According to Reuters reports, Indian multinational educational technology company, Byju’s employees have revealed harsh work conditions at the Indian edtech giant.
They said, Byju’s success is built on the back of an abusive and exploitative work environment and unscrupulous sales practices that involve profiling, pursuing, and pressuring potential customers from poorer backgrounds to buy its courses.
Vedantu/Unacademy Employees Findings according to reports
Context also interviewed three workers from Vedantu two current and one former. Followed by interviewing four at Unacademy presently, who highlighted the following points:
- High-pressure environments.
- Being encouraged to mis-sell products.
- Additionally having their pay cut arbitrarily.
However, The government has raised concerns over edtech firms’ treatment of customers for false advertising of products & worker abuses.
Byju’s Employees Findings according to reports
The employee’s revealed the following points:-
- Some bosses at Byju pressure and threaten employees into working more than 72 hours a week.
- The employees are not allowed to take lunch breaks, time off, or even leave the office if strict targets are not met.
The WhatsApp messages, internal emails, company contracts, and audio recordings of calls and meetings reveal the above statements. The employees have also said that its success is built on the back of the following aspects:
- An abusive and exploitative work environment.
- Unscrupulous sales practices involve profiling, pursuing, and pressuring potential customers from poorer backgrounds to buy its courses.
In response to Context’s findings, a Byju spokesperson said, “The staff who spoke out represented an “infinitesimal percentage” of its workforce, and that the company had “zero tolerance for unpleasant behaviour at the workplace”.
“We uphold the highest safe workplace standards at each of our business units,” the spokesperson said in emailed comments.
Pratik Makhija, a former Byju salesman who had two spells with the company, said he had endured “daily mental torture”.
Economist K.R. Shyam Sundar said, “Currently it’s a free-for-all. In this scenario, labour rights are always the first victim.”
Context spoke to 26 salespeople – 18 current and eight former who outlined the following prospects:-
- Harsh working conditions with excessive hours.
- Incidents of physical and verbal abuse.
- A culture in which they are encouraged to mislead clients to make sales by almost any means.
