Over 800 WhiteHat Jr employees have resigned from the edtech start-up in the last two months after being asked to work from office, according to an Inc42 exclusive report.

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WhiteHat Jr, a platform to learn coding which was acquired by BYJU’S, asked its employees to return to office within a month’s time. The policy to end work from home was announced in a company-wide email on March 18 which asked remote employees to return to office by April 18.

Inc42 has learnt that around 800 employees resigned from the start-up, unwilling to return to office. The resignations came from full-time employees of the sales, coding, and math teams. More employees are expected to put down their papers in the coming months.

One of the employees who resigned told Inc42 that a month’s time was not enough for relocation. “Some have kids, some have aged and sick parents, while others have other responsibilities. It is not right to call back employees in such a short period of time,” the former WhiteHat Jr employee said.

The employee further put the return to office policy down to cost-cutting measures. “The company was clearly running in losses. This was a cost-cutting exercise to reduce its expenses without ruining their name in the market,” they said.

Another employee said salaries also factored in the decision to not return to office. At the time of hiring, employees were told about their job location – WhiteHat Jr has offices in Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru. However, after working from home for two years, employees believed that their salaries should be revised to reflect the cost of living in expensive cities.

“This was a well-planned and managed layoff that WhiteHat Jr did,” a former employee remarked.

In 2020, Whitehat Jr was sold to BYJU'S in a $300 million all-cash deal. “Subconsciously we knew something like this was going to happen after BYJU’S acquired WhiteHat Jr last year. We all know what sort of an employer BYJU’S is,” another employee said.

“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 told Inc42.

First Published:May 11, 2022 7:24 PM IST