“If someone creates urgency in my company, they are fired the next day.” That is entrepreneur and content creator Ankur Warikoo’s rule when it comes to workplace culture.
Speaking on the KaashSeAkash Podcast, Warikoo argued that most workplace emergencies are self-created.
“Kuch urgent nahi hai. Kisi ki zindagi mein kuch nahi fatega agar humara video kal nahi gaya… agar humara course kal launch nahi hua. Sabki zindagi waisi hi chalti rahegi (Nothing is urgent. Even if our video goes live tomorrow or the course launches later, nobody’s life will be affected),” he said, explaining that his company consciously avoids inflating its own importance.
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Warikoo’s comments struck a chord with many professionals online who pointed out that late-night emails, “urgent” requests during leave and a constant sense of panic around routine tasks are common experiences in the corporate world.
For many professionals, the word “urgent” has slowly lost its meaning. What was once reserved for genuine emergencies from presentation decks to routine follow-up emails.
But is Warikoo asking workplaces to throw urgency out of the window altogether? Is that even possible? Or is it an oversimplification of an ideal workplace?
While many internet users instantly gave Warikoo’s stance the green light, some questioned whether businesses can really function without urgency.
“I think there’s a clear difference between panic and urgency,” Diva Bhansali, founder of DBound Media, tells indianexpress.com.
According to Bhansali, Warikoo’s approach may work well for creator-led businesses where audiences can wait a day or two for content, but industries such as communications, public relations and brand management often operate in real time.
“We live in a world where news, conversations, and public perception move in real time, and if a brand doesn’t tell its story quickly, someone else often will,” says the entrepreneur.
At the same time, she agrees that urgency should not come at the cost of a healthy work culture.
“The best teams are disciplined and responsive without operating in a constant state of alarm. Clients hire agencies and communication partners to maintain consistency, reliability and timely execution, so while panic is counterproductive, responsiveness and speed of execution remain essential.”
For professionals working in communications and reputation management, that distinction becomes even more important.
“You cannot look at Ankur Warikoo’s perspective in isolation,” says Aakanksha Gupta, founder and CEO of The Other Circle.
“Urgency isn’t a universal villain. In PR and communications, a crisis doesn’t wait for business hours, and a missed window in the press can cost a brand months of reputation work.”
According to Gupta, the real skill lies not in eliminating urgency altogether but in distinguishing genuine pressure from manufactured panic.
“We don’t need to create chaos. But we do need to stay sharp enough to pre-empt it.”
For Karthik, a growth strategy manager, that distinction is exactly what many workplaces get wrong.
“Warikoo said something that needs to be said more often. He’s completely right. False urgency isn’t work ethic. It’s a control mechanism. Mediocre leaders manufacture pressure to feel relevant. The team pays for it — morale, quality and trust.”
He believes leaders often confuse movement with progress, creating pressure around tasks that carry little real-world consequence if delayed.
“A surgeon missing a window is urgency. A cardiac monitor flatlining is urgency. A video going live Tuesday instead of Monday? A calendar preference.”
Maybe that is why Warikoo’s comments have resonated with so many people. Not because workplaces don’t need urgency, but because many employees can instantly think of a task that was labelled “urgent” — only to be forgotten about a day later.
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.
