Indian-origin exec at Elon Musk’s xAI reacts after techie works 36 hours straight with no sleep

An Indian-origin executive at xAI has reacted publicly after one of the startup’s employees claimed to have worked 36 hours straight with no sleep.

Published on: Nov 30, 2025, 05:46:06 IST

By Sanya Jain

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An Indian-origin executive at xAI has reacted publicly after one of the startup’s employees claimed to have worked 36 hours straight with no sleep. Ayush Jaiswal reacted to a viral post from xAI’s Parsa Tajik, who on November 28 wrote: “Last night I left the @xai office after ~36 hours of working with no sleep. Although I was dead, I was also super energized. Incredibly grateful to be a part of this team. Happy Thanksgiving!”

Ayush Jaiswal is a member of the Grok team at xAI and the former head of growth at Scale AI.

Tajik is a member of the technical staff at xAI, the artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk.

“Work life balance is great…”

Parsa Tajik’s post on working 36 hours straight without a nap sparked criticism and condemnation, with many calling it a sign of a toxic workplace.

However, Ayush Jaiwal, a member of the Grok team at xAI and formerly the head of growth at Scale AI, reacted to Tajik’s post with implicit approval. (Also read: Indian-origin techie reveals what it's really like working in Elon Musk’s xAI office in Palo Alto)

“Work life balance is great, in-fact we recommend it to all our competitors,” Jaiswal wrote. As if perhaps sensing the disapproval that would soon come his way, the Indian-origin executive added a disclaimer: “Don’t be angry with this post. You’re free to disagree & let us cook.”

And if Jaiswal’s advice on work-life balance sounds familiar, it’s because he was borrowing the words of another Indian man — Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha.

In 2024, Palicha had shared a humorous take on the work-life balance debate. “I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors,” he wrote on X.

Palicha later sought to distance himself from this controversial take. During the Y Combinator podcast, he told CEO Garry Tan that the post was a “stupid idea”.

(Also read: Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha says his 2024 post on work-life balance was a ‘stupid idea’)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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