A woman from Nanjing climbed a mountain during the holidays and did not respond to messages for 5 hours. He was fired from the company and with one sentence he angered the entire network.

A woman surnamed Lu, who works as a postgraduate teaching assistant in Nanjing, recently went hiking on her day off. It did not respond to the parent group’s message for five hours, sparking discontent among its customers. Subsequently, the company publicly criticized the customer based on his critical condition, revoked his office rights, and received a notice to terminate the labor contract. This news infuriated public opinion and most people believed that being on call was illegal and disguised as overtime work. Ms. Lu accused the company of illegally terminating the labor contract, submitted an arbitration application, and reported issues such as overtime pay and social security provident fund to relevant departments.

According to Modern Express, Ms. Lu joined “Bian Haosongsong Education Technology Co., Ltd.”, an education and training institute in Nanjing. In March 2026, working a five-day work week. On the afternoon of October 17, her rest day, she went hiking in the mountains without bringing her work mobile phone. During this period, she received no responses to inquiries from parents, prompting a round of accountability from her supervisor. That night, the team leader even told the group to “check my phone every three hours” during the rest of the day. After Ms. Lu filed a complaint, the company closed her office account on October 23, and in coordination with the police, served her a dismissal notice on the 25th on the grounds that her publicly engaging and posting false information online had a negative impact on the company.

After the incident came to light, it sparked widespread discussion on the internet. Many netizens left messages to support employees, saying, “The right to rest is not charity. It is protected by labor law. You have the right not to respond to work messages on rest days. Failure to respond to messages should not be a reason for dismissal. Employees should receive fair compensation.” Some netizens also left comments mocking the company’s claim that customers enjoy special status. “Because the situation of neglected customers is important, I really want to know how important it is.” “What a rubbish company. The dogs bark in the group on Saturdays.”

According to reports, Ms. Lu is responsible for the postgraduate planning of more than 20 students and needs to spend a lot of time reviewing information and linking resources. He provided more than 900 screenshots of overtime work during non-working hours, which revealed that the company included service punctuality in highly-weighted performance evaluations and called on teaching assistants to defend front-end over-commitment. Earlier too, colleagues had resigned for the same reason. After the incident, no one answered the phone of the relevant company, and the customer service said that it was not convenient to answer. Colleagues revealed that competition in the insurance research field is fierce, and flexible responses have become an unspoken rule in the industry.

Chen Kai, a lawyer at Beijing Gaopeng (Nanjing) Law Firm, analyzed that the company’s requirement to look at mobile phones and work solidly every three hours on rest days is a typical example of covert illegal overtime work. Rest days under the standard working hours system are legal rest days, and enterprises have no right to occupy them without compensation. If an employee only casually defends his rights, asks for notice of dismissal, and shares his experience impartially, this is not a serious disciplinary violation and does not meet the conditions for legal dismissal. The employee’s application for compensation will have strong legal backing.