‘Kya Chal Raha Hai?’ is the question that Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola wants an answer to from his employees. And he wants to know the same every week, which is why this latest initiative is called Kya Chal Raha Hai?
Yes, Aggarwal has asked his employees to submit a report every week, before Sunday, giving three to five bullet points outlining their accomplishments.
The employees have been ordered to send the updates directly to Aggarwal at Kyachalrahahai@olagroup.in and to the managers they directly report to. The mandate applies to each and every member of the staff and excludes none.
These points are to be short, crisp and put down in very clear and simple language and mailed with the subject line, ‘Weekly updates’.
Last December Bhavish Aggarwal had made it very clear that action would be taken against employees with poor attendance. He had informed the employees of his alarming discovery that many members of the workforce had extremely poor attendance and had questioned their sense of self-respect.
He had implied that by not coming in to work, employees were misusing the work-from-home-privilege, which was to be used only under genuine circumstances that demand the same. He pointed out how insulting and disrespectful absenteeism can be to the genuine employees who actually work hard and contribute meaningfully at work.
While Bhavish Aggarwal’s Kya Chal Raha Hai mandate may be just another way of ensuring discipline and productivity at work, his directive has pushed social-media users to call him a copycat. Why? Because it hasn’t been long since Elon Musk issued such a mandate to federal government staff in the US. A controversial email from Elon Musk’s cost-cutting task force demanded that federal employees list their weekly accomplishments or risk being considered as having resigned. Musk’s directive was part of an external initiative to reduce government spending. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force that Musk heads spearheaded the move, claiming it was an effort to assess productivity.
