Kids, if you find yourself in the midst of an idea that you believe belongs to an episode of The Office, it’s best not to follow through with it. Unfortunately, nobody told that to Zerodha Founder and CEO, Nithin Kamath. 

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In a Linkedln post about a health program, Kamath revealed that anyone on his team with BMI <25 would get half a month’s salary as bonus. 

The avg BMI of our team is 25.3 & if we can get to <24 by Aug, everyone gets another ½ month as a bonus. It’d be fun to compete with other companies. 😄 The lowest average BMI or the largest change in average BMI wins. The winner chooses a charity everyone else contributes to. Maybe a health tech company can run the initiative. 

You can read the whole post here. 

Now, BMI is not the best way to measure health. It’s really quite low on that list, as a matter of fact. Also, gifting financial benefits to employees who successfully lose weight seems straight-up unhealthy and definitely falls under fatshaming. 

People have since been calling Kamath and Zerodha out on this insane ‘game’. 

If you want your employees to be healthier, start by giving them period leaves, extending sick leaves, giving them leaves for mental health, and making the workplace more inclusive, and less stressful. Tum log khaana kam karo is not a health and wellness programme. It’s what mausa mausi say to kids at weddings FFS.