Startup boss faces flak after claiming employees 'must work on themselves' on weekends. Netizens react: 'What's in it for workers?'

An entrepreneur has recently drawn criticism online after a controversial opinion he shared went viral on the subreddit Indian Workplace. The debate began when Yash Chavan, an Indian-origin American entrepreneur, took to LinkedIn to express his belief that employers have the right to concern themselves with how staff members spend their weekends.

In his lengthy post, Chavan argued that an employee’s choices during off days influence their performance during the workweek. According to him, weekends filled with drinking, partying, or leisure-oriented distractions prevent individuals from improving their skills or progressing professionally. He maintained that without such growth, teams remain stagnant and companies fail to rise above mediocrity.

Chavan emphasized that while some organizations may allow workers complete freedom to do as they please outside work hours, he believes that a high-growth startup demands more discipline. Sharing his personal observation, he explained that employees who did not dedicate six to ten hours every weekend toward skill-building activities—such as reading, learning, working on personal projects, or pursuing fitness—rarely succeeded at his company.

At the influencer marketing platform he founded, Chavan claimed that the culture encouraged continuous self-improvement, which compounded over time and reflected in team output. For him, weekend self-development was not about working on company tasks but about individuals investing in themselves, ultimately benefiting the business as well.

"I DO CARE what my team does on the weekends... they don't have to work on company stuff, but they need to work on themselves... for themselves... otherwise good luck growing!" he wrote.

While Chavan considered his stance unconventional, many Reddit users perceived it as exploitative. Responses on the subreddit highlighted frustration with the idea of employers attempting to dictate personal time. One user asked what benefit employees would gain by “sharpening their skills” on weekends if the primary outcome was simply enriching company founders. They argued that staff members only dedicate personal time to upskilling when planning a career move, not to improve someone else’s business without compensation. The comment stressed that if employers expected extra commitment, they should be willing to offer overtime pay.

Another contributor pointed out the imbalance between effort and reward. They noted that while companies generally revise salaries once a year, employees are being expected to enhance their performance constantly. Instead of following such expectations, they explained that they preferred upgrading their skills every couple of years before moving to another company with a significant pay hike.

Yet another user mocked Chavan’s approach, suggesting that his idea of “weekend freedom” was actually about making workers spend their personal time on projects disguised as self-growth initiatives. They observed that while founders capitalize on such efforts, employees are neither financially rewarded nor given credit for their contributions.

What began as a LinkedIn post intended to showcase a startup culture of relentless self-development thus triggered an intense backlash, with many dismissing it as little more than a veiled attempt to extend corporate control into employees’ private lives.