Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has strongly criticized remote working, calling it “bulls–t” and “morally wrong.” This is his latest criticism against the practice of working from home which became popular during the pandemic.
In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday, Musk, who is among the wealthiest individuals globally, referred to Silicon Valley’s tech workers as the “laptop classes living in la-la-land.”
He said that he thinks that people work more efficiently in the office. He also believes that those employees who declined to come back to an in-person work environment after the end of COVID-19 restrictions must “get off their moral high horse” and resume working like their colleagues.
“The whole work-from-home thing, it’s sort of like, I think it’s, like, there are some exceptions, but I kind of think that the whole notion of work-from-home is a bit like, you know, the fake Marie Antoinette quote, ‘Let them eat cake,’” Musk said in the interview.
“It’s like, it’s like really? You’re gonna work from home and you’re gonna make everyone else who made your car come work in the factory? You’re gonna make people who make your food that gets delivered – they can’t work from home? The people that come fix your house? They can’t work from home, but you can? Does that seem morally right? That’s messed up.”
When Faber asked whether he thought it was a moral issue, the South African responded affirmatively.
“It’s a productivity issue, but it’s also a moral issue,” he said. “People should get off their goddamn moral high horse with this bulls–t because they’re asking everyone else to not work from home while they do. It’s wrong.”
Executives have been frustrated by workers’ resistance to return-to-office directives, both in Silicon Valley and across the country.
Executives at companies like Amazon and Salesforce demanded workers return to their offices due to slackened productivity and increased investor expectations, according to a CNBC report.
Musk has publicly expressed disapproval towards remote work.
In November, Musk sent an email to all employees stating that they can no longer work from home without his personal approval and should expect to work in the office for 40 hours a week, following his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion.
