• Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha said he didn't want to hire people focused on high pay or work hours.
  • Some workers on Blind called the CEO's LinkedIn post "tone deaf" and "cringe."
  • A spokesperson for Careem said the company offers competitive pay.

Tech workers took to the employee-forum Blind to criticize a startup CEO after he wrote a list of characteristics that he didn't want in new hires, including staff who prioritized pay and wanted to "clock in and clock out" of work.

"While I can give you hundreds of reasons to join Careem such as the opportunities you'll have to learn and grow, create impact or work in a hybrid setting, let me instead share with you the reasons not to join Careem," the CEO of the super app Careem, Mudassir Sheikha, said in a LinkedIn post, adding that workers should not join the company if "your top priority is cash compensation."

"While you'll receive competitive compensation at Careem, there are much easier places to earn a paycheck," he said in the post. "For colleagues at Careem, their top priority is creating impact and fulfilling our purpose."

Sheikha added that Careem won't be a "comfortable 9 to 5" job, and said workers who were looking for "structure and certainty" or a "fancy corner office" should avoid the company entirely.

"Colleagues at Careem don't clock in and clock out, they see things through the finish line like owners," he wrote in a post that generated over 220 comments on LinkedIn — many of which appeared to take issue with the CEO's statement.

An anonymous Roblox worker on Blind, which verifies an employee's place of work by requiring a company email address, called the post "tone deaf" and "cringe" in a thread that generated nearly 650 responses. Insider did not independently verify the employment of the users cited in this story. 

"Translation: we'll pay you peanuts, put you in a cramped space with little amenities, provide no training, work you till you burn out and quit so the execs and owners can get a fat payout on the back of your labor," the Roblox worker wrote. "Unless you're desperate, why would you join this kind of place?"

A spokesperson for the Dubai-based startup, which was acquired by Uber in 2020, said the company offers "top-of-the-market compensation" and a hybrid-work environment, adding that the startup offers a more flexible work environment "in a region where more traditional working culture is the norm." 

"We're delighted that so many people have taken an interest in Careem's culture," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Since we published more information on our colleague value proposition we've seen applications soar. Careem continually benchmarks its salaries against a peer group of leading global companies to remain attractive to top global talent."

The Roblox employee was one of many tech workers to take issue with the LinkedIn post.

"Ok, let me get this straight- you want the *world's* 'most talented' and 'purpose driven' employees, but you don't think compensation should be a priority for them — so you want the world's best but you don't want to pay for them," one worker who listed in her profile that she worked at Microsoft wrote in a response on LinkedIn that generated 90 likes. "You think the worlds best should be so inspired by your 'mission' that they should be willing to work for cheap even though you're not a non-profit or running some kind of humanitarian mission here; it's a for profit company, and the 'mission' is to make you money."

While many commenters on Blind and LinkedIn took issue with the post, some were more supportive and a Careem worker on Blind said that they aren't required to work "crazy hours" and compensation at the company is "ok."

Binod Shankar, an executive coach, said on LinkedIn that the post was "fab and rare."

"A honest, helpful & concise description of the company culture from the CEO," Shankar said. "I've always said that poor job fitment (and that includes culture fitment) is the main reason why millions are miserable at work. At least in this case job hunters who don't fit the culture have been warned & equally importantly you'll probably attract the right bunch."

Other CEOs commenting on employee work ethic have found their remarks debated or criticized in recent months.

Startup employees have long been known to participate in hustle culture and it can have major payoffs for some.  In 2019, the United Arab Emirates newspaper, The National News, reported that "hundreds" of Careem employees had walked out of the Uber acquisition millionaires due to the $3.1 billion payout. Though, there are signs that tech workers have grown weary of the grind.