The signs were always there,” Sutapa Singha tells us over a call from Delhi, “but this came like a bolt out of the blue.” The 35-year-old was among the employees laid-off from the Google and Twitter-backed social media startup ShareChat, on January 16. “We had no intimation,” recalls Singha, a former journalist, who recently moved from Mumbai to the capital with her husband. “When I logged into my system that Monday morning, I wasn’t able to access it. I realised something was amiss. When I checked one of the office WhatsApp chat groups, I figured that there had been a layoff. The termination letter was already waiting in my inbox.” It’s been two weeks, and the news is yet to sink in.

“We were led to believe that everything was okay. Except that during the last townhall meeting in November, we were told that one of our benefits, a Zomato coupon that we used daily, was being discontinued. The reason given was that since the economy was bouncing back, we could now buy our own food. We didn’t think it spelled trouble,” recalls Singha, who worked in the social commerce strategy team of the startup. A few weeks later, in December, techcrunch.com reported that ShareChat, owned by Bengaluru- based Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd., was shutting down its fantasy sports platform Jeet11, and sacking five per cent of its employees. This month, it sacked 20 per cent of its staff. “It’s not like the company was absolutely ruthless,” she adds. “We were given a month’s paid leave, and our medical insurance, we were told, would be valid till until May. Apart from creating a support group, the ShareChat’s HR team has also been following up with us, calling and asking if we need any assistance.”