Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke seems to have changed his tune on work-life balance. Lutke was once seen as a shining example of modern man’s quest for success without burning the midnight oil. After all, in 2019, the founder of Canadian e-commerce company Shopify declared that working 80 hours a week is not mandatory for success, and that he himself worked only 40 hours a week. In what could be seen as a sign of the times, the tweet has now been deleted.
Lutke’s U-turn
At a time when Silicon Valley is prioritising efficiency over work-life balance, Lutke seems to have changed his tune too.
His 2019 tweet – where he declared that he hardly ever worked more than 40 hours a week while growing his $125 billion e-commerce company – has been deleted. Instead, the Shopify CEO now insists that he works over 10 hours a day and on weekends too.
“I’ve never worked through a night,” Lutke said in a tweet around half a decade ago. “The only times I worked more than 40 hours in a week was when I had the burning desire to do so. I need 8ish hours of sleep a night. Same with everybody else, whether we admit it or not.”
The post was covered at the time by CNBC and Business Insider, among other media outlets.
Then vs now
Now, the CEO of Shopify begs to differ.
“Yea but this is commonly misunderstood. I’m at home for dinner but I work at least 10 or so hours a day and a lot of the weekend. I don’t want people to get misguided by this meme,” he said earlier this month on X.
Lutke’s stance seems to have changed at a time when Silicon Valley employees are increasingly being pushed to perform better. Meta, for example, said it would reduce its workforce by 4,000, targeting employees deemed to be ‘underperformers.’
Microsoft, once envied for its relatively lax corporate culture, seems to be undergoing an overhaul too. The tech giant has replaced its longtime HR chief and has laid off 2,000 workers this year already, based on performance.