Grumblings against HR policy are a fairly common occurrence, but some organizations are taking their dissatisfaction one step further. Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow fired his entire HR team in a single go, framing this decision as ideal for the company. Recently, at Fortune’s Workforce Innovation Summit, the young CEO sat down to discuss the decisions he has recently made at the organization, many of which have come at the cost of a significant number of jobs.
Gearing up to address the company’s drastically fallen valuation numbers, he broached the subject of his “wartime” approach to operations, a strategy that has involved laying off nearly 30% of his workers, firing his entire HR team, and returning to startup mode to build the business back up again. Such rhetoric questioning the relevance of HR is fairly common, but in 2026, organizations are increasingly turning against the very teams in charge of keeping their workforce together.
Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow fired his entire HR department for “creating problems that didn’t exist.” So who’s handling the workforce now? (Image: Pexels)
Bolt CEO Breslow Fired His HR Department to Rid The Company of “Problems That Didn’t Exist”
In an unexpected update to shifting workplace dynamics, the CEO of fintech firm Bolt discussed a decision that he announced nearly 11 months ago on LinkedIn, elaborating only slightly on the reasoning behind the change. He revealed that maintaining an HR team was leading to unnecessary problems within the workplace, implying that eliminating them was easier than resolving the issues they presented the team with. “We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn’t exist,” Breslow explained in conversation with Fortune’s Editorial Director Kristin Stoller. “Those problems disappeared when I let them go.”
The Bolt CEO did not explain the problems that were plaguing the company before the HR layoffs or how their removal resolved the issues they brought up. Paired with the layoffs that resulted in the elimination of 30% of the workforce after previous rounds of cuts already brought down the headcount in the past, it may be safe to assume that the HR team was easier to eliminate compared to other employees who were seen as more central to business operations.
This isn’t the first time the CEO has commented on HR. In a post on LinkedIn where he had first made the decision public, he stated, “I’ve concluded that HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach. People ops empowers managers, streamlines decision making, and keeps the company moving at lightning speed.”
Does That Mean Bolt Is Operating Without an HR Team? “People Ops” Teams Now Replace HR
The Bolt CEO may have fired his HR department, but the pursuit of people management without a dedicated team isn’t on the cards. The leader explained that his new People Ops team allows Bolt to eliminate the “middlemen.” He also explained that this team was “more focused on efficiency, less focused on fluff.” As a result, these new teams step into the spot left open by the eliminated HR department, and allow the company to still claim to value culture, oversight, and balance. When serious issues arise at the organization, employees can now complain to their superiors or the people operations team members.
There is no information on how these People Ops teams at Bolt differ from the HR department or what duties they perform at the organization. HR departments perform multiple roles, including maintaining payroll, managing headcounts, overseeing workplace culture, keeping employees in check, assessing workforce morale, and ensuring the business is compliant with state and federal employment laws and regulations. Eliminating an HR department can come with serious consequences unless the business has a rebranded team in place to perform these duties.
The Bolt Layoffs Came with Similar Sentiments Towards Former Employees
If this approach to HR feels unusual, the CEO reportedly held similar sentiments for a large segment of the workforce that was hired during the height of the company’s success, who led operations during the time he had stepped down from his position as CEO. He explained that when he returned to lead the organization, he allowed employees 60 days to adapt to start-up style operations. Reportedly, 99% were unable to adapt, and most were eventually replaced.
“There’s a sense of entitlement that had festered across the company, and people who felt empowered, felt entitled—but weren’t actually working hard. And this is the number one thing that I had to battle,” Breslo told Fortune. “Ultimately, most of those people just had to be let go.”
With the mammoth task of rebuilding the organization back up to its glory days, the CEO was reportedly forced to abandon some of the policies he had previously promoted and revert to a more bare-boned, “gritty” operation. With the removal of a large majority of the workforce and the resulting downsizing of operations, it is easier to see the reasoning behind rewriting the role of HR within the organization.
People Management Teams Are Essential In One Form or Another
We do not have enough insight into why the Bolt CEO fired his HR team and what problems they presented him with during their time there. What we can comment on is that people management teams remain key to overseeing the logistics of maintaining a workforce. Many workers and employers feel equally frustrated by the presence of HR, and the department is often blamed for bringing problems to the forefront of the conversation rather than reveling in company-wide success. Unfortunately, if they do have a roster full of problems to bring to the limelight, then the problems tend to remain even after they are fired.
This attitude towards HR is commonplace, and we sporadically see grand attempts at shutting down HR teams and operations. Many organizations are now opening themselves up to similar ideas of firing the HR team and automating their roles with AI. This may be a viable solution in the years to come, but for now, the insights these human resource experts bring and the tasks they perform remain vital to operations. Today, employers are free to redefine the goals, duties, and scale of the HR team to accurately reflect the needs of the organization, but as the People Ops team at Bolt makes it obvious, someone ultimately has to perform the role.
How do you feel about Bolt’s decision to lay off the HR department and replace it with a “People Ops” team? Share your thoughts with us. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.
