Man sues company that fired him for taking a nap at work, gets INR 40 lakhs as compensation – Times of India

In a strange turn of events, a man who worked at a company for 20 years was fired for a bizarre reason: He was caught sleeping at his desk for an hour, a day after he worked till late midnight. In return, the man sued his company for wrongfully firing him and he even won a whopping INR 40 lakh in lawsuit!
This strange event happened in China, as reported by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The man, who is identified as Zhang, worked at a chemical company for roughly 20 years in China’s Jiangsu province. Earlier in 2024, Zhang was caught on CCTV cameras taking a nap at his work desk for almost an hour. In his defence, this happened right after he had worked till midnight just a day before.
When this was noticed by the company, the Human Resources (HR) department issued a report on this matter two weeks later. The HR cited that Zhang was exhausted from overworking until midnight just a day before the incident, and this caused him to take a nap the next day– and Zhang even signed the document. However, after consulting with the labour union, the company where Zhang worked fired him on the grounds of him violating the company’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
“Comrade Zhang, you joined the company in 2004 and signed an open-ended employment contract. However, your behaviour of sleeping on the job is a serious breach of the company’s zero-tolerance discipline policy. Consequently, with the union’s approval, the company has decided to terminate your employment, ending all labour relations between you and the company,” the company’s dismissal notice to Zhang read, as per SCMP.

However, Zhang– who had a good work record at the company where he served for 20 years– took the matter to court for justice. And the court too took Zhang’s side in their judgement. The Taixing People’s Court found Zhang’s dismissal for his workplace to be excessive. In the court’s ruling, Judge Ju Qi said that while companies have right to make their rules, terminating an employee from work should be done only under specific situations, for instance: the ones which causes major losses to the company.
Elaborating this in Zhang’s peculiar case, the judge said, as reported by SCMP, “Sleeping on the job was a first-time offence and did not result in serious harm to the company.” Also, Zhang’s good performance and promotion records in the past 20 years at the company added value to his case. The court also noted that terminating Zhang’s work contract on the basis of a single incident was “unreasonable”. And so, as a form of compensation, the court ordered the company to pay Zhang a whopping amount of 350,000 yuan (which is approximately INR 40 lakhs).
5 benefits of taking a power nap at work
1. It helps boost productivity: A short nap of 10–20 minutes can refresh your mind, improve focus, and enhance problem-solving skills.
2. It improves memory and learning: Napping helps consolidate information in the brain, making it easier to recall details and learn new tasks.
3. Reduces stress: A quick nap can lower stress levels, helping you feel calmer and better equipped to handle work pressures.
4. Enhances creativity: Resting the brain promotes creative thinking by allowing subconscious ideas to surface.
5. Boosts one’s energy levels and uplifts their mood: A nap recharges your body, leaving you more energized and in a better mood for the rest of the day.
What do you think about this particular incident? Was it right for Zhang to take a power nap at work or for the company to fire him for this case? Tell us your views in the comments section below.