Working hard — or hardly working?
Mansi Singhal, a 24-year-old software engineer, has gone viral several times over after she revealed what a day in her life at a Microsoft office — where she works in Hyderabad, India — looks like in an Instagram reel.
Between a 45-minute breakfast break, a dessert run and a quick gaming interlude, Singhal’s representation of office life has many people baffled and wondering when she gets any work done — while being simultaneously jealous of the wild variety of snack offerings.
Social media users analyzed her video intensely, and given the timestamps included, many suspect that her day is made up of more breaks than the average office worker.
One commenter suggested that “the most generous read is 6h15m of work and 3h10m of breaks,” though others thought that was quite a benevolent take indeed — and guessed Singhal’s actual work time was just around three or four hours.
Modern tech and Silicon Valley-style offices have garnered reputations for wild office environments, with many buildings offering amenities ranging from free lunch to cold brew on tap to hammocks to relax in — but social media users seem to think Singhal’s daily in-office routine takes the madness to the next level.
“This woman started her lunch at 1:00 and didn’t resume work until 2:15? Unless she’s trying to eat an entire ham by herself, that’s crazy,” one X user wrote. “The ‘adult day care’ label is more than earned. I’m surprised there’s no designated nap time.”
“I would be SO fried there. Pretending to work is more stressful than actually working,” continued the same user, referring to the ‘ghostworking’ trend sweeping across burned-out Gen Z corporate employees — AKA, fake it ’til you make it.
Some users have stumbled across the video have also wondered how Singhal has managed to hold onto her job — especially amid the tech company’s recent layoffs, which impacted 9,000 employees — but the software developer recently posted on her Instagram account, celebrating two years at Microsoft, so she must be doing something right.
“This is the schedule of a hard worker at Microsoft,” vouched a former employee under a post on X. “The slackers are coming in at 11 and leaving at 4.”
In a post made since she shared the viral day in the life video, Singhal did admit that she tends to show the “good side of dev life,” and said that it tends to be a lot more chaotic and difficult than it seems through the screen.
Other Microsoft “day in my life” style videos have gone viral over the years, indicating that despite what Singhal’s post suggests, software engineers do actually work.
With all the amenities, flexible working opportunities and breaks taken throughout the day, some social media users have labeled office environments like Singhal’s “actual adult daycare,” but other corporate employees say this kind of treatment is the bare minimum, especially in an era where many jobs can be done from home.
“For full RTO, if they want workers to go back to pre-COVID, the office needs to go pre-COVID too,” one X user explained, emphasizing that the right benefits are a big push in boosting in-office attendance.
The Post has reached out to both Microsoft and Singhal for comment.
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