Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal recently found himself in the hot seat, addressing allegations of harsh workplace policies and clarifying recent layoff reports. During a candid conversation on Raj Shamani's podcast, Goyal countered what he termed as "fabricated" news while defending the company's operational decisions.
Clarifying the Record on Customer Support Layoffs
Podcast host Raj Shamani brought up a sensitive topic, referencing reports from April 2025 that claimed Zomato had terminated 500-600 employees from its Customer Support team in a move described as 'Cold Termination'. Goyal appeared momentarily confused before firmly dismissing the claim. "This news was wrong," he stated categorically.
When Shamani pressed further, mentioning that affected employees reportedly had their Slack accounts deactivated abruptly, Goyal clarified the actual scale. He revealed that the number of terminations was around 20, not hundreds. According to Goyal, these actions were "purely" based on performance reviews that followed "months of feedback." He attributed the inflated narrative to social media, saying, "And, somebody went on Reddit and posted this drama."
The Zomato boss explained the company's typical response to such claims: silence. "We just let it be. We don't justify those things. Scr*w it!" he remarked, indicating a policy of not engaging with what he perceives as misinformation.
Addressing the '28 Minutes Late' Controversy
The discussion then turned to another viral story: an employee allegedly fired for being 28 minutes late. Goyal dismissed the simplistic version of events. He argued that in a clock-to-clock job like customer care, such punctuality is critical for capacity planning.
"The person must have been late for '28 minutes' for three months to get fired... This is customer care. We can't have that," Goyal elaborated. He painted a scenario of operational chaos if such lateness became widespread: "If we don't ask this person to leave... for those 28 minutes, we have absolutely no one on that job." He assured that such drastic action is not taken without prior warnings, framing the social media outrage as an abuse of the platform.
Goyal's Stance Amidst Gig Worker Unrest
This podcast appearance comes at a time when Deepinder Goyal and his company are under intense scrutiny. The backdrop is a wave of nationwide protests by gig workers against quick-commerce platforms, including Zomato-owned Blinkit.
Delivery partners from Zomato, Blinkit, Swiggy, and Zepto staged strikes on December 25 and 31, demanding better pay, compensation for fuel costs, and social security benefits. In response, Goyal has vigorously defended the gig economy model, refusing to label it as "unfair." He has argued that this model merely makes pre-existing inequality "visible" and has referred to some protesters as "miscreants."
This stance has drawn significant criticism. Critics accuse the Zomato co-founder of overlooking the low net earnings of delivery workers, shifting blame to consumer guilt, and exhibiting elite hypocrisy. The online discourse remains highly charged, with numerous articles and comments challenging Goyal's perspective on the treatment and economic model governing gig workers.
Through the podcast, Goyal aimed to set the record straight on specific incidents while reinforcing his broader philosophical defense of the systems his businesses operate on. The conversation highlights the growing tension between corporate operational logic and public perception in India's dynamic startup ecosystem.
