Deepinder Goyal led Zomato, an online food delivery giant, sacked over 600 customer support employees without notice. This has sparked anger among laid-off employees, as exaggerated dreams during recruitment are neglected. Reports say this is due to Nugget, an AI-powered customer support platform. Let’s explore everything in detail.
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Zomato Layoffs: Sacks Over 600 Employees.
Zomato, an Indian multinational food delivery company, is again in the news due to its bold step toward customer support associate major cut off. As of reports, the company has laid off over 600 employees within a year of hiring them without any prior notice, or chance to improve.
As per the Monecontrol report, Zomato’s Gurugram-based firm had hired almost 1,500 employees under its Zomato Associate Accelerator Program (ZAAP) a year ago in customer support roles. They were offered chances to shift to roles across sales, operations, program management, support, supply chain, and category teams within a year.
A majority of employees hired under the ZAAP program in Gurugram and Hyderabad were forced to resign from the company without any prior announcement. While Zomato has no official statements but several former and current employees revealed at Moneycontrol.
Employee revealed that affected employees were offered two months’ salary as compensation and terminated without any prior notice, only citing silly reasons such as poor performance and poor punctuality. Though Zomato didn’t respond to queries sent by Moneycontrol on March 26, regarding the rumour.
Interestingly, this comes when food delivery giant Zomato is witnessing ga rowth slowdown and its quick commerce arm, Blinkit, is in heavy loss. Several reports estimate that the company is leveraging AI to automate the customer support force, cutting costs. Before exploring these estimates, let’s first know about laid-off workers and anger.
Laid Off Employees Unveil Truth.
Employees who suffered from this termination unveiled their rage over social media and explained the injustice to them. News related to Zomato’s layoffs popped up on March 25 with a Reddit post by a person claiming to be a former employee of the company.
In the Reddit post employee revealed Zomato gave a “Ridiculous” reason for termination. He wrote, “Today, I was fired from Zomato for what I can only describe as a ridiculous and unfair reason: being late by an average of just 28 minutes over the past three months.”
He wrote that not only I but also 300+ other employees lost their jobs without any warning. He is let go even after having a great record, and a strong presence isn’t valued- “No warning, no opportunity to improve—just a cold termination, despite having excellent metrics, a great track record, and a strong presence on the floor, “he wrote.
The employee even expresses disappointment that Zomato does not understand the employee’s contribution, and shows zero willingness to give a chance. ” Zomato showing zero willingness to listen or give even a single chance for improvement, “He said.
“They didn’t care about the effort we put in, the results we delivered, or the dedication we showed. Just like that, they wiped out hundreds of jobs without a second thought, “He wrote.
He further explains the harsh reality of these so-called companies and warns them of the same consequence. He wrote, “This isn’t about a few minutes of lateness—it’s about a company that treats employees as disposable, no matter their contributions”.
“If you’re working at Zomato or thinking of joining, be warned: your hard work means nothing to them when they decide it’s time to cut numbers, “He warns the onboarded employees with the same bridge to pass of layoffs.
While another X-Zomato employee shared the same incident, how he and along with 500 other employees were treated like a disposal. Except for promises of career growth, they were terminated without any warnings.
“Zomato promised us career growth—promotions, salary hikes, stability. We worked longer hours, pushed harder, believed in the company. Then, out of nowhere, they fired 500+ of us. No warning. No accountability. Just a cold, ‘We never promised anything, “He wrote on Reddit.
Nugget: AI Platform Can be Reason.
Some reports hint that Nugget, Zomato’s AI-powered, no-code customer support platform, can be the reason for this termination. Reports say that the layoffs come at a time when Zomato’s “Nugget” finally launches after three years of development.
Nugget is an AI-powered customer support platform designed to automate the business interactions and streamline operations across Zomato’s brands, such as Blinkit, Hyperpure. As per the company, Nugget is working as expected, handling over 15 million monthly interactions across Zomato, Blinkit, and Hyperpure.
As per reports, Nugget is designed to provide cost-effective solutions for businesses, decided to strengthen customer support. Most importantly, Nugget has managed 80% of inquiries without human interaction efficiently.
Zomato: A Big Loss Report.
Another estimate claims the company’s major slowdown. According to the company’s annual report, at the end of FY24, Zomato’s workforce grew by 34% to 8,244, from an employee count of 6,173 in FY23. In Q3 FY25, the company reported a profit of $59 crore, which declined by 57% compared to ₹138 crore profit during the same quarter last year.
However, its revenue from operations grew significantly. Zomato reported 64% revenue growth from operations Year on Year to ₹5,404 crore in Q3, up from ₹3,288 crore during the same quarter last year. In the previous quarter,r it had reported revenue of ₹4,799 crore.
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