Circles.Life Denies Accusations of Layoffs, Toxic Work Culture & Stepping Down of Co-Founder

Last Updated on 2023-07-11 , 9:33 am

In the past year, several major tech companies have laid off their employees in light of the tech downturn.

This month, the telco company Circles.Life is also hopping on the layoff train. And it’s also facing other allegations.

Here’s what you need to know.

Circles.Life Allegedly Laying Off Employees… Again

This month, the telco company behind Singaporeans’ favourite “$0 plan” allegedly laid off nearly 30 employees from the Singapore and Australia teams.

No employee was safe—employees from any department imaginable were affected, including Marketing, Engineering, Product, and P&C. Even employees from the B2B Circles X department were affected by this round of layoffs.

Pang gang loh…

This is far from the first time Circles.Life has found itself in the spotlight for conducting layoffs. Earlier in May, more than 50 employees were laid off.

Well, at least they’ll get to do the “unemployed friend on a Tuesday morning” TikTok trend.

Employees who lost their jobs in this round of layoffs, or as Circles.Life prefers to put it, “graduated” from the company, were notified either by their line managers or via physical letters or emails.

Fortunately, the employees didn’t just mysteriously lose access to the Outlook calendar one random morning—it’s the corporate version of getting logged out of your ex’s Netflix.

“Graduated” employees also received standard severance packages.

Circles.Life Accused of Toxic Work Culture

The alleged layoffs aren’t the only reason Circles.Life is in the spotlight. Ex-employees of the telco company are also levelling allegations of toxic work culture against Circles.Life.

Specifically, ex-employees shared that open gaslighting, intimidation, threats and power plays were common in the telco company.

And the cherry on top? “Work-life balance” doesn’t seem to be in the company’s dictionary either.

Well, that’s one way to put the “life” in Circles.Life.

Junior employees would allegedly OT as saikang warriors while managers pang gang early. But here’s the catch: the employees doing the work don’t even get the opportunity to present their work to the founders eventually.

The managers did so on the employees’ “behalf”, if you might put it that way.

Circles.Life Co-Founder Abhishek Gupta Allegedly Stepped Down

The accusations against Circles.Life involve even the co-founder, Abhishek Gupta.

You know it isn’t good when it involves the ones at the top.

Gupta, who brought Circles.Life to Singaporeans, together with Rameez Ansar and Adeel Najam in 2014, allegedly had to step down due to investor pressure.

The Circles X department, led by Gupta, also saw a sharp fall in employee numbers following Gupta’s step down—from 30 members to a mere five.

Five people do what? Play mahjong ah?

Circles.Life Denies All Accusations 

Circles.Life has since denied all accusations against them.

Layoffs, toxic work culture, and co-founder stepdown? According to Circles.Life, that’s all “cap”.

They added that Gupta is still “strongly vested” in the telco company and that the company’s current global headcount is “marginally higher” when compared to the start of the year.

Regardless, others claiming to be ex-employees have since furnished evidence contradicting Circles.Life’s statements.

So, what’s your take? Do you think the accusations against Circles.Life are true?