Gurgaon-Based Founder Fumes Over Candidate Asking 70% Hike Two Days Before Joining

Those days are long gone when one would join their first company and serve till the age of retirement. In the age of open economy and options to switch, employees are on the hunt for better opportunities all the time.

However, an extreme case of this culture came into light when one Gurgaon-based startup co-founder fumed over a candidate who tried to negotiate the salary package just two days before the joining date.

The co-founder of Knot Dating, an Indian matchmaking platform, Jasveer Singh on Wednesday took to X (formerly Twitter) with a screenshot of a mail to highlight the misuse of offer letters.

In the screenshot, he showed a mail from a candidate who was selected by Singh’s startup to work as a backend developer. But two days before the joining date, he sent an email asking to raise the salary package from Rs 28 LPA to Rs 36 LPA.

That would be over 70 percent hike than the candidate’s current salary of Rs 21 LPA.

The reason explained in the mail was that the candidate was being offered Rs 32 LPA from another company.

“Interviewed a backend developer. Guy was at 21 LPA. We offered 28 LPA, roughly a 33 percent hike. He agreed and confirmed joining,” Singh tweeted with the screenshot of the mail. However, the name and email address of the candidate was not revealed.

“Yesterday he (the candidate) emailed saying he got a 32 LPA offer elsewhere and now wants 36 LPA from us.

Nonsense. Why agree in the first place.

If you are still shopping offers just say it upfront. We stopped interviewing other candidates and waited through the notice period for the joining date. Now two days before joining, he came back with a new price tag,” Singh said further in his post.

While some of the Twitter users agreed with Singh’s argument that agreements once signed should be respected, others took the side of the candidate arguing that it was his right to get the best offer in this capitalist world.

One X user said, “What’s wrong with this? Candidate has all rights to negotiate. He has skills that are in demand. This is capitalism world, companies do the same – reorg, firing, etc.”

To this, Singh replied, “There is nothing wrong with negotiation. The problem is doing it after agreeing and confirming the joining date. Negotiation should happen before the commitment, not after it. It’s like saying that after getting engaged, your fiancé is still going out on dates.”

However, some users also advised him to get the job agreements signed so that next time such candidates can be taken to court for breach of the agreement.