On Monday (10th August), a former employee of ‘The Print’ took to X (formerly Twitter) to expose the company’s toxic culture, which has been fostered under its Editor-in-Chief, Shekhar Gupta.
Angana Chakrabarti narrated, “This has taken me years to write…It (The Print) was also so very, very toxic. The whole newsroom has always been on tenterhooks, about what one man (Shekhar Gupta) thinks. Someone recently told me he’s “banned” friendships in the office — no one is supposed to talk to each other beyond work.”
“Even in my time there, I watched editors bend themselves to appease his whims, at the cost of everyone else. Forget about guidance and mentorship, they have never want any collegiality,” she further added.
The former employee highlighted Shekhar Gupta’s scientific temperament (or the lack thereof) about dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During the pandemic, they generously hired cabs to ferry us into work. The same man devised his own ways to “keep the virus out”: pointing standing fans at the windows, banning shoes in the office,” Chakrabarti wrote.
While highlighting unprofessional culture at the organisation, she stated, “Then there was the time they pushed me out after sending me to the Northeast, applied a big list of impossible conditions, told me not to do a story because I was “inexperienced” and didn’t know anything about the region.”
She added, Later, I learned they’d hired someone specifically to keep tabs on “productivity”…Work is extracted from us while we’re made to feel like parasites for wanting anything back. Respect at your workplace isn’t a big ask.”
Angana Chakrabarti pointed out that a former colleague confided in her about constant threats of ‘cutting salary over productivity.’
“And they refuse to give LORs (Letters of Reccomendation) for something as basic as an award application because ‘they don’t give it to ex-employees,” she concluded.
The development comes two days after former employees of Newslaundry highlighted sexual harassment at the workplace.
