Every day the conversation on creating a healthy, transparent and positive work environment is taking place. It seems with each passing day people are becoming less and less tolerant of unhealthy work practices, calling out CEOs, founders and other executives for how toxic the office environment is.

The latest to join this is Indian Edtech firm Coding Ninjas which faced a lot of backlash when a video went viral showing one of the company’s office doors being locked from the entrance so that employees could not leave without the manager’s permission.

What Happened?

The incident was first shared by Himanshu Atul, an entrepreneur and startup founder on LinkedIn where it went viral and was eventually posted across other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and more.

Atul captioned it as “Employee exploitation and degrading working environment in corporate world is a new trend.

I myself managing my 2 startups and I have huge respect for all entrepreneurs so I do not want to blame specific company but this is worst example I have came across. Founders think that they can exploit freshers or junior employees.”

Coding Ninjas is a 2016 EdTech company teaching various programming and development courses and having over 150 employees and offices across several cities.

It is unclear who exactly took the original video, but in the clip, the security guard is seen literally wrapping a chain lock around the company doors and when asked what he is doing he said “bina permission ke nahi jaane denge (can’t let go without permission)”.

When he is questioned further on whose permission it is on the guard replied “Anurag sir.” The guard then said agreed that the manager had asked him to lock in the employees and not let them leave without his permission.

The Reaction

Among the many reactions was one of a supposed ex-employee of the company who commented about their own personal experience working at Coding Ninja.

Twitter user @reset_vicky or Vicky Kumar, wrote that “I think it was 2019 or around, As a 3rd yr college student I was happy to get selected for the ISP program by @/CodingNinjasOff , but it was the worst experience & coding Ninja exploited 100+ freshers like me for the sharing courses on college gp, Quora, telegram etc.”

He further added that

“- No paid internship And for the 6 Months of Hard work you only get incentives based on the lead you bring to the @CodingNinjasOff .

– codingNinja gives you access to 1 or 2 courses & tell you to finish It

– Almost @Internshala was doing the same.

– Don’t fall for #Careerkillers”


Read More: 5 Ways Employers Can Create A Transparent Workplace For Young Employees, Give Them Purpose


A Twitter user @ankush__singla, supposedly Ankush Singla, a co-founder at Coding Ninja’s also replied to one of the tweets going viral admitting that this happened.

He also continued on to say that “an apology message by the leadership was conveyed to every employee impacted by this on the very same night. Founders and other leaders have also spoken to the sales team individually and in a group to address any concerns.

Such a thing has never happened in our company before, and we promise that it will never happen again. It is an internal matter which we are sorting out and we will take appropriate action henceforth as needed.”

The company also swiftly put out an apology thread, admitting to the incident and apologizing to the employees and the general public. However, it was not really taken that well by the people.

The company in a series of tweets wrote

“We want to clarify that the incident that recently occurred in one of our offices was due to a regrettable action by an employee. It was immediately rectified within minutes, and the employee acknowledged his mistake and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

In light of the incident, the founders expressed their regret and apologised to all the employees. This was an isolated incident and we are taking proactive measures to ensure this is not repeated. Disciplinary action is being taken against the concerned employee.

This was an anomaly at Coding Ninjas and against the core values we stand for as an organisation. We want to assure everyone that this action was not intentional.

Over the last 7 years, we have built this company with love and a deep passion to solve India’s skill gap, and it is unfortunate to see this incident unfold. We regret the inconvenience this incident has caused to all concerned.”

User @nileshkumar777 commented that “Shame on the management of this Edtech if this order was given by the top management of this firm. The recent incidents like locking the employees, abusing and shouting over phone to the employees regarding failure in achieving unrealistic targets by employees, such acts are promoting toxic culture in India. Government must directly interfere in such acts of inhumanism and the founders/ senior management must be booked under the law.”

Another @cricketanand wrote “Inconvenience? It’s a safety violation. How do you expect people to leave if there is a fire or something.”

Many people also took offence to the company calling it an ‘inconvenience’ and not a very serious violation that could have led to a very dangerous situation. Along with that they also wanted to know whether the manager who made such an order had been fired or not, which was not made clear by the company’s initial statement.

Several also raised questions on how a decision like this could not really be taken without approval from top executives and wondering exactly what kind of work environment the company is promoting.


Image Credits: Google Images

Feature Image designed by Saudamini Seth

Sources: Moneycontrol, India Today, Hindustan Times

Find the blogger: @chirali_08

This post is tagged under: Coding Ninjas, Coding Ninjas founder, Coding Ninjas news, Coding Ninjas linkedin, Coding Ninjas anurag, Coding Ninjas lock employees, Coding Ninjas ceo

Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.


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