"Stop The Insanity...": Bolt's Billionaire CEO Cracks Down On Remote Work

Bolt, the Estonian rival to ride-hailing app Uber, is calling its employees back to the office three days a week after its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) decried his "disconnected" staff's habit of working from idyllic destinations like Bali. According to the Telegraph, Markus Villig, the billionaire boss of the taxi-hailing smartphone app, partially revoked the company's flexible work policy, which he believes led to staff being scattered across the world. He introduced a new mandatory policy requiring all employees to work from the office three days a week or 12 days per month.

In an internal memo obtained by the Telegraph, Mr Villig said it was a "disgrace" that less than half of employees worked in the office for at least two days each week. He also criticised employees logging in from the beach. 

"We are too scattered, people feel disconnected, attrition is too high, and our offices lie empty," the CEO said. "We will stop the insanity of people working remotely from places like Bali. That is a vacation, not what we hired them to do," Mr Villig added. 

In his memo, the billionaire boss claimed that working in person will improve relationship-building, communication and mental well-being among employees. He urged the team managers to lend their support by leading by example and creating a "fun" office environment. He also asked them to monitor and manage the poor attendance of employees working from home too much. 

"We are absolutely fine if some people decide this is not for them, as the cultural impact far outweighs it," the CEO said. 

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Further, according to the Telegraph, Mr Villig described the new policy as "generous" compared to other companies, including Amazon which last month ordered its workers to return to office five days a week. Mr Villig also warned that his company could "fall into mediocrity" if the firm does not improve its performance. 

"Even the largest companies from Amazon to Tesla to Apple realise that in order to stay at the top they have to retain an intense culture and have got people back to office three to five days a week. We are a tiny company in comparison and to ever reach that scale we have to work harder and innovate more than them," he wrote. 

Bolt's global employer branding manager Grete Kivi separately defended the new policy. "Working at Bolt is not for everyone. We're fast-paced, and you're expected to perform to the highest standard. Bolt has never been a remote-first company, and we've been clear about that from the start," she wrote on LinkedIn. 

Notably, the shift to hybrid means staff will still have some flexibility, but will need to live within travel distance to a Bolt office. The taxi-hailing smartphone app employs 4,000 people across 50 countries, including the UK.