- Elon Musk said he sees remote work as "morally wrong" and the "laptop classes are living in la la land."
- The billionaire said remote workers need to "get off the goddamn moral high horse" in a CNBC interview.
Elon Musk had some strong words for remote workers on Tuesday, asking why it was fair for them to work remotely when the people preparing and delivering their food couldn't.
"It's messed up to assume that they have to go to work when you don't," Musk said in an interview with CNBC's David Faber. "It's not just a productivity thing. I think it's morally wrong."
The billionaire compared remote work to a "let them eat cake" scenario and said that he thinks the "laptop classes are living in la la land."
"It's like, really, you're going to work from home and you're going to make everyone else who made your car come work in the factory?" Musk said. "You're going to make the people who make your food that gets delivered that they can't work from home? You know, the people that fix your home, they can't work from home, but you can? Does that seem morally right? That's messed up."
Musk said that he thinks remote workers need to "get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work from home bullshit because they're asking everyone else to not work from home while they do."
The Tesla CEO added that he believes there are some exceptions to the need for office work and he's not expecting workers to put in the same amount of work that he puts in, just "put 40 hours in" at the office — even if you accomplish that in fewer than five in-office days.
During the onset of the pandemic, Tesla adopted a remote work policy for office workers, but factory workers were still required to come into the facility for their shifts.
Last summer, Musk called Tesla workers back into the office and issued an ultimatum: return to the office for at least 40 hours a week or quit. Just a few weeks later, the electric-car company began tracking when employees badged into the office. Musk also called Twitter employees back into the office shortly after taking over the company.
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