A chartered accountant based in Delhi is facing significant criticism following a controversial LinkedIn post regarding her maid’s resignation. Meenal Goel sparked outrage after sharing her refusal to grant a salary increase of Rs 1,000, from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000, and framing the incident as a series of corporate lessons.
In her now-viral post, Goel recounted her maid’s resignation, stating, “My maid resigned yesterday. Why? Because we didn’t want to give her a Rs 1,000 raise.” She went on to quote her maid’s parting words: “Call only when you are ready to pay me Rs 3,000. And the confidence she had – oh my god!”
From this incident, Goel claimed to have learned three key corporate lessons:
– the importance of asking for a raise
– valuing one’s contributions
– not settling for less.
She expressed her views on self-advocacy in the workplace, stating, “Never leave your personal growth in the hands of fate, god, or other humans. You should take charge of your growth.”
However, her post quickly drew backlash from social media users, who criticised her for “glorifying the exploitation of domestic workers.”
Many pointed out the hypocrisy in her message, highlighting the disparity between the demands for fair compensation among white-collar workers and the underpayment of those in the informal sector.
“Only on LinkedIn dot com will you find such entitled people giving corporate lessons after exploiting their househelp to the extent of making them resign,” one user commented.
Drawing parallels to the difference in sectors, another user commented, “Its purely a demand supply game. The supply of maids in market is abundant. If you lose some one you get another one ready to settle for same or lesser amount. They are an unorganised labour force. White collared corporate work force is no different. The only difference being they would be a bit thoughtful, they wont quit w/o serving notice or would continue with same jobs as they have emi for loans to pay. Population decides a lot of things in a nation like ours.”
The incident has reignited discussions about the treatment of domestic workers in urban areas like Delhi, prompting calls for greater awareness and respect for those in the unorganised labour sector. As corporate leaders advocate for improved work-life balance, this episode underscores the stark contrast between the experiences of organized and unorganised labour.