Indian Employee Expected Praise in Norway—Instead, His Boss Scolded Him for Working Too Much

New Delhi, 12th June 2026: There’s a moment that happens to a lot of us when we move countries that strange beat where something so normal, so deeply ingrained in how you’ve always worked, suddenly gets questioned by someone who has no idea why you’d even do it that way. For one Indian man in Norway, that moment came in the form of a meeting he walked into expecting praise, and walked out of completely rethinking everything he thought he knew about “dedication.”

His name is Vinod, and he moved to Norway around 15 years ago. Like many of us who grew up working in Indian offices, he carried his work habits with him the kind that get quietly celebrated back home. Staying late. Skipping lunch. Replying to emails on weekends. Showing up even when you’re sick. In India, this is often what gets you noticed. It’s what gets you called “hardworking” in front of the whole team.

So when his manager called him in for a meeting early in his time at a Norwegian company, Vinod assumed he was about to be praised.

He wasn’t.

“That Is Not Okay”

“Then one day, during my early days in Norway, my boss called me in. I thought I was going to be praised,” Vinod recalled. Instead, his manager sat him down and raised concerns not about his performance, but about his behaviour.

“You replied to my email on Saturday. And you cancelled your vacation to deliver a project without telling me. I know you meant well, but that is not okay,” the boss told him.
Read that again. A manager, actively correcting an employee for working too hard. For most of us, that sentence alone is enough to stop and think.

“Vacation Is Mandatory. You Never Skip It.”

What really stuck with Vinod, though, was what came next his manager’s stance on taking time off.

“Vacation is mandatory. You never skip it. Your juniors are watching you. If they see this, they will think this is what dedication means,” he was told.

Think about that for a second. The concern wasn’t just about Vinod’s own wellbeing it was about what message his overworking would send to the people below him. If he skipped his vacation, his juniors might think that’s the standard. That’s what it takes to be valued. And his manager wanted to nip that in the bud before it spread.

“I got scolded… for working too much. I sat there confused. In India, this might have earned me a ‘highly dedicated’ remark. Here, it was a problem,” Vinod said.

The Post That Got People Talking

Vinod shared this experience on X (formerly Twitter), starting with a simple line: “15 years ago, I moved to Norway … carrying my Indian work ethic – weekend work, skipped lunches, late evenings, and pushing myself even when I was not well.”

The post struck a nerve. As of now, it has racked up over 3,600 likes and more than 337 replies a sign that this wasn’t just his story. A lot of people saw themselves in it.

Reflecting further, Vinod said the experience forced him to confront something much bigger than one awkward meeting. “It made me see the hustle, the anxiety, and the need to keep grinding all the time and for the first time, I broke in tears for everything it had quietly cost me,” he wrote. He then turned the question back to his followers: “Your thoughts how are bosses and corporate culture today for you?”

What People Said Back

The replies painted a pretty clear picture of how differently people feel about this depending on where they’re sitting.

One person wrote, “I am so happy that you chose a place that values work-life balance. We don’t see that in India. I do not see it changing, either. The reason being high population. People will always be ready to replace you. and that the bosses know. So they will make you work even on weekends.”

Another comment hit even harder: “This hit hard. In India, overworking is still seen as dedication, while healthy boundaries are viewed as weakness. Your Norwegian boss taught a powerful lesson: real leadership protects well-being, not burnout. We need this culture shift badly. Thanks for sharing!”

A third person reflected on their own choices: “It’s still the same in India, Vinod. Reading your posts feels like what we are missing in life. Sometimes I feel I wish I wouldn’t have rejected the onsite offer few years back.”

And one comment summed up a sense of resignation many shared: “Corporate working schedules will remain the same in India. One will be working more than the other to earn positive work tags and praises from the manager. This will not change any sooner. Happy that things are different in Norway.”

The Bigger Picture

What makes Vinod’s story resonate isn’t that it’s dramatic or shocking it’s that it’s quiet. There’s no villain here. His Norwegian manager wasn’t angry or punitive; he was concerned. Genuinely concerned that an employee was burning himself out, and that this behaviour, left unchecked, would become the unspoken standard for an entire team.

For a lot of people reading this from India, that’s the part that stings a little not the story itself, but the realisation of how normal it would be for the exact opposite to happen here. Where overworking gets praised. Where taking your full vacation can feel like you’re not committed enough. Where “I replied to your email on a Saturday” might actually get you a gold star instead of a gentle reprimand.

Vinod’s experience is a small story, in some ways one meeting, one comment, fifteen years ago. But the way it’s travelled, the way people have responded to it, suggests it’s tapped into something a lot of us have felt but maybe never said out loud: that the way we define “dedication” might be costing us more than we realise.