While Zepto races ahead in the quick commerce segment with multiple fundraising rounds this year, its employee cast a shadow on the start-up’s alleged toxic work culture. An anonymous user on Reddit, who claimed to be a Zepto employee, claimed “toxic work culture” including 2 am meetings at the quick commerce company. The person stated that he has been working with Zepto for a year now, and it the start-up has the “most toxic work culture”.
“Aadit begins working only at 2 pm because he is unable to wake up early and meetings are held at 2 am as a result of this. All meetings are delayed and no meetings happen on time and kee getting postponed. Young employees are hired by Zepto because senior people do not want to work in such a culture and these people are made to work at least 14 hours a day,” the post read.
The employee also alleged that there are many “dark patterns in the app to extract money from customers” in multiple ways, including charging more for customers with phones worth more than Rs 30,000. “Junior people are hired so salaries can be cut, and in March, there will be a massive round of layoffs, and already hiring has stopped for most departments,” the person added.
He further claimed that most of the employees are continuing working Zepto amid such practices because there can be an IPO in two years and “we can make money because of that”.
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What Does CEO Aadit Palicha Say?
Soon after the post went viral on the social media platforms, Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha shared a relatable post on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle about “work-life balance”. “I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors,” his post read.
However, he quickly clarified that the quote does not belong to him, rather taken from an interview of Indian-origin CEO Daksh Gupta who has been in the spotlight for endorsing long work hours. Gupta has share similar sentiments on social media platform which sparked a debate about work expectations in the modern tech industry.
His post gained users’ attention, with most of them connecting it to a recent Reddit post. “Ah, burning the midnight oil to dunk on toxic work culture posts on Reddit? Bold strategy! So, what time's your first meeting today—asking for your coffee machine,” one user commented.
Another said, “Anyway, since you're here, maybe get a few things fixed on the delivery partner's app too? Not everyone has the voice to rant on Reddit or twitter but they still deserve good experiences. Let's make that happen.”
Notably, this is not the first time are talking about work-life balance on social media platforms. A 26-year-old EY employee has even lost her life allegedly due to the overwhelming pressures of her job.
Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy also faced criticism for suggesting that Indians must work for at least 70 hours a week.
