In every polished office email, every polite smile in a meeting, and every late-night project submission, there lies a story untold — one of quiet endurance, invisible labor, and unspoken emotion. Shubham Saxena’s debut novel, Dear Boss: What Employees Never Say Out Loud, brings these hidden stories to light, peeling back the glossy veneer of corporate culture to reveal the truths buried beneath.
Set in the fast-paced world of Gurgaon’s corporate corridors, the novel follows Anaya Sharma, a young marketing professional working at Empathix Digital. To the outside world, she appears successful — efficient, dependable, and composed. But behind the surface lies a different reality: credit stolen by superiors, loyalty taken for granted, and emotional fatigue masked as professionalism. Anaya’s story isn’t one of rebellion, but of awakening — a journey from silence to self-worth.
Across 50+ thematic chapters, Dear Boss unravels the intricate dynamics of modern workplaces — where ambition meets burnout, appreciation turns to exploitation, and employees often lose themselves in the chase for validation. Each chapter carries the echo of real-life corporate experiences, from suffocating deadlines and biased feedback to the subtle politics that shape careers. Yet, through every injustice and heartbreak, the novel retains a rare authenticity — it doesn’t shout; it speaks softly, but with impact.
The narrative also extends beyond the office. Through Anaya’s personal life — her complex friendship with her ex-boyfriend Rivan, their tangled history, and her quiet introspection — the story explores how professional exhaustion seeps into personal spaces. As she learns to define success on her own terms, readers witness the transformation of a woman reclaiming her identity from systems that sought to define her.
What makes Dear Boss truly compelling is its balance of corporate realism and emotional depth. It captures the contradictions of today’s workplace — where teams preach empathy but practice competition, and where silence is mistaken for strength. Shubham Saxena writes with sharp observation and tender understanding, making every page resonate with authenticity. His prose mirrors the voice of an entire generation navigating between passion and paychecks, ambition and anxiety, burnout and belonging.
At its heart, Dear Boss isn’t just a story about offices — it’s about boundaries, burnout, and becoming. It’s about everyone who has stayed late to meet a deadline, who’s smiled through exhaustion, and who’s ever wondered if being a “good employee” came at the cost of being true to oneself. Whether you’ve worked in a startup, an MNC, or any corner cubicle with unspoken dreams — this book sees you.
About the Author:
Shubham Saxena is an Electrical Engineer from Delhi Technological University (DTU) and currently works as an Energy Meter Testing Engineer at Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL). He is also pursuing his M.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Communications from VNIT, Nagpur.
Though trained in engineering, Shubham has always been drawn to the emotional undercurrents of life — the quiet spaces where people think, feel, and endure. Since 2016, writing has been his refuge, helping him articulate the unspoken emotions of modern work culture.
Outside his professional and creative pursuits, he is an avid solo traveler, having completed over a dozen solo trips across India — including a remarkable 3,500 km journey across North India on his beloved scooty, Sundari. His travels, much like his writing, are about exploration — of places, people, and the silences that connect them.
With Dear Boss, Shubham Saxena marks an extraordinary literary debut — one that gives voice to millions who have learned to smile through the storm, stay polite through pain, and yet quietly persevere toward becoming their truest selves.