Zoho's Sridhar Vembu says employees who are getting complete freedom have an advantage over workplaces where bosses give clear intructions

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has drawn attention to a trade-off in workplace culture, arguing that companies can either create a predictable environment where employees follow clear instructions or encourage people to take initiative and make decisions on their own.

Vembu said the second approach can feel far more chaotic because employees may disagree with each other and constantly question how things are being done. However, he suggested that this discomfort can also help organisations avoid becoming too dependent on decisions made at the top.

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Vembu explains the problem with waiting for instructions

Vembu said companies that rely heavily on targets and measurable performance can create a culture where employees wait for instructions from the top.

Such a system gives employees clear goals and makes performance easier to track. Managers know what teams need to deliver, while employees know what their bosses expect from them.

But Vembu said the approach carries a risk. If senior leaders choose the wrong direction, employees who always wait for instructions may continue following that direction instead of questioning it or finding a better solution.

"Unless the top always knows how to set the right course, the org can be lost," Vembu wrote.

He prefers a culture where employees take initiative

Vembu contrasted that approach with what he called a "seize the initiative" culture.

In such workplaces, employees do not wait for their bosses to solve every problem. They identify problems, suggest solutions and make decisions themselves.

Vembu acknowledged that this culture can create more disagreements. Employees with strong ideas may challenge each other, and teams may constantly question whether they have found the best solution.

He said the resulting workplace can feel chaotic and leave people with a constant feeling that things are "not good enough".

However, Vembu sees that discomfort as part of the advantage.

Employees who take initiative can respond to changing circumstances without waiting for senior management to give them new instructions. That can help a company react when its original plans no longer work.

Vembu uses programmers to explain his point

Vembu used a programmer joke to describe why initiative-driven companies can produce so many disagreements.

"Every smart programmer looks at another programmer's code and thinks it sucks, I can do better!" he wrote.

His point was that people who actively take ownership will naturally have different opinions about how something should work.

That can create arguments inside a company, but it can also encourage employees to challenge existing ideas and look for improvements.

Why Vembu says there is no perfect workplace culture

Vembu said companies ultimately face a trade-off.

A highly structured organisation can provide "comfortable certainty". Employees understand their targets, managers can measure results and teams can follow a clear direction.

But the company can lose initiative if employees start waiting for senior leaders to make every important decision.

An initiative-driven organisation creates the opposite situation. Employees take more ownership, but disagreements and uncertainty become part of everyday work.

Vembu said companies should recognise that trade-off rather than assume they can eliminate it completely.

He also warned against trying to combine strict discipline with constant employee initiative without understanding the tension between the two.

In his view, trying to create a "highly disciplined culture of seizing the initiative" can produce "the worst of both worlds".

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