Elon Musk’s ‘work from home’ exit that drives tech workers crazy

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s words about remote work have disturbed tech workers.

The controversy escalated on anonymous user networking site Blind after Musk in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday called working remotely morally wrong and said those who work on laptops live in “lala land.”

Musk said it’s not fair that remote workers can work from the comfort of home while the people who build their cars and cook their meals have no choice but to physically go to work every day.

After Elon Musk’s words about remote work, many tech workers wrote on Blind that Musk was two-faced and mocked him for being a billionaire.

MUSK IS FIRED FOR HIS WEALTH

In a thread with more than 70 comments on the subject, a Meta employee wrote: “Morally wrong? It is also morally wrong to save billions of dollars.”

Users of the site, which requires them to verify their employment through company email addresses, made hundreds of comments on the subject, while an employee of American electric car maker Rivian, who appeared to be mocking Musk about the issue, and that the majority of more than 480 users said Musk was “wrong” and started a poll in which they voted.

An Apple employee commented on another post about the work-from-home controversy, saying, “In this case, it’s also morally wrong to take a private flight because everyone else has to take a commercial flight.”

According to a college student who tracked Musk’s private jet travel using publicly available data, Musk’s private jet was used more than 130 times last year, including several flights lasting less than 30 minutes.

REACTION ‘MUSK ALSO WORKS FROM A DISTANCE’

Other Blind tech workers said Musk himself is a remote worker. The employees noted that Musk holds leadership positions at five companies, some of which are based in different states. Last year, Musk was known to fly between SpaceX’s launch site in Texas and Twitter’s headquarters in California.

While some tech workers tried to shoot down Musk’s thinking, a Meta employee saw Musk’s rhetoric as a “business game” to get people to keep driving their cars to work and buying new ones.

SOME SAID TO JOIN MUSK

While many tech workers took issue with Musk’s statement, some said they agreed with Musk.

“My generation’s rights are disgusting,” an employee of online payment services company WePay wrote in a post that generated more than 85 comments. The employee said: “His gardener of his, plumber, shopkeeper cannot work from home. It’s disgusting that you demand this as a ‘right,'” he said.

NOT THE FIRST REACTION TO REMOTE WORK

Elon Musk’s comments on remote work aren’t the first stance Musk has taken against remote work. Last year, Musk told Tesla employees to return to the office full time or resign. Twitter also called its employees into the office.

While other tech companies are taking similar steps to get workers back, employees are resisting, with some choosing to quit rather than return to the office.