Ride-hailing app Uber’s Estonian rival Bolt is calling its employees back to the office three days a week, after its chief executive (CEO) condemned its “disconnected” staff’s habit of working from idyllic destinations like Bali. Did. according to WireThe taxi-hailing smartphone app’s billionaire boss, Marcus Willig, has partially rescinded the company’s flexible work policy, which he believes has led to employees being dispersed around the world. He introduced a new mandatory policy under which all employees will have to work from the office three days a week or 12 days per month.
In an internal memo obtained by WireMr Willig said it was “outrageous” that less than half of the workforce worked in the office at least two days each week. He also criticized the crews logging in from the beach.
“We are very fragmented, people feel disconnected, attrition is very high and our offices are vacant,” the CEO said. Mr Willig said, “We will stop the madness of people working remotely from places like Bali. It’s a holiday, not what we hired them for.”
In his memo, the billionaire boss claimed that working in person would improve relationship building, communication and mental well-being among employees. He urged team managers to show their support by leading by example and creating a “fun” office environment. He also asked them to monitor and manage poor attendance of employees working from home.
The CEO said, “If some people decide it’s not for them, we’re absolutely OK, because the cultural impact is much greater than that.”
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Furthermore, according to WireMr. Willig described the new policy as “liberal” compared with other companies, including Amazon, which last month ordered its workers to return to the office five days a week. Mr Willig also warned that his company could “fall into mediocrity” if it did not improve its performance.
“Even the biggest companies, from Amazon to Tesla to Apple, realize that to stay on top they have to maintain an intense culture and get people back in the office three to five days a week. We are a small company in comparison, he wrote, “to ever reach that scale we will have to work harder than them and do something new.”
Grete Kivy, Bolt’s global employer branding manager, separately defended the new policy. “Working at Bolt isn’t for everyone. We’re fast-paced, and you’re expected to perform at the highest standard. Bolt has never been a remote-first company, and we’ve been about that from the start Have been clear,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
Specifically, the shift to hybrid means employees will still have some flexibility, but they’ll have to live within commuting distance of a Bolt office. The taxi-hailing smartphone app employs 4,000 people in 50 countries, including the UK.
