that appeared to show an employee being fired shortly after saying they would not be able to attend an event.
In the screenshot, the employee informed Rana that they would not be able to make it to the event but offered to support remotely. “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 employee wrote.
Minutes later, Rana replied, saying, “You’re fired. Take today as the last day.”
In the caption of the post, the founder argued that startups need people with “high agency” who take ownership and “make it happen”. “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,’” Rana wrote.
He added that “skills have taken the last seat now”. “Nobody gives a dime for skills. They’re commoditized,” he said.
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How did social media react?
Rana’s post quickly went viral, with many questioning both the tone and the message.
One user criticised the idea that skills no longer matter, writing, “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 what they saw as imbalance in expectations. “Accountability seems to be one-way traffic here. Employees get judged, founders get justified,” the user wrote.
Some users, however, called for more context before drawing conclusions. “Theres a lot of context missing over here. What was the event, was he a bad performer overall, was his job tied to the duties at the event, etc? I agree to your points of skills being commoditized,” one comment read.
Others questioned hiring practices, suggesting frequent firings could harm team stability. “You didn’t hire well or just hired because you wanted to. Each fire would kill the velocity if the person was needed,” commented one user.
One user even described the incident as “glorified toxicity”. “This isn’t ‘high-agency leadership,’ it’s just glorified toxicity. No-notice firing over a missed event isn’t ownership, it’s poor management and zero respect for people. Strong teams aren’t built on fear or impulsive decisions; they’re built on trust, clarity, and accountability on both sides. Normalizing this kind of behavior only pushes good people away and rewards chaos. People should recognize this for what it is and avoid working with or enabling environments like this,” one comment read.
