Meesho employees to get 14-day break after festive season sale

Social media, mobile tech & communication | Vidit Aatrey (27), Sanjeev Barnwal (28), Co-founders, Meesho

Social commerce startup Meesho has announced a companywide break from November 4 to 14 for all its employees implementing its ‘Reset and Recharge’ policy. The work break will be after the festive season sale offered by the platform.

“Meesho is going on a company-wide break from November 4-14th. Yes, you read that right. We are going to completely unplug from work — right after our busy and frenetic festive sale season, so that we are back to doing what we love — relaxed and rejuvenated,” the company said in a Twitter post.

Meesho helps small businesses and individuals become sellers on social platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. The Bengaluru-based startup, founded by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in December 2015, competes with firms such as GlowRoad and Shop101.

More and more companies are now focusing on the well being of employees as the pandemic has severely restricted office-goers due to the high risk of infection and COVID-19 induced lockdowns. Nike, Bumble and LinkedIn have also previously given their employees mental health breaks.

“Between 2020-2021, we know how hard the pandemic has been on our mental health & productivity. Meesho being a people-centric workplace understands this. We will always put our employees' well being as top priority and the Reset and Recharge policy is one step towards that,” it added.

Meesho was founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. It connects resellers directly with raw material suppliers using social media platforms and also connects individual sellers and small businesses with customers.

It provides small entrepreneurs with products and tools to start, maintain, and grow their businesses. It facilitates a three-way marketplace enabling resellers, SMBs, and micro-entrepreneurs across India to connect with potential buyers using social media. The company claims that a majority of these entrepreneurs are women who are realizing their dream of owning a business for the first time.

Meesho is also Facebook's first investment in an Indian startup. The Bangalore-based startup last announced a fund raise of $50 million in a Series-C funding round from Shunwei Capital, DST Partners and RPS Ventures.