YesMadam Allegedly Gave Employees a Stress Survey and Fired Those Who Said They Were Stressed
“You are stressed? Maybe no income will help.”
Published Dec. 9 2024, 3:45 p.m. ET
Beauty booking platform YesMadam, known for bringing beauty and spa services straight to your home, found itself in hot water in December 2024. The controversy? Allegedly firing employees who reported being "significantly stressed" in a stress survey sent out by the company. Wait, did they really ask employees to open up about their feelings, only to retaliate against them? Hmm, that doesn’t sound very legal, does it?
While some skeptics are brushing off the alleged "stress survey" firings as a PR stunt, others are suggesting the layoffs happened thanks to a circulating screenshot. The screenshot shows an email reportedly from YesMadam's HR and Administration Manager, Ashu Arora Jha. A quick LinkedIn check confirms she does work for the company, which raises even more questions: Did this really happen? What did the email say, and is it legit?
India-based beauty company Yes Madam is being accused of laying off employees for being stressed.
According to the alleged viral email sent by YesMadam’s HR and Administration Manager, Ashu Arora Jha, employees who marked "significant stress" on a recent stress survey were laid off. X (formerly Twitter) user Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) along with others shared the screenshot, along with a few others.
The email reportedly begins by acknowledging the survey, which was sent “to understand your feelings about stress at work.”
It continues: “As a company committed to fostering a healthy and supportive work environment, we have carefully considered the feedback. To ensure that no one remains stressed at work, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with employees who indicated significant stress.”
The email states the decision was “effective immediately” and adds that affected employees would “receive further details separately.” It ended with Ashu thanking the recipients for their "contributions" — a bit ironic, considering those who entrusted the company to handle their feelings with care and consideration allegedly had that very information used as a reason to fire them.
While it’s certainly not healthy for folks to stay in a job that makes them significantly stressed — stress can manifest into physical conditions — it should be up to an employee who is performing satisfactorily to decide whether to leave. People got bills!
The email not only sparked a flood of critical comments from people reacting to the alleged contents and chiming in on YesMadam's posts on X, but it also inspired a surprising response.
Sheel shared a photo on X showing delivery app Magicpin jumping on the news to recruit new employees. In the photo, one person held a sign reading, "No Madam: Stressed employees can perform! Because they care." Another sign read, "Magicpin invites laid-off employees to join across departments," complete with an HR email for more information.
YesMadam appeared on 'Shark Tank India' during Season 3.
YesMadam is perhaps best known as the India-based company that appeared on Season 3 of Shark Tank India in early 2024. Thanks to their impressive pitch, Yes Madam reportedly secured a deal with investors Aman Gupta, Piyush Bansal, Ritesh Agarwal, and Vineeta Singh, giving up 2 percent equity in their company.
While the company has yet to comment on the alleged stress survey layoffs as of this writing, let’s just say they might want to address the situation soon — these claims are spreading like wildfire.
