With work-life-balance and work culture taking centre stage due to continued online discourse around the issues, many employees have resorted to taking their allegations to social media. One such poster on Reddit, claiming to be an employee of Zepto, accused the delivery start-up of alleged “toxic work culture” and aired out an unfavourable “insider view”.
In what seemed to be a response to that Reddit complaint, Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha in a post on social media site X (formerly known as twitter) made a light-hearted attempt to dismiss the accusations.
Early on December 4, 22-year-old Palicha wrote, “have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors :)” (sic)
Hindustan Times reported that Zepto has not officially responded to what Palicha’s post was referring to or the allegations made in the December 3 Reddit post.
Work-Life Balance Under Scanner
Since September 2024, when it was reported that a young EY employee died due to alleged overwork just four months after joining the firm, work-life balance and company culture have taken centre stage in online discussions.
Anita Augustine, the mother of deceased CA Anna Sebastian Perayil, claimed her daughter was “physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted” due to excessive workload. The incident also caused several industry professionals to raise their voices against Perayil’s death due to the alleged toxic work culture and galvanised social media sharing of Augustine’s letter to EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani.
In the letter, Augustine explained how she witnessed her daughter suffering from the extreme workload and efforts to match the unreasonable expectations of seniors. It said Anna began suffering from chest pain, which doctors said was the result of her hectic schedule.
In the letter, Anita also alleged that no one from EY attended her daughter’s funeral or talked to her about the tragedy. In an official response, EY said it was “deeply saddened” and “will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace”.
Later in November too, Daksh Gupta, the Indian American CEO of San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Greptile grabbed headlines due to the company’s 84-hour workweeks. Despite criticism, Gupta doubled down on his company’s strategy regarding employee work hours and called out hate directed towards him online.
The defence was met with many people questioning if Gupta learnt anything from the previous responses on why work-life balance is essential, while others were more supportive, saying that taking up a job is each candidate’s choice.
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