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  • Remote Work refusal and mass resignation

    Daniel Engels
    16 replies
    800 employees resign after company asks them to work from office. I am surprised I see this kind of news. What strikes me: - crowds of people sure to find a job immediately? (not all of them are developers or data scientists, by the way) - the company so inflexible they'd rather lose that many people without replacement. Have you ever witnessed mass resignations? What were the reasons?

    Replies

    Oras Al-Kubaisi
    Topline Resumes
    Topline Resumes
    Was it legitimate news or clickbait? Did they mention the company name? 800 is a large number considering the current financial situation and the possibility of a new recession soon. If true, I think some employees were deceived by the "great resignation" articles flowing around in the last few months. [Layoffs](https://layoffs.fyi/) is a clear indication backed with data that the "great resignation" is just an illusion.
    Daniel Engels
    @orask the source of the news is Economic Times (India), which are quite legitimate. Here's the link: https://economictimes.indiatimes...
    Oras Al-Kubaisi
    Topline Resumes
    Topline Resumes
    @daniel_engels I think the title is misleading. From the article: """ As part of our back-to-work drive, most of our Sales and Support employees have been asked to report to Gurgaon and Mumbai offices from April 18. We have made exceptions for medical and personal exigencies and have offered relocation assistance as required. """ They asked them to relocate, not to go back to the {local} office.
    Daniel Engels
    @orask there is no mention of relocation in the article. See: "the startup asked remote employees to return to respective office locations within a month's time. The sales, coding and math teams were asked to work from Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru offices"
    Being devils advocate here isn't it a win win? The company wants people in the office - and will now be able to build a culture around that now the remote workers have left The former employees can now work somewhere that lets them work in the way they prefer?
    Daniel Engels
    @maxwellcdavis well if 10% of the company's workforce were undesirable (on a growing market), then there's something very wrong with the hiring policy.
    Janak Patel
    White Ht Junior - this ed-tech company (mainly their parent company - Byju's) has already fallen into controversy a couple of times due to unethical display ads, indulge in aggressive fear marketing, unrealistic target for their sales team and misleading pay package. It is known for bad culture and blunders. Surprisingly, it is one of the most profitable ed-tech startups in India
    Daniel Engels
    @janak_patel56 there are lots of incentives for EdTech companies to give unrealistic promises to students, and to employ some extremely aggressive sales techniques. I hope this backfires one day, so that serious companies only stay on the market.
    Fares
    I find it truly surreal. For me, these are people who act like spoiled children, because if I understand correctly, they went through a phase of blackmail (resignation) which is like taking a company's activity hostage. It's disgusting. Because, if the company has obligations towards its employees, it is the same for the employees.
    Daniel Engels
    @fares_aktouf millenials are called "spoiled children" so often they don't get bothered by it any more
    Charu Veluthoor
    That's not really surprising, to be honest. For a company as big as WhiteHat, 800 employees is around 10% of their workforce (according to their headcount of 7000 on Linkedin). Since they may have not foreseen a situation of in-office work in the near future, a large percentage of their workforce is located in tier 2 cities in India such as Jaipur, Indore and Lucknow. These folks may be unwilling to move even after receiving relocation allowances, in this poor job economy, due to personal and familial constraints.
    Daniel Engels
    @charu_veluthoor maybe they should have relied on carrots instead of sticks to make a larger share of these 800 employees come to office...
    Charu Veluthoor
    @daniel_engels I think you are right... but that could have been costly and this may have been a carefully thought out choice by the company to let them go :)