Swiggy CEO Rohit Kapoor: 'Used to go to office at 8 am, nobody used to be there in my previous organisation'

Rohit Kapoor joined Swiggy as its CEO on August 2022. (Image credit: LinkedIn)

Swiggy CEO Rohit Kapoor has recently revealed that at his previous workplace, he would reach the office at 8 am but nobody would be there. People would start trickling in later in the day, while some arrived as late as 1 pm and then stayed in the office till 3 am. "I have a huge problem with that," Kapoor said.

He made the remark at an event in Bengaluru where he discouraged people from spending unnecessary long hours at work and encouraged them to build a healthy work-life balance.

"I used to go to office at 8 o'clock and nobody used to be there in my previous organisation," Kapoor said. "People would saunter in at 12-1 pm and then they will be burning the midnight oil. Who asked you to work that late? Go home, spend time with your family, girlfriend, dog... What will you achieve by working till late?"

Kapoor, however, clarified that by asking people not to spend long hours at work--except on days that really need it--he does not mean that they should not work hard.

"Hard work is needed," the Swiggy CEO said. "I think we all work damn hard. I have worked damn hard all my life. Nothing has come easy to me ever in my life. But it has not come at the cost of me going crazy."

'Hustle culture is bull****'

Kapoor also spoke against the hustle culture and employees being pushed to "build" companies instead of looking at their jobs as just work. "You don't need to hustle and work till 3 am every day, some days you'll need to, and you will. I don't agree with the whole culture of 'to build something great, you have to give everything up'," he said, adding that hustling is meaningless if it leads to poor health and death, professionals should also give time to their personal lives.