Yes Madam Faces Flak Online For Sacking Employees Under Work Stress

Shark Tank fame Yes Madam is facing backlash online for allegedly terminating more than 100 employees who expressed heightened work-related stress in a mental health survey conducted by the company.

An ex-copywriter at Yes Madam, Anushka Dutta, took to LinkedIn to express her frustration, stating: “What’s happening at Yes Madam? First, you conduct a random survey and then fire us overnight because we’re feeling stressed. And not just me—100 other people have been fired too.”

Dutta also attached a screenshot of the layoff email sent by the company’s human resources (HR) team. Shockingly, the email reads that the terminations were intended to prevent employees from working under stress.

“As a company committed to fostering a healthy and supportive work environment, we have carefully considered the feedback. To ensure that no one remains stressed at work, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with employees who indicated significant stress,” the email read.

These LinkedIn posts quickly went viral, garnering over 6,400 likes and 1,300 comments. Most of the comments and fresh posts lambasted Yes Madam and termed the development “terribly stressful and (a) disturbing news”. Not stopping there, some users even termed the mass layoffs “unethical” and called for the strengthening of labour laws in the country.

However, a section of users was quick to question the authenticity of the incident, speculating that it might be a marketing campaign. A netizen claimed that the company had “literally stooped low” if this were a PR stunt. 

Inc42 has reached out to Yes Madam and its cofounder for comments but is yet to receive a response.

The development comes at a time when there is no dearth of reports flagging high levels of stress among Indian employees. According to a report by MediBuddy and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), approximately 62% of Indian employees experience work-related burnout, which is significantly higher than the global average of 20%.

Another World Health Organization (WHO) report underlines that more than half of the global population is currently employed and approximately 15% of working-age adults live with anxiety disorders. 

As per a separate report, at least 1,200 Cr workdays are lost annually to anxiety and depression prevalent among employees, costing the global economy about $1 Tn in productivity.

However, this is not the first time that Yes Madam has landed in choppy waters. Last year, the startup came under fire for allegedly exposing the sensitive data of its customers and gig workers, owing to a server-side misconfiguration.

Founded in 2016 by siblings Aditya and Mayank Arya, Yes Madam is a salon-at-home startup. It rivals Urban Company, MakeO, ZapLuk, Belita, BigStylist, GetLook and Biguine India.

In February, the home salon startup secured a funding deal of INR 1.5 Cr from four investors — Aman Gupta, Vineeta Singh, Peyush Bansal, and Ritesh Agarwal — on the hit TV show Shark Tank India.

On the financial front, Yes Madam reported an operating revenue of INR 27.04 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), up nearly 26% from INR 21.48 Cr in the year-ago period. Earlier, the Delhi NCR-based startup informed Inc42 that it clocked a revenue of INR 45 Cr in FY24

Meanwhile, losses rose a mere 3% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 6.36 Cr in the fiscal under review compared to INR 6.15 Cr in FY22.