Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on sending work emails on Saturday: ‘If I don’t get a response…’

For those working at Uber, the weekend doesn’t necessarily mean the “work” stops. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently joined the Diary of a CEO podcast to pull back the curtain on the company’s high-intensity culture. For Khosrowshahi, a Saturday morning inbox notification isn’t just a suggestion, it’s a standard. He revealed that “working hard” often means sending weekend emails, and if his team stays silent, he follows up with a pointed question mark on Sunday.Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive officer of Uber Technologies Inc., speaking at an event in the US. (Bloomberg)In a conversation with host Steven Bartlett, Khosrowshahi shared, “Part of working hard is sending emails to the team on a Saturday,” he continued, adding, “And if I don’t get a response on Saturday, sending them an email on Sunday with a question mark. What’s going on?”Also Read: Who is Indian-origin Balaji Krishnamurthy? Uber appoints MDI Gurgaon alum as CFOUber CEO on work-life balance:Dara Khosrowshahi, before joining Uber in 2017, served as the CEO of Expedia. Recalling his previous company in his remarks, he shared, “At Expedia, in hindsight, we worked intensely and went hard, but not as hard as I’d like. Because Expedia was selling vacations — the product we were selling was about turning yourself off. So we did talk about work-life balance.”However, he clarified that it is not the case in Uber. “At Uber, it’s different. You come to Uber, you’re going to work your ass off. We’re going to be really demanding. 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.”He added that people working hard will have a great future ahead, “But while it will be incredibly hard, you will have real agency at the company. We’re a big company, but individuals can make a big difference, and it’s a company that’s making a difference in the world. You’re going to learn so much, and while you will have worked hard, you’re going to have a great time.However, the CEO warned, “But don’t come here if you want to coast. I’m very clear about that. And I should have been more clear at Expedia, but we were selling vacations, so I couldn’t be quite that direct.”What is the cost of working hard?Khosrowshahi said he himself works hard, teaches his kids to do the same, and wants his employees to live the same principle. “I want that in our company. I want Uber to be an incredibly hard-working company.”At this point, Bartlett asked, “Comes at a cost though, no? Working hard.” Khosrowshahi responded, “It comes at a trade off. And we believe in flexibility. So people confuse lack of flexibility with working hard. You can work hard and at the same time you can have flexibility.”He continued, “So if you want to have dinner with your family — and I’m religious about having dinners with my family when I’m in town, 6 to 8 — absolutely, spend that time with my family. But at 9:30pm I’m checking emails. When I wake up at 5:30am, I’m checking emails. So of course there are trade offs, and life is about trade offs.”Also Read: Techie quits high-paying Uber job to teach coding on YouTube, says ‘This is the life I always wanted’“Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi reveals the future of driverless cars, how he led Uber’s financial turnaround, his family’s escape from Iran in 1978, and the truth about AI, automation, and job loss! Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber and successfully transformed the company from losing $3 billion a year to generating over $9 billion in free cash flow. He previously served as CEO of Expedia for over a decade, scaling the company into a global leader in online travel,” Bartlett wrote while sharing a video of his full conversation with Khosrowshahi on YouTube.