Amid Turmoil, Byju's Employees On Why They Quit

A recent video featuring a female employee's altercation with her superiors over incentives has sparked concerns about Byju’s treatment of its workforce. “I will not come into the cabin, I want to confront you out in the open. We have not received incentives for over 12 months,” Payal Singh can be seen airing her grievances openly. A former employee of the EdTech startup, Singh received a meager ₹2,000 as part of her final settlement, thus prompting the argument. The video has since gone viral with over four hundred thousand shares.

But her case is not unique. Byju’s has been engulfed in crises in recent times, ranging from failing to file its financial accounts on time and skipping an interest payment on loans to ED raids in its Bengaluru offices.

Amid rising concerns about the company, the Instagram video has brought attention to the alleged culture of employee harassment and unaddressed grievances of employees against what was once one of India's most valued EdTech companies.

Kalyan*, a former employee said, “Senior managers often resort to making extremely offensive and degrading comments about their employees.” Kalyan resigned last year after two years at the company, and recounted incidents of targeted abuse against him. “I was made to believe I am not good at anything and that the only reason they hired me was because no one else would,” he added.

We spoke to eleven of Byju’s employees to get a first-hand account of their experiences at the company. An overwhelming majority alleged patterns of abuse they faced during their employment, as well as incidents of ad-hoc salary deductions and unpaid incentives.

Financial Setback At Byju's

Byju’s was founded by Byju Raveendran in 2011. The company witnessed substantial growth during the Covid-19 pandemic as students switched to online education. But in 2021, Byju’s incurred a loss of $327m; a number over 15 times more than the previous year’s. On Tuesday, Prosus NV, the company’s biggest investor said, that company directors “regularly disregarded advice”.

Prosus also slashed its valuation of Byju’s to $5.1 billion this year from $22 billion last year, which they claimed was mainly because Byju’s was “unable to fulfil his fiduciary duty to serve the long-term interests of the Company and its stakeholders.”

Among many cost-cutting measures, Byju’s vacated its 5.58 lakh square feet property in Kalyani Tech Park earlier last week. They have also shut two out of the nine floors it had in Prestige Tech Park. This comes alongside other reports of its offices in Delhi-NCR and Pune being shut down.

However, employees complain that these cost-cutting measures are not limited to infrastructural changes and have in fact made a significant impact on their salaries and incentives.

Employees Break Their Silence

“I am shouting because I am going mad,” screamed Payal, the former employee in the viral video. Her thoughts have since been echoed by many others. The video surfaced at a time when the company is caught in turmoil. However, former employees argue that Byju’s practice of employment exploitation dates back years.

Madhu*, a former employee from Chennai said, “Employees are hired on the promise of incentives. However, there are systems in place to actively stop you from being able to work so that they don’t have to pay.”

According to the employees, Byju’s hires primarily through campus placements, making their work demographic fresher-heavy. Some employees are promoted to managerial positions 2-3 years from their date of joining. The starting packages show high salaries and target-based incentives depending on the department they are hired for. However, several inconsistencies exist in practice.

Madhu continued, “We would be expected to work for 11+ hours in a day. I would log in at 10 am and only be able to log off well after 11 pm.” Similarly, Sandeep flagged, “According to our offer letters, we’re supposed to be working five days a week. I once worked for 46 days at a stretch, from 10 am to midnight.”

Sandeep* elaborated on how male employees also have to make extensive travel arrangements every week. “I would leave on a Friday to travel to these villages, make visits to over 10 homes each day, and then fly back on Tuesdays. The half-day I had off I would spend recuperating, only to start work at 10 am the next morning.”

For female workers, the radius of travel is capped to within the city limits. However, that apparently changes once all families within a certain range are exhausted. Neha*, an ex-employee from 2020 said, “I would leave the office at 8 pm and travel up to 50 km, make a 3-hour sales home visit, and get back home at around 2 am.”

Beyond working schedules, the leave structure is also limited to the contract. Deepak* recounted the time he requested bereavement leave. “When a family relative passed away, I applied for leave for 2 weeks. The leave request was put on hold but my manager informally allowed me to take the days off, but when I came back, I saw one week’s pay was deducted from my salary.” Deepak continued, “To this day, my leave request shows on hold.”

Several employees highlighted a pattern of incentive deduction and managerial noncooperation with regard to grievances. Madhu said, “We are supposed to sell the product. Now, Byju’s claims that a product is returned within 7 days. But in reality, if a customer changes their mind, we are not paid our incentives for the sale.” This is allegedly after an employee has already ‘hit their target’ by onboarding a sign-up.

“I was tasked with marketing a product that costs over Rs 5000 to families that could not afford sofas or build concrete roofs,” said Ankita, who quit Byju’s at the start of 2023. “I know families that have had to sell things to try and pay back loans they took to afford the product.”

Sandeep claimed the content on a Byju’s tablet is gimmicky and designed to brainwash parents from poor households. “We are taught to manipulate our customers,” he argued. Male employees like Sandeep are tasked with going to remote villages in the country and making pitches to lower-income groups for a product well beyond their purchasing power. In Sandeep’s words, employees are even trained to pretend to be IIT/NIT teachers to make a sale during some client meetings.

Another former salesperson, Pramit* says they have complaints from customers complaining about lessons being ‘locked’ even after full payment. “But as a salesman, I knew that the lessons that were made to appear locked never existed in the first place.”

The employees alleged that sometimes higher-ups promised to pay the incentives at a later date, due to shortened cash flow at the time but never followed through. “They first said they would pay in June. Then it became August. In the end, we reached December and there was still no sign of payment,” said Sanchit*, an employee from Ahmedabad. Like many others, Sanchit also maintains that Byju’s pays incomplete amounts in their Full & Final settlements (FNF).

Out of the one lakh thirty thousand that they owed Sanchit, he alleges having only received sixteen thousand in the FNF. His FNF mentioned deductions such as for ‘damage to laptop’ or ‘misplaced charger’, despite him providing them with photographic evidence that both the charges were wrong.

Neha said she quit after eleven months of not being given incentives. “My manager called me a waste of space and immediately removed all leads from my system.” The same allegation was made by four employees who said that they were awarded as top performers for the year, but were not paid their incentives for “faults from months ago.”

According to Neha, Byju’s owes her close to seventy thousand in settlement. “I have family loans to pay off, but I have chosen to sacrifice the amount in exchange for mental peace that I never had while working there.”

No Redressal Mechanisms In Place

When asked about the potential redressal mechanism or approachability of the Human Resources team at Byju’s, employees raised further concerns. Sanchit claims to have sent over 36 emails to a completely non-responsive HR.

Jogita*, a former employee declared that her main reason for quitting was irresponsible managerial conduct. From lewd remarks regarding their personal lives to their choice of attire to work; employee's personal matters were allegedly opened up for public discussion. Employees affirm that there was a daily barrage of derogatory comments. “Young employees do not have the confidence to walk up to the HR. I still gathered the courage to email HR,” she continued. “I was immediately called to the ASM’s cabin and he yelled saying I should have asked for his permission before going to the HR.” The ASM then, she said, demanded her resignation.

Employees say that they either left in fear of verbal backlash or seclusion upon protest. So they began taking to Twitter and LinkedIn to talk about their experiences. A friend of Jogita’s attested to having seen people from the VP’s team stay up all night reporting any post or comment made against Byju’s online. Furthermore, even the top bosses allegedly resort to intimidating distressed employees with threats of legal action.

To protest against unfair treatment, Jogita disclosed her wish to file an FIR against the harassment faced at work. “I was then followed home by a senior staff member. They called me incessantly, threatening to quash my complaint. My mother was terrified and requested me to not go to the police.” Jogita resigned soon after.

In fact, according to Payal Singh (in a video uploaded to her personal YouTube channel), on July 8, Byju’s employees organised a peaceful protest against malpractices within the company following which, all members of the protest were laid off without explanation. The higher-ups also allegedly threatened Singh with legal action over the original viral video, saying “their 12 lawyers could easily quash a court case.”

Legal Route Ineffective For Aggrieved Employees

Most employees we spoke to seemed to have resigned to their circumstances, either in fear of Byju’s own legal might or to avoid any further interaction with the company post-employment. Some employees even reported having signed non-disclosure agreements as a part of their employment contract, thus forbidding them from being able to comment about their experiences.

Saumitra Shrivastava, a Delhi-based Disputes Lawyer, explains, “There are few laws like the Industrial Disputes Act ("ID Act") and Shops and Establishment Acts that could be invoked by aggrieved employees. For instance, while the definition of a workman is broad under the ID Act, it specifically excludes managerial and supervisory roles.” According to Shrivastava, these laws are more concerned about lay-offs, retrenchment, and trade unions, and less about the unfair treatment and mental health of employees.

However, it is a little difficult to get relief under these laws for white-collar employees since they have been principally written for blue-collar workers. "The other recourse is to seek relief under the employment contract," he adds.

When asked if arbitration is an option, Shrivastava points to a common practice in companies. “Some companies still have clauses enabling the unilateral appointment of arbitrators, i.e., the judge will be someone from their own panel. This potentially makes the dispute resolution process inherently biased and partial.” Although the Supreme Court outlawed the practice back in 2017, some companies still draft such clauses.

Hima Lawrence, a Supreme Court lawyer said, “If an employer fails to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee, it shall be punished with a fine of up to INR 50,000.” Upon failure to comply further, it shall be punished with up to twice the punishment imposed on the first conviction or cancellation of the registration required for carrying on its business. “Women employees may also approach the National Commission for Women for any deprivation of their rights or non-implementation of laws enacted to protect women”, Lawrence continued.

However, a legal battle continues to remain far-fetched for aggrieved former employees.

Practice Of Hero-Worshipping Prevails

Janki*, another former employee from Kolkata, who spent three years at the company told Decode about a culture of hero-worshipping at work. “My father was a clerk in a legal chamber, so we never had much money. The managers explicitly stated that they could treat me in any way they like since I had no money to go back to and was desperate for a job.”

Employees suggest overlooking the problems at work either because abuse in corporate spaces is not a new story, or because Byju’s tends to hire employees from lower income backgrounds who depend on their alluring packages. Some even say that to sustain their jobs, they cannot find a way around without being unethical themselves. So protesting against current conditions is either not feasible or a bureaucratic nightmare.

Kalyan* said, “We are expected to hero-worship the senior staff because the salary at Byju’s gives them a taste of good income, thereby pardoning all the mental torture that follows.” But he does not endorse it as sustainable. “I quit a year ago, but to this day, I get calls from customers who I cheated begging for a refund. That company has cost us a lot–clients and employees alike,” he concluded.

We reached out to Byju’s for comments and sent a detailed questionnaire. However, their communications team refused, "Currently, due to some prior commitments, we don't have the availability of the spokesperson."

*All employee names have been changed to maintain anonymity.

This article was originally published in BOOM's Decode.