whitehat jr: Over 800 employees of WhiteHat Jr resign when asked to ‘work from office’

WhiteHat Jr is owned by edtech giant Byju’s, which acquired the startup firm for $300 million in 2020.

On March 18, 2022, in a company-wide email, the startup asked remote employees to return to respective office locations within a month’s time. The sales, coding and math teams were asked to work from Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru offices, respectively, according to a report in Inc42.

This has led to en masse resignations. According to Inc42 report, over 800 full-time employees across the company, including from sales, coding, and math teams, have voluntarily resigned from the startup as they didn’t want to relocate to their respective office locations.

“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,” WhiteHat Jr is quoted as saying in the report.

WhiteHat Jr has been running on losses. It posted a total loss of Rs 1,690 crore in FY21. Between April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, the startup earned Rs 483.9 crore from its operations, while posting a total expense of Rs 2,175.2 crore.