In the age of quiet quitting and the ‘great resignation’, when employee morale is at an all-time low and the debate around toxic work culture refuses to die down, one Indian executive is copping backlash for his post on “hard work.”
Unacademy Senior Vice President of Design, Hardik Pandya, shared a note on March 6 wherein he denounced “woke culture around ‘Don’t hustle’” as a “zero-interest-rate-phenomenon.”
Pandya said that those employees who prefer to clock out as soon as their shift ends and don’t want to work on weekends “have probably never tasted what amazing work looks like.”
His post essentially stood in direct opposition to prevailing viewpoints about work-life balance. “I absolutely want to see more people glorify working hard,” he wrote. “And if you want to check out by 5 pm, by all means do so. But don’t cry foul if someone else is willing to outwork you and ends up making more money, becoming more successful and having more of what you want,” he warned.
pic.twitter.com/PN5EHuo6Wa— Hardik Pandya (@hvpandya) March 6, 2023
An overwhelming number of comments called out Pandya’s post as tone-deaf, with some accusing the Unacademy executive of being divorced from reality. Several people pointed out that women in the workplace simply don’t have the luxury of putting in extra hours, given they also shoulder the majority of household responsibilities.
Only a man has the luxury to "lose himself" in work because he doesn't have to do unpaid labor like housework, cooking, taking care of children or elders, or both. This is pathetic, tone-deaf and infuriating. I hate how Indian startup men are absolutely removed from reality. https://t.co/ZGRNmlNCH8 — Tamanna (@itssynecdoche) March 7, 2023
My tweet was intended exactly for what it did.And yeah, I'm very satisfied with myself and my work. I 'preach' here because I run into people very frequently who don't value hard work and actively denigrate it. With shocking entitlement. — Hardik Pandya (@hvpandya) March 6, 2023
Yes of course. Let's all go back to working 14 hour days, with no days off - since that's the best way to get ahead... A reading of history of mills & unions in the 1800's and early 1900's might be useful — Prasanna K (@prasanna_says) March 6, 2023
Keep it to yourself and work all weekends— Harsh (@ThePerfectH) March 6, 2023
Pandya’s post echoed sentiments earlier expressed by Edelweiss MF CEO Radhika Gupta, who, in August 2022, said that working hard and putting in extra hours is a choice that people will make at every stage of their career and it has consequences.
“An organisation will give the guy or girl working harder and delivering results more opportunities and quicker growth. Why should they not? So if you’ve chosen a more moderate existence than a colleague, also be comfortable with the consequences,” she wrote in her post shared on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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