New Delhi: Following on the heels of the CEO's '18-hour work day,' another controversy about toxic workplace culture has erupted. This one revolves around a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Pristyn Care co-founder Harsimarbir Singh, in which he elaborated on the "interview hacks" used at the health-tech firm to screen out candidates. Making job-seeking candidates wait for 6 to 8 hours in office (ostensibly to test their patience), scheduling interviews on Sundays and late at night or early in the morning, and even asking outstation candidates to show up in office the next day to test their "hustle" are among the aforementioned "hacks."
At a time when 'hustle culture' is already being chastised for being nothing more than a euphemism for toxic workplace practises, this list of interview hacks at Gurgaon-based Pristyn Care, when revealed on LinkedIn, sparked outrage.
Despite the fact that Harsimarbir Singh appears to have deleted his offending LinkedIn post, screenshots of it have been widely circulated and harshly criticised on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Don't apply to work in such companies if you have even an iota of self-respect. pic.twitter.com/l9AoBZkVGq
— The Educated Moron (@EducatedMoron) September 1, 2022
“If you work in Pristyn, get in touch with me and I'll happily help you get jobs at companies with better culture,” wrote a Twitter user.
If you work in Pristyn, get in touch with me and I'll happily help you get jobs at companies with better culture. https://t.co/rZablX8Rq6
— Narayanan Hariharan (NithyaKarma.com) (@narayananh) September 2, 2022
Several others echoed the offer, pointing out that a company that followed such unreasonable interview procedures would expect their employees to be available for work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Honestly if you work at Pristyn Care, feel free to DM me, I'm happy to help you find jobs elsewhere.
This sounds like a slave owner not a company founder.
Apart from the business case studies everything else is bonafide "harrassment" category. https://t.co/BZPZE2c5XG
— Arnav Gupta (@championswimmer) September 1, 2022
"Interesting interview hacks we used early on to filter for Special Driven people (right attitude)," Singh wrote in his post.
He went on to describe the hacks, the first of which was summoning the candidate at 8 a.m.
Hack number two is to schedule a phone interview at 11 p.m. to find "late workers."
The next two points were "got the candidate to do a detailed business case - Real world thinking," and "got the candidate to spend 6-8 hours in office - culture and patience."
The company also conducted "in person interviews at 9 p.m." and scheduled interviews for Sunday, in addition to asking candidates who were not local to show up for job interviews the following day.
All of this, predictably, sparked outrage on social media, especially since it came just days after Bombay Shaving Company CEO Shantanu Deshpande's widely panned post in which he advised freshers to work 18 hours a day.
A significant portion of the professional workforce has criticised these practises as outdated and toxic, particularly in the era of the 'Quiet Quitting' movement, in which workers refuse to work unpaid overtime or take calls after work hours - in other words, doing the bare minimum required of them at their jobs.
