’84-Hour Workweek, No Work-Life Balance’: Indian-Origin CEO Receives Death Threat Over Job Conditions – News18

Last Updated:November 18, 2024, 13:42 IST

After the post went viral, AI startup Greptile CEO Daksh Gupta says that to everyone who is overworked and underpaid at their software jobs outside the US, “I feel for you, and I’m sorry this struck a nerve”.

Even as entrepreneurs have been pushing for increasing work hours for employees, US-based AI startup Greptile’s Indian-Origin CEO Daksh Gupta said he recently told candidates in an interview that the company offers no work-life balance and work hours are from 9 am to 11 pm with no Saturday offs and occasionally Sunday working. After the post went viral, Gupta said, his inbox is “20 per cent death threats and 80 per cent job applications”.

“Recently, I started telling candidates right in the first interview that Greptile offers no work-life-balance, typical workdays start at 9am and end at 11pm, often later, and we work saturdays, sometimes also sundays. I emphasise the environment is high stress, and there is no tolerance for poor work. It felt wrong to do this at first but I’m convinced now that the transparency is good, and i’d much rather people know this from the get go rather than find out on their first day. Curious if other people do this and if there’s some obvious pitfall I’m missing,” Gupta said in a post on X on November 9, which went viral on social media.

In another post, Daksh said, “Now that this is on the front page of reddit and my inbox is 20% death threats and 80% job applications.”

Sharing a follow-up, he said that to everyone who is overworked and underpaid at their software jobs esp outside the US, “I feel for you, and I’m sorry this struck a nerve”.

The people that work here had 6-fig 20 hr/week jobs before this, and can go back to them any time, he added.

Gupta said it might be hard to believe but there exist people that want this, while a minority. The transparency exists to identify them.

“This way of working isn’t supposed to be forever because it isn’t sustainable. it’s the first year or two of a startup which is like reaching escape velocity. like people said in the comments, as we mature we’ll hire older, more experienced people who have families and can’t work 100 hours a week, and naturally we would adapt like any good organisation,” he added.

Stating that this is not meant to be prescriptive, Gupta said there are brilliant people who run successful companies full of brilliant people that don’t push themselves this hard. Many other started the way we are starting.

“Lot of indian hate coming from this post so I want to clarify that I am like this not because im indian but because im san franciscan,” he added.

The post received flak on social media. However, some also hailed transparency.

Disagreeing with Gupta, venture capitalist Deedy said the transparency is fine but the pitfall is that if you offer no work life balance for long enough, “employees will churn and affect your progress more”.

Another verified X user Naina wrote, “yes the obvious pitfall is that this is toxic. while i get your zeal to build stuff at greptile, i think it’s extremely toxic for the employees, it’s like asking them to dedicate their entire day to greptile. the only ideal candidate i could think of is someone who is desperate to get a job anywhere but once they get ahold, i’m sure they’ll start applying somewhere else, a workplace which offers a better work life balance. the attrition rate will skyrockettt, please change if possible. all the best!”

Recently, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy also reiterated his call for his famous 70-hour workweek, saying that he doesn’t believe in the concept of work-life balance. He also expressed disappointment at India’s transition from a six-day to a five-day workweek in 1986.

“I don’t believe in work-life balance,” Murthy said at the CNBC-TV18 Global Leadership Summit.

Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has also supported 70-hour workweek for employees.