Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha joined the growing debate on work-life balance, seeming to suggest that he has “nothing against” the concept. However, a section of the internet believes his post is a subtle response to a viral Reddit post accusing Zepto of promoting a “toxic work culture”.
What did Aadit Palicha post?
“I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors,” he wrote on Wednesday morning. He quickly followed up with another post: “FYI, not my quote – read it from an interview of Daksh Gupta.”
Palicha, 22, was indeed quoting Daksh Gupta, an Indian-origin CEO in San Francisco, who is under fire for advocating 84-hour workweeks at his AI startup, who posted the same words on X last month.
Check out the Aadit Palicha’s post:
Palicha’s post received several comments, including a few where people mentioned the Reddit post in which an anonymous user, claiming to be a Zepto employee, called out the quick-commerce startup for allegedly fostering “toxic work culture”.
HT.com cannot verify the authenticity of the Reddit post. We have reached out to Zepto for a statement, and this report will be updated when the company responds.
One individual wrote, “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.” Another added, “8 am is the new 2 am.” A third commented, “Either managers or someone from top brass is driving against the work-life balance. That Reddit confession post is not s**t.”
What does the Reddit post claim?
“I have been working with Zepto for a year now. It is the most toxic work culture. I want to post this now because it has lots of publicity but only we know how bad things are,” reads a part of the viral post.
The Redditor claimed that the company has long working hours. The individual alleged that meetings at the organisation start at 2 am in the morning as the CEO begins his work at 2 pm “because he cannot wake up early”.
The post further claimed that the company exploits young workers by making them work long hours and is gearing up for a “massive round of layoffs.”
Aadit Palicha is the second youngest person featured on the Hurun India Rich List this year, with a net worth of ₹4,300 crore. He co-founded Zepto along with Stanford dropout Kaivalya Vohra in 2021.