Elon Musk declares war on teleworking: "I think it is morally wrong"

As always happens with the controversial Elon Musk, his opinions have again left many technological experts offside.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
22 May 2023 Monday 13:42
7 Reads
Elon Musk declares war on teleworking: "I think it is morally wrong"

As always happens with the controversial Elon Musk, his opinions have again left many technological experts offside. In a sector where it seems that teleworking is increasingly tending -especially since the Covid pandemic-, the owner of Twitter has been totally opposed to this practice in an interview for CNBC.

In this talk, Elon Musk called remote working "morally wrong" and "bullshit", arguing that it was unfair to workers who can't do it from home. In fact, since he acquired Twitter, he made it very clear that his will was to recover face-to-face.

During the interview Elon Musk has also rescued an argument that seems more typical of an old-school company than of a technological pioneer like him: "I am a great advocate that people are more productive when they work in person," he told David Faber of CNBC.

For this reason, he has issued a warning appeal to those employees who continue to request the option of teleworking: "Get off your damn moral horse with this shit about working from home," he pointed out. Many of these people, according to Musk, "are asking everyone else not to work from home while they do."

Elon Musk's recommendation -or threat- has gone further, with a message directly sent to his employees: "If you want to work at Tesla, SpaceX or Twitter, you have to go to the office every day", he warned, justifying that jobs such as delivering food or building buildings cannot be done from home, so letting others do it is "a moral issue."

Elon Musk's remarks are very much in line with his policy in recent years, when the Tesla founder imposed a strict return-to-office policy in June 2022, warning them that they would lose their jobs if they refused to do so and did not comply with the least 40 hours per week in the office.