AI engineer alleges ‘psychological warfare’ at Zepto contract job
Sources familiar with the incident said no on-roll Zepto employee is directly involved.
A former contractual employee at Zepto has made serious allegations of a toxic work culture during their stint at the quick-commerce company. In a now-viral Reddit post, the person described the experience as akin to “psychological warfare". Sources familiar with the incident told HT.com that the "issue is pertaining to a contractual employee and that particular vendor's ecosystem. No on-roll Zepto employee is directly involved in this incident".
Among several allegations, the B.Tech graduate said their managers were "straight-up abusive" and that because it was a contract role, the employee had no HR support or grievance redressal.
What did ex Zepto contractual employee say in viral Reddit post?
The former contract worker said they accepted the job offer as they were "broke, jobless and desperate". They also confessed to writing the Reddit post with the help of ChatGPT.
"Six days a week, sometimes all seven. 9 AM to 8 PM, occasionally later. No lunch break some days. No holidays. No structure. If someone from the team took a break, it was fine—but if I took one, I’d get a call from a senior asking why I’m not 'committed'," the Redditor said.
"One manager literally started making hand gestures as if he was going to slap or punch me—repeatedly. He never hit me, but the intimidation was constant. That feeling of being trapped, of never knowing when the shouting might turn into something physical... that’s trauma," the former employee said.
"I used to freeze at my desk, scared, anxious, and helpless. That’s not a job. That’s psychological warfare."
The user said on their last working day, the HR "showed zero empathy" despite conveying that the worker had fever, asking them to return the company laptop within an hour.
(Also Read: Zepto calls employees for 2 am meetings? CEO Aadit Palicha pokes fun at work-life balance amid viral Reddit claim)
What was Zepto CEO say on work-life balance?
Last December, Zepto's 22-year-old CEO Aadit Palicha sparked a huge debate with his controversial remarks on work-life balance right after another Reddit post alleged “toxic work culture" culture.
“I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors,” he wrote on X. He quickly followed up with another post: “FYI, not my quote - read it from an interview of Daksh Gupta.”
Daksh Gupta is an Indian-origin CEO in San Francisco, who faced backlash for advocating 84-hour workweeks at his AI startup.
