Reigning as one of the top cities for job opportunities driven by its booming IT sector and an influx of lakhs of youth every year, Hyderabad finds itself at the centre of entrepreneurial emergence. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2024, the city has over 650 startups, representing 6% of the country’s startups and is the 4th best startup ecosystem in the country.
However, despite its widely-recognised reputation as a city that promotes and facilitates the establishment of new ventures cutting across fields as well as welcomes ambitious job seekers from across the country, young employees in the city report various structural issues such as job insecurity, excessive workload, unstable and dysfunctional work ethic, perfunctory grievance redressal systems and overall ‘toxicity’ prevailing over the workspace.
Anshu Bhingradia (25), who worked as a Graphic Designer and 3D animator at an FMCG brand based in Banjara Hills says that he was sacked within four months of joining the company in 2023 and still has not been paid for the last month. “I had to use my own device for office work, which eventually broke down due to the heavy workload. It cost me a lakh to recover the data and repair my device without any assistance from the company. Despite all of this, I was laid off within four months for no specified reason. I have still not been given a month’s pay while working overtime almost every day. The company refuses to communicate and settle the matter,” he told The Hindu.
Brane Enterprises, a tech startup in Hi-Tec City, which has links to Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, the main accused in the Satyam Computers scandal and lists his son Byrraju Rama Raju and other family members as shareholders, recently laid off more than 1,500 employees and has not cleared salaries up to 4 months.
“I joined the company on May 6 this year and was laid off within 4 months on August 3. My salary of 3.5 months along with the full and final settlement, which amounts to 5 lakhs is still pending. There are cases of other employees from the company running in labour courts and civil courts at present, but there seems to be no hope of recovering our deserved salaries. We have withheld the company laptops to acquire our relieving letters at least,” says a former employee of the company requesting anonymity, who relocated from Kolkata to Hyderabad in search of a job after completing his post-graduation.
“I was not aware that the company had Ramalinga Raju serving as a ‘mentor’ prior to joining, I saw this as an opportunity for me to kickstart my career in tech in Hyderabad. I fear that the owners have powerful links and will retaliate severely if I attempt to lodge a complaint,” he added.
While long and strenuous work hours, sporadic hiring and firing, and freezing of salaries in emerging companies are oft-overlooked and whitewashed as ‘hustle culture’, employees also highlight the lack of grievance redressal systems in startups.
“I personally experienced and saw various other women colleagues routinely tolerating body shaming, mocking, and derogatory remarks at a fashion startup based in Jubilee Hills. A male manager used to unabashedly comment on my weight and physical appearance and invade my personal space,” said 25-year-old Sindhu Vaishnavi, who was compelled to leave the job within 3 months of joining.
Under the POSH Act, 2013, every organisation with 10 or more employees must establish an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to tackle complaints of sexual harassment and institute redressal policies. “I complained to the HR and senior manager but they did not take any action. There was no regulatory body where I could lodge a complaint. This culture is so pervasive across fashion startups that reform is a faraway fantasy. It is not only detrimental to one’s mental wellbeing but compels young girls with big dreams to exit the industry moments after stepping into it,” she highlights.
Similarly, Piyali Chakraborty of Nallakunta, who resigned from an ed-tech startup within 2 months of her tenure, highlights the extent of verbal and emotional abuse an employee faces for voicing their concerns and demanding reform.
“I had to arrive by 8:30 a.m. with work stretching until 10 p.m.. The office lacked proper seating, air conditioning, and basic amenities like a cafeteria or refrigerator. Shockingly, we didn’t even have computers; all tasks were done manually. Strict rules prohibited communication with other departments, and raising any concerns was met with verbal abuse from the Secretary, which created a sense of fear among the employees,” she told The Hindu.
“When I decided to leave, the company denied returning my original documents which they had taken from me as ‘security’ during my recruitment. I was forced to take up extra work in exchange for my documents and had to forfeit a month’s salary,” she added.
The recent death of a 26-year-old Chartered Accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil, who worked at Ernst & Young (EY) in Pune, allegedly owing to extreme work pressure, has brought to the forefront conversations about fostering healthier work cultures.
Upon being asked about long-term solutions to the prevailing work culture across the city, Anita Rego, a Hyderabad-based psychiatric social worker observes: “Victim blaming can become counterproductive and result in job resignations and increased employee health concerns. There is a tendency to shift the narrative onto the individual who is under stress. Workplace toxicity is an organisational issue and thus, the systemic issues at the organisation need to be resolved.”
Ms. Rego, who is the curator of a two-year programme called ‘Tuning into Empathetic Leadership’, supporting a group of production companies to reduce bullying, harassment and grievances at the workplace, emphasises that healthier workplaces and happier manpower contribute to better productivity and profits, while urging companies to initiate employee support programmes.
Published – October 04, 2024 11:18 pm IST