New York MNC employee claims he was paid $500,000 over two years without any work after restructuring

An employee of a multinational company (MNC) in New York has claimed that he kept receiving a large salary for about two years without doing any work. His account is going viral on the social media platform Reddit.

He says a reorganisation at the company left him with no work for nearly two years, during which he earned $500,000, or more than Rs 4.7 crore. He also said he enjoyed life to the fullest during these two years.

According to the post, the employee had worked in different departments of the MNC for about 10 years. In early 2025, he joined a new team within the company, which he saw as a big promotion. But on the very first day, the company was restructured and the manager and the director were dismissed. He was left with no team and no boss to assign him work. Even so, he continued to be paid $275,000 a year, with no responsibilities and no guidance from management.

At first he found it quite amusing. But going without work for long can take a toll in any profession. He passed his days watching Netflix and YouTube in the office cafe. Being new to New York, he went out to lunch several times a week at new and popular restaurants. He said he walked every corner of Manhattan during these two years. Early on, he had asked the new manager for work and tried to join new projects, but management did not respond.

Receiving a salary without work first made him feel some guilt, which slowly turned into despondency. He feels such a long idle spell badly damaged his confidence. He began to feel he was falling behind others in his career. Finally, after six months of continuous interviews, he landed another, better role within the same company. He wrote that the corporate world is truly strange and that the period taught him a different lesson in life.