New Delhi: After CEO’s ’18 hour working day’, another controversy has erupted about toxic workplace culture. It revolves around a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Pristine Care co-founder Harsimarbir Singh, in which he elaborated on an “interview hack” used at the health-tech firm to screen candidates. Job-seekers have to wait 6 to 8 hours in the office (obviously to test their patience), schedule interviews on Sundays and do it late at night or early in the morning, and even that asking outside candidates to come to the office the next day for the test. His “hustle” are among the above “hacks”.
At a time when ‘hustle culture’ is already being punished for being nothing more than a euphemism for toxic workplace practices, this list of interview hacks at Gurgaon-based Pristine Care, when it surfaced on LinkedIn Outrage spread.
Despite the fact that Harsimarbir Singh has removed his objectionable LinkedIn post, its screenshots have been widely circulated and have been strongly criticized on Twitter and other social media platforms.
If you have any self respect then don’t apply to work in such companies. pic.twitter.com/l9AoBZkVGq— Educated Fool (@EducatedMoron) 1 September 2022
One Twitter user wrote, “If you work in Pristine, contact me and I’ll be more than happy to help you get a job at companies with a better culture.”
If you work in Pristine, contact me and I will be more than happy to help you find a job in companies with a better culture. https://t.co/rZablX8Rq6— Narayanan Hariharan (nithyakarma.com) (@naraynan) 2 September 2022
Several others echoed this proposal, pointing out that a company following such unfair interview procedures would expect its employees to be available for work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Honestly if you work at Pristine Care feel free to DM me, I’m more than happy to help you find a job elsewhere.
It sounds like a slave owner and not a company founder.
Everything else except business case studies is a real “harassment” category. https://t.co/BZPZE2c5XG— Arnav Gupta (@championswimmer) 1 September 2022
“Interesting interview hacks we used to filter for particular driven people (the right attitude),” Singh wrote in his post.
He continued to describe the hack, the first of which was to call 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 “Candidate got to do an elaborate business case – real-world thinking,” and “Candidate got to spend 6-8 hours in the office – culture and patience.”
The company also conducted “in-person interviews at 9 pm” and interviews scheduled for Sunday, in addition to asking candidates who did not appear for job interviews the next day.
All this, predictably, sparked outrage on social media, especially since it came just days after Bombay Shaving Company CEO Shantanu Deshpande’s widely panned post advising freshers to work 18 hours a day .
A significant section of the professional workforce has criticized these practices as outdated and toxic, especially in the era of the ‘quit quitting’ movement, in which workers refuse to work unpaid overtime or take calls after working hours. are – in other words, the bare minimum required at their job.