As companies continue to debate return-to-office and the modern definition of work/life balance, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi isn’t mincing words: “Don’t come here if you want to coast,” he said in a recent Diary of a CEO podcast.
For Khosrowshahi, that means employees are expected to answer emails during off-hours. “If I don’t get a response on Saturday, [I’m] sending them an email on Sunday with a question mark,” he told podcast host Steven Bartlett.
Khosrowshahi linked such commitments to hard work, which he called the most important “skill in life” and core to the culture at Uber, to which he credits the company’s financial turnaround in the last decade. Employees who don’t meet the expectations of leadership for what hard work looks like, he said on the podcast, are welcome to leave.
“If you’re not performing, we’re going to let you know. And if you don’t fix it, we’re going to push you out.”
Khosrowshahi’s comments mirror how he approached the response to the company’s 2025 return-to-office mandate. At that time, when the company mandated work in person three days a week, staffers had strong reactions on an all-hands call, which Khosrowshahi called “unprofessional and disrespectful.”
Since then, major organizations like Instagram, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have instated or upped their RTO requirements, despite research that strict RTO mandates often diminish a company’s ability to attract and retain high-potential talent.
“I think most organizations [that instate RTO mandates] are afraid of change; they’re still in a mindset of command and control,” says Laura Maffucci, vice president and head of HR at G-P.
It’s crucial that HR leaders arm the rest of the C-suite with data on employee sentiment around issues like flexibility and remote work, she says, in order to build a “data-driven case with hard examples” for how employees should be able to work.
“That’s the best HR can do—and then hope leaders make the right decision from there,” she says.
HR must then focus on setting the tone for the culture that supports the work environmen, whether it’s remote, hybrid or in-person, she says. That work will hinge on how well managers can help bring that culture to life every day.
“HR has to up the game on how to coach managers to focus on the right things: Are they delivering the results we want, even if they’re not logged on by 8:30 in the morning?” Maffucci says.
“You have to shift your mindset to say, ‘What are we paying for?’ Is it facetime or results?” adds Todd Davis, HR and management expert at FranklinCovey.
Unless a role must be executed in person—flipping burgers, for instance—Davis advises leaders to pay close attention to what employees expect in terms of flexibility. Because it will have a direct impact on their output.
“People are more engaged when there is a level of trust there,” he says.
That’s a reality that can be met with more attention to feedback as leadership develops RTO and policies relating to work/life balance. Whenever possible, he says, the more stakeholders who can be involved in shaping the decisions—from leaders to managers to individual contributors—the better.
“People want to feel heard—whether they get their way or not,” Davis says.
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