Aadit Palicha, the CEO of Zepto, sparked a conversation on X about “work-life balance” following assumptions that his remarks were in response to a viral Reddit post accusing Zepto of “toxic practices,” which included claims of meetings at 2am. The post was shared anonymously on the r/StartUpIndia subreddit and titled “Toxic Work Culture ft. Zepto.”
In the post, the writer, who claimed to have been with Zepto for a year, described the work environment as incredibly toxic. They raised concerns about unpredictable work hours and questionable business tactics, mentioning that Aadit typically starts his workday at 2pm due to difficulty waking up early, resulting in late-night meetings. Additionally, they stated that meetings are frequently delayed and rarely start on time.
The post also claimed that Zepto tends to hire younger employees because senior staff are unwilling to work in such a challenging environment, leading to long work hours of at least 14 hours a day for these junior hires. The author alleged that there are unethical practices within the app that exploit customers, such as charging more to users with phones priced over Rs 30,000.
They further suggested that juniors are brought on board to reduce salary costs and warned that massive layoffs are anticipated in March, as hiring has already slowed down across most departments. Despite these issues, the employee mentioned that many continue working at Zepto in hopes of a potential IPO in two years that could yield financial benefits.
