Thoughts on Zomato incident

On 10th December, all hell broke loose on Social Media and this was due to a video wherein a Zomato delivery person was eating from the food customers have ordered and then packed the food back for delivery.

Zomato was quick to react, wrote a blog post which mentioned among other thing sacking of the delivery person.

Both the incident and the sacking led to loads of views & debates from various perspectives.

Interestingly, a lot of emotions was involved when people voiced their opinion. Fortunately or unfortunately incidents like these appear to be non-binary and has layers of nuances.

My problem was that it was not non-binary. There were enough people who justified what the person did, that is my discomfort.

When we start compromising on values subjectively, we start losing objectivity once and for all.

A common justification was that the person was underpaid, didn’t have time to eat and hence was forced to do what he did.

Let’s not be delusional, he made the choice to do what he did. He broke trust and indulged in non-ethical behaviour.

Underpaid is always relative and if you ask most people in the world, they will say proudly that they are underpaid for gaining sympathy. Does that mean that we all start doing similar things?

Imagine if —

Accountants start cooking your books and skimming off money.

Airline in-flight crew start eating from the food you have ordered.

Bank employees stashing away customers cash.

E-commerce delivery people start wearing the clothes you have worn and then deliver after a day.

The pharmacist gives you a different medicine or half the medicines or takes half the medicines and refills the other with something which cannot be identified.

Our domestic staff — maids, drivers, cooks…since they all believe they are underpaid so is it ok for them to cheat and steal?

And many more such instances can be conjured…

And let's not forget scams after scams which happen regularly where tax-payers money is used for gains by scrupulous people.

Is the above acceptable?

Then why was there so much outpouring of emotions for this particular instance?

Is this because —

It was Zomato (leaders in restaurant discovery and reservations in India) and food-delivery space which is in the news lately?

Zomato can still be called a start-up and start-up bashing is always in season?

It’s easy to take any side just to feel belonged in the thick of things?

Food delivery is getting more and more part of our lives?

Is it because the person was termed as the victim (low wages, underpaid, overworked, etc)?

Before the likes of Zomato, we did have food delivery and did we ever think what if the food is tampered/eaten on the way?

The travesty is that nowadays anything which is high-profile gets bashed and everyone is in a fit of rage on Social Media. The sense of balance and perspective is depleting faster than climate change.

Coming back to this incident besides the rhetoric, my biggest issue is that of hygiene and breaking of trust and for that sacking is totally justified.

My other discomfort is that blaming the company — Zomato for what was doing of a human being. The same thing can happen with Swiggy, UberEats. And it is routine for the same delivery person to work with multiple companies.

Does Zomato intentional recruit such people who would indulge in such practices? Can anyone even anticipate what wrong may happen in future? It’s not a justification but anything done at scale will break in the unknown of places and to be fair Zomato has always been upfront and acted swiftly in the best interest of its customers (including Restaurants).

To blatantly blame the company for everything is foolishness and shows a lack of maturity in all of us.

Genuinely asking, what could have Zomato done from a hiring perspective to avoid this? Should they ask “do you eat customer’s food” before hiring delivery people? Even if one does will they mention upfront!

What they including other food delivery companies and restaurants should have done and now hopefully considering is to have tamper-proof packaging. Beyond this, there is really not much which can be done.

Yes, what happened was unfortunate as it can lead to bigger and serious issues in future but the way it was blown out of proportion was uncalled for.

As a User Researcher, I am very curious to know the WHY behind what that person did. What was the motivation to indulge in such a thing and more importantly can we detect a pattern which can help us avoid this?

What are your thoughts?