‘Experts’ Dub Elon Musk’s Views Against Working From Home ‘Antiquated’

Two years ago when the pandemic hit, some businesses shut down entirely while others adapted by letting their employees work from home. But with the pandemic essentially over, some employers are insisting that their employees return to the office.

And many of those employees aren’t happy about it.

When Tesla CEO Elon Musk told his employees that it was time to get back to the office and said they could resign if they didn’t like the policy, the media went on offense, dubbing his negative views about working from home as “antiquated.”

Nick Gallimore, director of innovation at Advanced People Management told Business Insider that Musk would need “something of a miracle if he expects people to even stick with him… let alone be more productive.”

“Musk’s comments — that remote work simply can’t be as effective or as productive as working from a physical location — put him in a small minority of business owners who are betting the future of their organizations on the organization design principles of the past,” Gallimore claimed.

But, what exactly is Gallimore’s proof? He cites polls that show people don’t want to go back to the office.

“The odds are stacked against him,” Gallimore said, “with many different pieces of research suggesting that as few as 10% of people actually want to work from the office full-time.”

Gee, you think? Of course, people would rather work from home than return to the office. If you’ve ever worked in an office and tried working from home to save yourself a sick day or if you were home for an extended period of time because of the pandemic, you know all too well that there are huge differences in your productivity between the two environments. Let’s face it, there are distractions at home that you don’t have at the office. You work differently when the boss is around. Some jobs simply can’t be done remotely. If you work in a factory building cars, it’s quite obvious why you have to be there.

Yet, Musk is being called “antiquated” for daring to think that people ought to show up for work… at work?