Elon Musk slams telecommuting as a ‘bull-t’ and a ‘morally wrong’

News

by Patrick Riley

May 16, 2023 | 11:21 p.m

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has slammed remote work as “bullying” and a “moral error” in his latest round of criticism against the hiring practices that have defined the pandemic era.

Musk, one of the richest people in the world, referred to tech workers in Silicon Valley as “the laptop classes that live in la-la-land,” in an interview with CNBC’s David Faber Tuesday.

He told Faber he believes working in an office boosts productivity — and that employees who refused to return to a personal space after COVID-19 restrictions end need to “drop their moral high horse” and get back to work like everyone else.

“It’s all about working from home, it’s kind of, I think, like, there are some exceptions, but I kind of think the whole idea of ​​working from home is a bit like, you know, let them go,” Musk said in a wide-ranging interview. They eat cake.”

“She’s like, ‘It’s like really? You’re going to work from home and you’re going to make everyone who made your car work at the factory? You’re going to be working from home and the people who make your food get delivered—they can’t work from home? The people who came to fix your house? They can’t work from home, but you can.'” That? Does that sound morally right? That’s what I messed up.”

When asked by Faber if he thought it was an ethical issue, the South African replied, “Yes.”

“It’s a productivity issue, but it’s also an ethical issue,” he said. “People should drop their damned moral horse with this bull because they’re telling everyone not to work from home while they’re doing it. Wrong.”

The back-to-office directives in Silicon Valley and across the country have met with resistance from workers, to the frustration of executives.

It appears that productivity at companies has plummeted and investor expectations have grown, prompting executives at companies like Amazon and Salesforce to ask workers to go back to their desks, according to CNBC.

Musk has been an outspoken critic of remote working.

After his massive $44 billion purchase of Twitter, Musk sent an email to all employees in November telling them they would no longer be allowed to work from home unless he personally agreed to do so, and should expect to stay in the office 40 hours a week.