Over 800 employees of Byju's arm quit when asked to rejoin office

Over 800 employees of WhiteHat Jr — a Byju’s company — have resigned in the last 60 days or so after being asked to return to office, claims a media report.

The employees who quit wanted to work from home and so gave up their jobs instead.

The WhiteHat Jr management sent emails to its employees in the middle of March to rejoin offices based in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Gurugram within a month. Instead, they resigned en masse.

Inc42 quoted some employees to say that it was asking employees to return to work was a cost-cutting tactic and many more people will resign as a result of the diktat. Full-time employees with the sales, coding and math teams voluntarily resigned.

Besides, the employees expected a salary hike along with the order to relocate to expensive cities. However, the management did not hint at a salary revision and so employees decided to quit.

Also read: With WFH here to stay, India Inc switches to HR tech to keep up

It is also said that the employees were not too pleased with the new management (Byju’s) and liked the working conditions when Karan Bajaj was at the helms of White House Jr. Bajaj quit in August 2021, a year after BYJU’s bought the education start-up for $300 million.

White Hat Jr issued a statement: “As part of our back-to-work drive, most of our Sales and Support employees have been asked to report to Gurgaon and Mumbai offices from April 18. We have made exceptions for medical and personal exigencies and have offered relocation assistance as required. Our teachers will continue to work from home.”

Several surveys have hinted that despite all the challenges, a large number of employees prefer to work from home and, at times, would gladly resign in case they are forced to rejoin the office.