It started innocently enough. Or did it?
An internal email from Yes Madam, a home salon services startup featured on Shark Tank India, surfaced on LinkedIn. The company had recently conducted a workplace wellness survey.
No catch here.
But the email further stated, that employees who reported high levels of stress in the survey had been let go, with the insane justification: “To ensure no one remains stressed at work, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with employees who indicated significant stress.”
Within hours, social media erupted. Outrage and a collective “is this for real?” filled the void of the company’s initial silence.
For a full day, Yes Madam stayed quiet. The suspense was deafening. Was this the worst HR policy ever conceived? Or simply corporate self-sabotage?
Just as the outrage reached a fever pitch, the company broke its silence.
The email, they explained, was a stunt. No employees had been fired. It was all part of a PR campaign to promote their up and coming Happy 2 Heal corporate wellness initiative. The goal? To spark a conversation about workplace wellness.
Well, a conversation was sparked, all right—just not the usual kind.
A stunt, they called it. But a new question emerges here: was this really a PR campaign, or a cover-up for a full-blown HR disaster? Because, let’s face it, this “campaign” feels more like the plot of a workplace satire.
The feat in question, trivialised a global issue. One that costs the economy over $1 trillion annually in lost productivity due to anxiety and depression. Where countless workers fear layoffs every day, this struck an undeniably raw nerve.
Honestly, how far are businesses willing to go, just to stay relevant?
With 58% of Indian employees battling corporate burnout, which is twice the global average, mental health is NOT a subject to exploit for clicks.
Trust, the bedrock of any brand, is fragile. And as the dust settles, Yes Madam has to go above and beyond to rebuild it.
Because when a campaign spirals out of control, no amount of rebranding can iron out the creases.
Because when marketing goes rogue, it doesn’t just rattle the cage.
It sets the whole zoo loose.
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