Kevin O’Leary slams people who want work-life balance: ‘I hope they work for my competitors’

While some workers believe they have every right to slam their laptop shut at 5 p.m. every day, Kevin O’Leary is staunchly against it. The Shark Tank star and chairman of O’Leary Ventures is so against it, in fact, he’d be happy for employees who believe in work-life balance to work elsewhere. “People that shut down their laptop at five want that balance in life, want to go to the soccer game, nine to five only—they don’t work for me,” O’Leary told CNBC in 2022. “I can tell you that. I hope they work for my competitors.” O’Leary took aim at the quiet quitting movement that swept through the workplace in the post-pandemic era, which remains a phenomenon across white-collar jobs. Recently, it’s become a pressing issue in India, with employee engagement dipping to just 23%, according to a May Gallup poll. But O’Leary, who is worth an estimated $400 million, said workers who define their roles by rigid job descriptions and hours are only setting themselves up to fail. “Quiet quitting is a really bad idea,” O’Leary said. “Creativity is very much honored in the work environment. People that go beyond to try to solve problems for the organization, their teams, their managers, their bosses, those are the ones who succeed in life.” For O’Leary, the path to advancement isn’t about doing what’s asked—it’s about consistently doing more. “You’re hired to solve problems,” he said. “As you move up the feeding chain, and you want to be recognized and eventually be paid more, it’s because you did exactly what you were told to do, and then even more.” “You have to go beyond, not because you’re forced to, not because you have to,” he continued. “You have to go beyond, because you want to. That’s how you achieve success.” Mr. Wonderful said he actively recruits people who treat extraordinary effort as a personal value instead of a transactional one.