Contractual employee calls Zepto's work culture ‘toxic,’ ‘straight-up abusive’

A former contractual employee at Zepto has levelled serious allegations against the quick-commerce firm, describing the workplace as “toxic” and comparing their experience to “psychological warfare”. The claims, made in a now-viral Reddit post, have sparked fresh scrutiny of the company's work culture.

According to sources cited by Hindustan Times, the incident concerns a contract worker employed through a third-party vendor, and “no on-roll Zepto employee is directly involved in this incident”.

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‘No Holidays, No HR Support’

The B.Tech graduate alleged that their managers were “straight-up abusive” and that, being a contractual worker, they had no access to HR support or any formal grievance redressal mechanism.

“I was broke, jobless and desperate,” the Redditor explained, stating this was why they accepted the offer. They also admitted to composing the viral post “with the help of ChatGPT”.

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The account details gruelling work conditions: “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’.”

‘Intimidation Was Constant’

The post further alleges physical intimidation by a manager. “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.”

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“I used to freeze at my desk, scared, anxious, and helpless. That’s not a job. That’s psychological warfare,” the former employee wrote.

The user also recounted their last day at work, claiming HR “showed zero empathy” even after being informed the worker was unwell. They were reportedly told to return the company laptop within an hour despite having a fever.

CEO’s Comments on Work-Life Balance Resurface

The controversy has resurfaced past criticism of Zepto’s CEO, Aadit Palicha, who faced backlash in December last year over remarks seen as dismissive of work-life balance.

“I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, amid another wave of allegations around the company’s workplace culture. He later added, “FYI, not my quote - read it from an interview of Daksh Gupta.”

Gupta, an Indian-origin CEO based in San Francisco, had drawn flak for promoting 84-hour workweeks at his AI startup.