Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu Calls Out Freshworks’ ‘Naked Greed’ in Layoffs

Chennai/US-based tech entrepreneur Sridhar Vembu has heavily condemned Freshworks’ recent massive layoffs with the firm dismissing 660 of its employees, 13% of the company’s global workforce. Vembu, the founder of Zoho says these layoffs are naked greed in contrast to Zoho’s core values of putting customers and employees first.

The job cuts were announced by Freshworks after which the CEO of Vembu took a dig at the rival company, stating that the latter is in the process of laying off about 400 workers in India. He said that there is no reason why a company with $1 billion in its coffers or 1.5 times the annual revenue and still growing at a 20 percent rate should employ such strategies. However, according to Vembu, what Freshworks ought to have done is to use the $400 million it set aside for stock buyback by creating new revenue streams to re-employ its excess staff.

The essence of Vembu’s criticism is that he believes that organizations should focus on their customers and employees rather than shareholders. The founder of Zoho has deliberately kept his company private, claiming that this helps them do so. He thinks that Freshworks has hurt its employees by mass layoffs despite the fact that the company is in good financial shape and the move will erode employees’ trust and commitment.
Recently witnessed layoffs, including the one by Freshworks, a SaaS firm that originated in Chennai, have given rise to the discussion on the moral right of firing employees even if the company keeps on expanding and remains profitable. Vembu also did not help himself when he was vocal about what he perceived to be naked greed in the tech sector.