Uber CEO: Weekend Emails Are Mandatory — 'Don't Come Here to Coast'

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expects employees to answer emails on weekends — and says those who ignore a Saturday message will get a Sunday follow-up with a question mark attached.

"We're going to be really demanding," Khosrowshahi said on the Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this year. "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."

The remarks draw a hard line at the $141 billion ride-hailing giant. Workers hoping for work-life balance built on coffee badging and four-day workweeks, Khosrowshahi made clear, will not survive at Uber.

A turnaround built on intensity

When Khosrowshahi took over as chief executive in 2017, Uber was losing $2.5 billion to $3 billion a year, and the company was resting on some of its success, he explained. To get the business back on track, he took a hard look at his team and revamped the company's work culture — including how employees spend their off-hours.

"Part of working hard is sending emails to the team on a Saturday," he said. "And if I don't get a response on Saturday, sending them an email on Sunday with a question mark. What's going on?"

The numbers suggest the approach has worked. Last year, Uber generated $9.8 billion in free cash flow, according to Khosrowshahi. He admits working at the company is no cakewalk, but says employees gain real agency, learn a great deal, and can make a tangible difference in the world.

"While you will have worked hard, you're going to have a great time," the CEO said. "But don't come here if you want to coast."

Work ethic as the core skill

For Khosrowshahi, the demanding culture is not just a tool for company transformation. He calls work ethic the single most important professional skill.

"To me, the most important skill in life is a skill of working hard," Khosrowshahi said on the podcast.

Professionals, he argued, get too hung up on choosing the perfect career path — whether to become a computer programmer or a doctor, or to study the liberal arts. The real key to achievement, in his view, is simpler: work hard, and success will follow.

He has passed that wisdom to his own children and advised others to do the same. The CEO holds himself to the same standard.

"I'm not going to let anyone outwork me," Khosrowshahi said. "They may be smarter, more talented, et cetera, but I'm not going to let anyone outwork me. And I think that's a huge advantage that you have, and over a period of time, that advantage compounds."

Hard work with limits

Khosrowshahi does set boundaries of his own. Whenever he is in town, he blocks off two hours for dinner with his family. The reprieve is short. He returns to his inbox at 9:30 p.m., and goes through his emails again after waking at 5:30 a.m.

Balance, he insists, is possible — but something always has to give.

"We believe in flexibility. People confuse lack of flexibility to working hard: You can work hard, and at the same time you can have flexibility," Khosrowshahi explained. "Of course, there are tradeoffs. Life is about tradeoffs."

For a company now generating nearly $10 billion in annual free cash flow, that bargain — intensity in exchange for agency and impact — remains the price of admission.