• In a recent interview with CNBC, Elon Musk did not hold back with his opinion when it comes to working from home.
• The Twitter owner called it “morally wrong”, using the misquote of Marie Antoinette in his reasoning.
• He also noted that he believes people are more productive when they’re working in-person.

Elon Musk is in the news cycle this, as he often is, for a smorgasbord of reasons. The one we’re picking today is his recent comments regarding working from home, which he shared in an interview with CNBC.

It is not the first time that Musk has made his views known on working from home, which was the default for many during the pandemic, and has since been replaced by a hybrid model at companies were it is feasible.

According to Musk, however, working from home is “morally wrong”.

As The Verge points out, following his acquisition of Twitter, Musk banned any remote work at the social media platform, with many employees needing to sleep at the office in order to cope with the increased workload that resulted from mass firings and the adoption of a “hardcore” work culture to meet deadlines on new projects.

While some may object to such a work environment, in Musk’s view being at the office while working is far more productive.

“I’m a big believer that people need to be more productive when they’re in person,” he told CNBC.

We can certainly see where Musk is coming from on that point, as research appears to be split in terms of how productive people are at home compared to the office, especially when it comes to the types of distractions that each environment presents. There is also something to be said for the type of work that someone does, as some jobs are easier to perform from home than others, which is a point that Musk concedes.

Where the head of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter will likely see some push back though, is his framing of the immorality of working from home. For some reason Musk saw fit to use the “Let them eat cake” misquote of Marie Antoinette for his argument, noting that it is immoral for those working from home to do so as they would not expect the same of couriers, food delivery people, factory workers, or mechanics.

“People should get off their goddamn moral high horse with their work-from-home bulls**t,” he added.

When asked whether people who want to work at any of companies that Musk owns will need to come into the office everyday, he replied, “Yes”. Whether people would indeed want to work at said companies given the recent mass firings, not to mention the intense work culture remains to be seen.

Either way, while Musk raises some interesting questions as regards working from home, particularly as many parts of the world are operating with a post-COVID mindset, the relationships between employers and employees look more strained than ever.