Gaurav Munjal, the CEO of ed-tech startup Unacademy, is being slammed online for wearing high-end attire while announcing that employees will not be receiving appraisals this year. Mr Munjal appeared at the company's virtual town hall in a $400 Burberry T-shirt as he announced no hikes for employees. The disparity between his luxury attire and the announcement was widely noted on social media. A Reddit user shared a clip from the town hall, pointing out Mr Munjal's expensive T-shirt, which sparked criticism among users.
"This is Burberry Black Parker tshirt with embroidered logo. Yeah agreed that one shouldn't go after their personal stuff. But it is what it is," the user wrote.
Watch the video below:
Unacademy CEO shares news of no appraisal year while wearing a $400 tshirt
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In his town hall address to employees, Mr Munjal said that they had not met their growth targets and therefore would not be holding appraisals for the workforce. "I think 2023 was an average year for us. But 2024, if not great, was above average. But we did not hit our growth goals. The good part is that the burn is extremely low now, and we have a huge runway. And I kept saying that we don't have a survival risk," he said.
Mr Munjal cited headwinds, a difficult market, and decreasing revenue from offline centers as reasons for the ed-tech firm not meeting its target. "It's been tough, and that's why I have one bad news that we won't be able to do any appraisals this year. I know I said that we will do appraisals two, three weeks ago, but when we started the process, we realised that we made a mistake," he continued.
The Unacademy CEO further acknowledged that some employees have not received appraisals for two years now, however, he also urged his employees to look at the bigger picture.
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On social media, users were, however, quick to point out Mr Munjal's expensive T-shirt. "These CEO's won't lower their own standard of living but rather stop appraisals for the people who are running their businesses," wrote one user.
"Just take a paycut! That money could have be used to give appraisal to many employees. The ratio of of CEOs salary to an avg employee salary is still too huge," suggested another.
"This reminds me of ex Boeing CEO addressing that company is facing losses meanwhile wearing his expensive designer suits and Patek Philippes with huge salaries lol," recalled a third. "This is an average story not only limited to a start-up. CEO or chairman's take all the benefits from Govt, market, earn crores. When there is time to give back something to employees they call it tough times n bla bla," expressed another user.
