Cheil India controversy lays bare the inhumane 'hustle culture' of the marketing industry

The recent posts from several industry professionals calling Cheil India out for asking employees to attend office despite the horrid state of affairs in the wake of the Covid pandemic have initiated a chain reaction of several past and existing employees taking to social media talking about the alleged toxic work culture at the organisation.

Unsurprising to hear this, most of us have quit Cheil because of toxic culture that is inherit to it.

— Harshdeep Singh (@_harshdeep) April 29, 2021

This is my post from LinkedIn and I can vouch for every word I have said here. @cheil_india is till date one of the most toxic places I have worked at. Also, one of the employees they lost was one of my friends who I had worked with on the same project as well. Cheil killed him.

— Satvik Sinha (@Spiffy_Hipster) April 28, 2021

Dude don't be shameless, u want to hear my story of wave 1 where I was forced to come to office knowing that I have a 6 month old daughter. It is a good way to save ur job but sorry brother the news is in the market and it's a fact, fact how cheil India works...

— Varun Sood (@varunsod) April 28, 2021

Amidst all this, Cheil India COO India and South-West Asia Sanjeev Jasani engaged in some Twitter conversations trying to clear the agency’s image.

The news is untrue. All our employees are working from home and no one is forced to come to work. We have teams running 24x7 for the wellbeing of our people helping them with meds, beds, hospitalizations etc. It is sad how some can use a time like this to spread bad reputation.

— Sanjeev Jasani (@sanjeevjasani) April 24, 2021

His attempts were countered by several people sharing some details into how the agency was allegedly asking people to come to office despite people testing positive for Covid-19 in the office premises. 

Dude don't be shameless, u want to hear my story of wave 1 where I was forced to come to office knowing that I have a 6 month old daughter. It is a good way to save ur job but sorry brother the news is in the market and it's a fact, fact how cheil India works...

— Varun Sood (@varunsod) April 28, 2021

You lot are clearly shameless Sanjeev! When was wfh declared? After 3 ppl testing positive in cheil 2 it wasn't declared! 15th April when the head HR sent an internal email stating more people wfh are testing positive than the ones working from office were u wfh then? Liar!

— S. (@HolyTatti) April 24, 2021

This is my post from LinkedIn and I can vouch for every word I have said here. @cheil_india is till date one of the most toxic places I have worked at. Also, one of the employees they lost was one of my friends who I had worked with on the same project as well. Cheil killed him.

— Satvik Sinha (@Spiffy_Hipster) April 28, 2021

Employees were asked to work from office till 12th April. When someone tested positive, half of the people were sent home and rest weren't considered close enough. There's emails wanting folks back in office because clients are more important than human lives.

— Mr.Grumpesh (@MGrumpesh) April 28, 2021

The whole incident has, in turn, pushed other marketing professionals to come out and talk about their own sordid experiences of working with several other agencies too.

Unfortunately, #Cheil India is not the only offender when it comes to forcing employees to come to office during these #COVID19 times.
It is a matter of time employees who been impacted due to these inconsiderate and inhumane HR policies will speak up. https://t.co/BNE7WFAY4i

— VT-VLO???️?✈️ (@Vinamralongani) April 29, 2021

All this has once again put an emphasis on the legitimacy of the “hustle culture” that most of the agencies swear by and fueled the long-standing debate of changing the ways these firms operate.

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