After Narayan Murthy, another Indian-origin CEO publicly promoted intense work culture. Daksh Gupta, who is the CEO of San Francisco-based AI startup Greptile took to social media to share that his employees face 84-hour work weeks with very little work-life balance. This created a controversy online, with many criticising his thoughts.
Gupta took to his social media to share Greptile’s schedule, he said, “Workdays start at 9 a.m. and end at 11 p.m., often later, including Saturdays and sometimes Sundays.” He acknowledged the fact that this does not work for everyone and hence they share it clearly with potential hires. The tweet was viewed over 1.6 million times and sparked intense debate online.
Twitter users were quick to criticise Gupta and accused him of exploiting workers. One user said, “What makes you think this will lead to success instead of giving weekends off to increase productivity?” While another one said, “Does it make you feel like Elon a bit?” Some even threw in racial comments about his Indian heritage.
After all the backlash, Gupta tweeted to clarify his thoughts. He said that the intense work hours for the employees were only a temporary phase for the startup’s high-growth stage. He said that employees were free to leave if the culture didn’t suit them. “The people here had six-figure, 20-hour/week jobs before this, and can go back to them any time,” Gupta said.
He further added that once the company grows more the model will be changed and he even promised to accommodate workers with families and more balanced schedules in the future.
He said that the intense culture at his startup aligns with the norms of San Francisco’s startup ecosystem.
While some were happy with Gupta’s honesty, many criticised and said that lack of sleep and breaks leads to lousy work and fatigue. What are your thoughts on this?
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