If you happen to’re studying this whereas working remotely, Elon Musk is judging you.
In a latest interview with CNBC, the tech CEO got here down exhausting on work-from-home tradition, saying he thinks it is “morally unsuitable.”
Musk, who informed Tesla staff final 12 months to return to the workplace or “depart Tesla,” has lengthy been vocal about his perception that individuals are extra productive in particular person. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, he mentioned it is not solely about productiveness, it is also a “ethical concern.”
“The individuals who make your meals that will get delivered cannot work at home. However you may? Does that appear morally proper?” he mentioned within the interview. “It is messed as much as assume that they must go to work, however you do not.”
Musk, additionally the CEO of SpaceX, mentioned he believes individuals ought to “put 40 hours in” and that it does not “essentially have to be Monday by way of Friday.” He mentioned he works seven days per week, and that days in a 12 months the place he doesn’t put in “some significant quantity of labor” solely add as much as “about two or three.”
Regardless of Musk’s opinion, in a 2022 Cisco survey, 78% of respondents mentioned distant and hybrid work improved their total well-being. Nonetheless, there’s an argument for one obvious downside posed by distant work past the CEO’s argument of productiveness and morality: business actual property.
Distant work has upended the business actual property trade
Throughout the U.S., almost 20% of workplace areas are vacant, and people numbers nearly double in massive cities like New York and San Francisco, the place lower than half of the cities’ workplace areas are occupied, in accordance with property administration firm, Kastle Methods.
The difficulty with vacant buildings is not simply the eeriness they possess or the mud they accumulate, however the trillions in debt they doubtlessly foreshadow. In accordance with Morgan Stanley, almost $1.5 trillion in business actual property debt will probably be due by the top of 2025, and a possible surge of mortgage defaults could possibly be catastrophic for an already fragile banking system affected by three financial institution failures in 2023 so far.
Associated: Totally Distant Work Might Be A Relic of the Previous, In accordance with a New Report
Nonetheless, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 72.5% of companies mentioned their staff hardly ever or by no means labored from dwelling in 2022, marking a detailed return to the pre-pandemic variety of 76.7%.