Seemingly taking a leaf from Elon Musk’s playbook, Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal took to Twitter to share some of his (unsolicited) “advice”.
Contents
Promoting own advice
“The first piece of advice I give every early stage Founder I meet is to ban remote work in their org and call everyone back to Office (except for genuine cases).
In almost every case I get a message a few weeks later saying that this advice was game changing for their org”, he tweeted.
Needless to say, the comment section is an entertaining one, and one that raises several good counterpoints.
How it actually goes
One user astutely noted the trend with company heads going on the offensive against remote work.
User Maru @MaruDhamdhere noted,
and a few weeks later they fire employees
and a few weeks later they start giving this junk advice to others
and a few weeks later they get a message saying that this advice was game changing for their org
and a few weeks later…
(He then shared a screenshot of a Mint article with the headline “Unacademy sacks 350 employees in third round of job cuts in a year”, dated 7 Nov)
Do the old values hold up?
Three users in a different thread debated on what it actually is that makes in-office work better than remote.
Sreenivasa Sarma Bhagavathula @InverseInvestor commented,
“Discipline, motivation to work, and better manageability”
What’s the manager’s job then?
To which KC @KC71833265 brought up a rather intelligent point.
“Sorry bud – if you can’t manage someone remotely, you’re a bad manager. And the people you hire should already be disciplined and motivated. Maybe you should pay more.”
I could highlight a few others but since they contain profanity, I will simply leave the link to take a gander at it yourselves.
20 days at a mega-luxury hotel, no big deal
User Hodler Pleb @ApeBitcoin referenced a Moneycontrol article dated Mar 18, quoting the lines,
“He has, on occasion, rented a suite for 20 days at a time at The Oberoi, Bengaluru, among the city’s top hotels, favoured by him for its hospitality. He tells close associates that staying there helps him be productive.”
The article in question.
Rule by fear, copy the next Steve Jobs
From the same article:
“..an unabashed fan of Apple and Steve Jobs, has modelled himself and his company on the legendary but mercurial founder.
Employees have been scared of Munjal, his brutal feedback and the pressure that comes with working at Unacademy, similar to Apple and Jobs..”
The best comedians/satirists in the world could not make this up.
Self delusion, seek help not profits
The Indian entrepreneur’s fascination with white CEOs, although they have innovations and game changers to their credit, at the end of the day are horrible and unpredictable people to work for, isn’t slowing any time soon.
“Munjal acknowledged that he was “an angry young man” in his early days.
I always have been a very aggressive founder who had very strong opinions about everything. And who used to get very, very highly pissed if something was not done his way,” said he in a podcast.”
Completely healthy behavior.