The San Francisco-based co-founder of a tech company, Varun Vummadi, has criticized the work ethic of Indian engineers, claiming they are reluctant to work hard despite earning high salaries. In a post on social media platform X, Vummadi expressed frustration over the difficulty of hiring for his company’s Indian office, citing that many engineers are unwilling to work six days a week, even when their base salary exceeds Rs1 crore annually.
Vummadi, co-founder and CEO of Giga ML, an AI lab focused on customer care agents, and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, shared that engineers with 3-8 years of experience are particularly resistant to a six-day workweek. He stated, “Despite a base salary of Rs 1 crore, many engineers are unwilling to put in the work required for such compensation.”
Netizen’s reacts
His comments sparked a divided reaction on X, with some defending the engineers’ preference for a work-life balance. One user remarked, “You can’t buy cracked folks. They appreciate money, don’t worship it!” to which Vummadi replied, “You can’t buy in SF, but you can in India, where many engineers are heavily motivated by high salaries.”
Others, like user Aman, pointed out that preferring a two-day weekend is normal for many workers. Some social media users accused Vummadi of wanting to boost profits by overworking employees, with one commenter suggesting that the focus should be on performance rather than the number of workdays.
“Weird way to phrase that a lot of 26-32 year people prefer having a 2 day weekend in their lives. Sounds pretty normal to me,” X user named Aman noted.
“Why is there an insistence on a 6-day workweek? The conversation should be about performance, not the number of days in a week, and if anyone is non-performing, it is better to weed them out,” said one social media user in response to the IITian’s post.
