Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman says remote workers 'don't work as hard' and profit from working from home

• Stephen Schwarzman said remote workers "don't work as hard regardless of what they tell you."
• The founder and CEO of Blackstone was speaking at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative.

Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman said on Tuesday that people benefited from remote work because they can save on commuting and meals while not having to work as hard.

"It was actually more profitable for them to stay at home because, one, they didn't work as hard regardless of what they tell you. And the second is they don't spend money to commute," Schwarzman, the founder and CEO of global private equity firm Blackstone, said during a panel discussion at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative.

"You know, they can make their lunch at home. They don't have to buy expensive clothes. And so their incomes are higher," Schwarzman added.

Blackstone confirmed to Insider that the company's investment team staff work in the office five days a week.

Insider previously reported in May 2021 that Blackstone spent $20 million on COVID-19 safety precautions, including covering employee cab fares for commuting, to ease the initial return to the office.

During Tuesday's panel discussion, Schwarzman said the prevalence of remote working could result in more vacant office buildings.

"So you're looking at office buildings that basically are 40% unused. So I expect when those leases roll-off, the companies will cut back the amount of space," Schwarzman said.

This, he said, would mean that "those office buildings are not survivable, you know, as economic entities."

Schwarzman, whose remarks were first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, isn't the only business executive who's criticized remote work.

In July, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told The Economist in an interview that while he could understand why employees might not want to commute for hours daily, it "doesn't mean they have to have a job" at JPMorgan either.

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the remote working crowd was "detached from reality" during Tesla's third-quarter financial results call.

"How detached from reality does the work-from-home crowd have to be? While they take advantage of those who cannot work from home," Musk said then.

Nearly two-thirds of bosses expect a total return to office by 2026, according to last month's KPMG CEO Outlook survey. In addition, 87% of respondents told KPMG that they are more likely to dole out promotions and increments to staff who opt to return to the office.