Making Staff Run Laps, Tearing Presentations: See How Ola CEO made workplace ‘toxic’ for his employees

Ola’s employees broke their silence on the hostile work environment that they face because of the ruthless behaviour of their founder Bhavish Aggarwal. The employees of the Bengaluru-based start-up alleged that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder Bhavish Aggarwal, often dumps his anger outbursts on his employees and punishes them for smallest mistakes.

Ola’s employees broke their silence on the hostile work environment that they face because of the ruthless behaviour of their founder Bhavish Aggarwal.

The employees of the Bengaluru-based start-up alleged that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder Bhavish Aggarwal, often dumps his anger outbursts on his employees and punishes them for smallest mistakes.

The employees further alleged that the CEO has made Ola a toxic environment by not caring at all about his employees and holding meetings at 1 a.m in the morning.

The ride-sharing platform which seeked to become the leader of the industry for its electric vehicles landed on the headlines and for all the wrong reasons. The toxic behaviour of Bhavish Aggarwal seemed to have also uspet the board members.

As per the employees, there have been instances where the CEO would tear up the presentation papers just because of a missing page number. In another instance, the employees cited that the CEO would belittle his staffs by telling them that they are useless and would also use Punjabi epithets directed at them.

What is actually happing in Ola?

The employees both who are working and who worked in the company disclosed how they have to put up with the toxic behaviour of the CEO on the condition of anonymity to Bloomberg.

As per the employees, there have been instances where the CEO would tear up the presentation papers just because of a missing page number. In another instance, the employees cited that the CEO would belittle his staffs by telling them that they are useless and would also use Punjabi epithets directed at them.

Not only that, allegations have been made against Aggarwal that he even lost his cool over a sentence in a memo, quality of printing paper and even a crooked paper clip.

If you think this is bad, you will be flabbergasted to hear that because a shuttered entryway was left open, the CEO had ordered a worker to run three laps around the several-acre Ola Futurefactory as per reports by Bloomberg.

CEO Aggarwal has further been criticised for setting unreasonable deadlines and holding impromptu meetings far after midnight, sometimes even as late as 1 am or 3 am.

CEO Aggarwal has further been criticised for setting unreasonable deadlines and holding impromptu meetings far after midnight, sometimes even as late as 1 am or 3 am.

A former employee if Ola told Deccan Herald in May that Bhavish Aggarwal cut short the launch window for the Ola S1 series by two to three months.

The employee further said that Bhavish Aggarwal further cut short the timeframe by two to three more months while the company was getting ready for the introduction of Ola e-scooters after pushing ahead the deadline by some time.

Even though the early deadline was a priority for the top engineers, “after the timeframe was shortened further, we recognised it cannot happen,” they said.

And the series of claims against the OLA CEO goes on and on.

This behaviour of the CEO also forced many workers of the Ola quit their job. Varun Dubey, the chief marketing officer of Ola Electric, left his position in May, claiming personal reasons. Dinesh Radhakrishnan had departed the startup before him.

These departures followed those of other high-ranking employees, such as Ola CFO Swayam Saurabh, Ola Cars CEO Arun Sirdeshmukh, Ola Chief Operating Officer Gaurav Porwal and Ola Electric’s Head of Quality Assurance Joseph Thomas.

However, when Bhavish Aggarwal was questioned about his work style in an interview, he replied saying not everyone is fit enough to work for a culture like Ola’s. The CEO defended his arrogant behavior saying that he wanted to build companies that have a long-term impact, even if it meant upsetting some people.

However, when Bhavish Aggarwal was questioned about his work style in an interview, he replied saying not everyone is fit enough to work for a culture like Ola’s. The CEO defended his arrogant behavior saying that he wanted to build companies that have a long-term impact, even if it meant upsetting some people.

He further said that emotions and passion run high and it is not an easy journey. His anger and frustration implied him as a whole and he did not want to choose an easier journey for Ola.

The allegations of the toxic work environment at Ola have infuriated netizens, with many criticising the company and its founder.