Zomato saw a historical surge in food orders on New Years Eve 2023, as the food delivery aggregator platform hit its all-time high number of orders received in a day. CEO Deepinder Goyal shared that Zomato delivered almost as many orders on NYE 23 as in the six previous years combined (2015-2020). However, a tweet shared by Deepinder Goyal even before the NYE grind began, has earned him rampant trolling and a serious discussion on toxic work culture in India.
On 31 December, Deepinder Goyal took to micro-blogging platform X to share a set of images of what was termed as ‘War Room’ or the Zomato office.
This post earned the Zomato CEO the ire of netizens, instead of their encouragement. “Sir the real FIGHTERS are on the grounds The delivery boys Not the one shown in the above picture” wrote one netizen. Notably, Deepinder Goyal also shared that Zomato delivery partners were tipped over ₹97 lakhs on New Years Eve 2023.
On the ‘War room’ post by Deepinder Goyal, another netizen wrote, “This is not an achievement. This shows your product is not at par and you are making people work on weekend. Planning and execution of project looks damn poor”.
One netizen quipped, “Ordering from Swiggy to ensure you don’t have to work a little extra :)))”.
“By sensationalising and dramatising this behaviour, you are setting a bad precedent for the rest of the enterpreneurs and senior leaders in India, a country where already a lot of tech workers are suffering from health issues due to lack of work-life-balance plus stress,” wrote another user.
“Pretty shameless to put out a photo of managers chit-chatting to hide the fact that it’s only the ‘delivery partners’ working without any break for new year. And quite dense to call it a ‘war room’ when an actual war (genocide) is happening elsewhere in the world,” an X user wrote reacting to Deepinder Goyal’s post.
“I believe all these people have a family waiting at house to celebrate New Year. Even though I worked yesterday but not till 12am, how are you going to ensure that their family is also not missing the party? It’s very sad to work for others’ party when we can’t enjoy,” expressed another user.
Meanwhile, a post about work culture in Europe also went viral. It triggered a discussion about the startup culture in India.
An X user shared a screenshot of a notification sent by grocery delivery platform Getir informing its users that the operations would pause at 7 pm on New Year’s Eve.
“Indian hyperlocal startups today would be setting up their war room. Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, etc would be prepared to handle the peak demand today. Meanwhile in Europe:,” he wrote while sharing an image of the notification.
“This is why Europe’s work culture is superior. Indian startups pay peanuts and expect you to sacrifice your life for them. People placing orders across the country, meanwhile, were generous in tipping the delivery patrons,” an X user commented on the post.
“Yeah, because they realise their employees have families too,” another X user added.
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Omprakash Tiwary is a business writer who delves into the intricacies of the corporate world. With a focus on finance and economic landscape. He offers readers valuable insights into market trends, entrepreneurship, and economic developments.
