Bonuses didn't work, 'spite' did: Bengaluru-based CEO on employees working nights, Sundays

What if the strongest motivation at work isn't a bonus, promotion or equity — but a grudge? A Bengaluru-based CEO has sparked a conversation online after saying employees at his company have voluntarily been working late nights and weekends to take on a rival business. Vikram Pai, CEO and co-founder of ReferRush, shared the unusual workplace story on X, saying the motivation came from a former customer who allegedly treated his team badly before launching a competing product.

Pai's post included a screenshot of an employee saying he would take no Sundays off for the next three weeks, except in an emergency.

'Spite might be the greatest employee incentive'

Explaining what triggered the situation, Pai wrote, “A customer of ours who treated my team terribly decided to go build a competing product.”

The CEO said he had previously tried conventional ways of pushing the company to move faster, including bonuses, incentives, deadlines and equity.

“I’ve tried everything to make us move faster: bonuses, incentives, deadlines, equity. Nothing has worked quite like this,” Vikram Pai wrote on X. “My team is so pissed off they’re voluntarily working nights and Sundays.”

Pai said he was pleased to see his employees putting in additional effort voluntarily, before summarising the unusual source of motivation behind it.

“Turns out spite might be the greatest employee incentive of all time and as a founder I’m way too happy about this,” he concluded.

The post has since attracted more than 23,500 views and prompted users to debate the logic behind the situation and the nature of workplace motivation.

Internet questions the rivalry

Several users questioned why a former customer who allegedly treated the team badly would go on to develop a competing product.

“That really does make 0 sense. How does one treat a referral org badly and go on to make a competing product? What logic is this? Call it by name if it’s real,” one user wrote.

Another commented, “Humans are wired differently.”

A third user questioned the connection between the former customer's behaviour and the employees' response, writing, “If the customer treated your team terribly, why would they build a competing product? It was your team."

The same question was raised by another user, who wrote, “That really does make 0 sense. How does one treat a referral org badly and go on to make a competing product? What logic is this? Call it by name if it’s real,"