11 Jul Remote Work: Elon Musk vs Surveys

Remote work heavily criticized by Elon Musk – but what do surveys actually say?

In recent weeks, news about Elon Musk’s and Sam Altman’s negative views on remote work have become big talk on LinkedIn, among others. Many CEOs and HR professionals are now going out and proclaiming the benefits of having employees stay at home – benefits that benefit both the company, the employees and the environment.

It started with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, saying that he thought the belief in a successful transition to permanent remote work was one of the tech industry’s worst mistakes. According to him, the technology needed to succeed with the home office does not yet exist and that the whole thing should be seen as a failed experiment.

In an interview two weeks later with Elon Musk, owner of Twitter and Tesla, that working from home is morally wrong. After calling home workers “laptop classes living in la-la land“, he expressed his opinion that everything in a company should have the same requirement to come to the office – not just the service staff.

At the same time, an article was recently published in Green Prophet which goes through some of the many advantages of remote work, which can now be seen three years after the pandemic. These are bland otherwise:

• Improved mental health of employees – 97% responded in a survey that a more flexible job would lead to less stress and better opportunities that would improve their quality of life. At the same time, parents see that they get a better work-life balance and a better quality of life with their children.
• More time and opportunities to exercise, go for walks and take breaks mean that 77% of employees respond that remote work makes their physical health better.
• Reduced costs for businesses, which can make huge savings on smaller offices and fewer office supplies.
• Studies also show that people who work remotely are less likely to quit.
• Higher productivity: workplace distractions are high and employees are often around 40% more efficient when working from home.
• With fewer people taking the car to the office, emissions are also reduced. At the same time, we also produce a smaller amount of waste in the home office. A win for the climate!

Whether remote work and its benefits really are the future, or whether Musk’s and Altman’s statements get big rings in the water, remains to be seen.

Level Recruitment – ISPA Partner in Sweden
Article also available in Swedish here