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Bye-bye HR? Bolt CEO sparks firestorm with call to ditch human resources

May 27, 2026 | | Print Article

A CEO’s decision gave cause for “Cubicle dwellers” to rejoice after he eliminated the one troublesome corporate team that he asserted “was creating problems that didn’t exist.”

The source of relatable jokes in entertainment like “Dilbert” comic strips and the 1999 film “Office Space,” many have long felt that human resources departments are akin to litigious micromanagers that suck the soul out of workplaces, crossing the line from political correctness to outright authoritarianism.

Now, Bolt Financial CEO Ryan Breslow’s recent admission to doing away with his company’s HR department has been received by some as cause for celebration and as an example of a different path forward that could set a trend across corporate America.

Writing for the New York Post, University of Tennessee law professor and InstaPundit founder Glenn Reynolds expressed how Breslow, “made a splash last week when he announced that he’d quietly absorbed his financial technology firm’s entire human resources department earlier this year. Yep, the pink-slippers got their pink slips.”

During the Workforce Innovation Summit last week, the CEO told Fortune Editorial Director Kristin Stoller, “We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn’t exist.”

“Those problems disappeared when I let them go,” he added at the time, later sharing the comments with the caption, “I can confirm. We did get rid of our HR team. Anyone who loves creating problems vs solving them has no place at a startup. Bolt is now operating once again as a startup and at Lightning Speed. Thank you Fortune for having me as your keynote speaker.”

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“We need a group of people who are very oriented around getting things done, and there is just a culture of not getting things done and complaining a lot,” the CEO told Stoller.

As Reynolds put it, “Cubicle dwellers across corporate America rejoiced.”

In bolstering Breslow’s point, the professor referenced a decade-old task force finding from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that determined workplace training had not served as a valuable prevention tool against things like workplace sexual harassment.

“In practice, researchers found, those boring yet vaguely demeaning HR trainings seem to make low-level employees feel nervous and less willing to engage with fellow employees who might make a complaint, whether justified or not,” read the op-ed. On the flip side of the problem, a 2019 report from The Atlantic’s Caitlin Flanagan found employees viewed HR’s purpose as more about protecting the company than the employee.

Concluding with a slant toward optimism, Reynolds wrote, “Breslow may be taking a legal risk by jettisoning Bolt’s HR officialdom. But his rebellion is an act of bravery — and a welcome signal that the days of DEI scolding are, mercifully, coming to an end.”

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Meanwhile, as people cheered the potential for HR to go the way of the Dodo, concerns about those “celebrating this too hard” in consideration of “a lot of nuance here that needs to be explored,” found Breslow stating, “That is why I posted the full-length video today. I believe watching the whole thing captures those nuances you’re referring to. Definitely recommend giving it a watch.”

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Kevin Haggerty
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