Indian Bank Officer Transferred in Retaliation After Resisting Toxic Work Culture

An officer from Indian Bank has alleged that he was vindictively transferred across the country after refusing to comply with the toxic late-sitting culture imposed by their reporting head.

Despite completing a full transfer cycle away from home and finally securing a posting closer to their family, the officer was abruptly relocated thousands of kilometres away just within a few months. This, he claims, is not only against the bank's own transfer policy which allows officers to serve in one zone for a stipulated minimum period but also violates inter-departmental circulars that support co-location of working spouses, especially during their child’s formative years.

The officer’s only “fault”? Refusing to stay late in office beyond three extra hours after business hours and questioning the forced attendance on holidays practices they described as "glorified overwork culture disguised as passion and industry trend." The reporting head, allegedly upset by this pushback, is said to have leveraged personal connections with top management to orchestrate the transfer.

The employee told Kanal, “I gave my full commitment, but I wasn't ready to surrender my health or my child’s upbringing to unjust office expectations.”

As per available documents, the employee had also made multiple representations citing severe family and health issues including certified therapy and medication for work-related depression but received no relief. Instead, their salary was withheld and disciplinary action initiated for not joining the new location, despite ongoing appeals.

This incident underlines a disturbing pattern emerging in the banking and financial services sector where officers claim they are being punished for demanding a balance between professional duties and basic human dignity.

A Fear Shared Silently by Many
While only a few speak out, dozens of employees in public sector banks silently face similar retaliatory transfers for asserting their rights or raising valid work-life concerns. Many fear losing their jobs if management finds out about their dissent or complaints. There’s a growing sentiment among such employees that “staying quiet is the only way to survive” in this system.

Over the past couple of months, multiple cases have spotlighted how rigid and often arbitrary transfer policies in public sector banks have left couples forced apart, relationships strained, and careers uprooted. One bank’s “inter-circle” rule trapped married employees in separate zones, denying proximity despite mutual requests and resulting in resignation. Other narratives reveal gender-biased exemptions like denying spousal transfers to men, leading to broken marriages. Still others chronicle officers shuffled repeatedly across postings not for performance reasons, but due to personal grudges or caste bias, delivered mid-year or even mid-day. These disturbing patterns have emerged from major public sector banks including State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB), as well as unnamed banks where such tactics are silently normalized. These transfers, dismissed as routine, instead emerge as coercive tools wielded without compassion or procedural fairness, deepening mental distress and eroding morale.

According to the employee's concern, unless structural protection and independent grievance redressal become real and active, such abusive transfers will continue to crush the lives and voices of honest employees.