4w ago

Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy call remote work a 'Covid-era privilege.' Economists say it's here to stay

www.cnbc.com Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy call remote work a 'Covid-era privilege.' Economists say it's here to stay

Economists say the work-from-home trend, which was widespread during the pandemic, won't diminish to its pre-Covid level because it's profitable for employers.

KEY POINTS

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom President-elect Donald Trump appointed to lead a new government efficiency team, said they intend to call federal employees back to the office five days a week.
Companies such as Amazon and The Washington Post are adopting a similar policy in 2025.
But many companies will keep remote or hybrid work arrangements, largely because they boost profits, economists said.
Some view return-to-office mandates as a stealthy way to reduce employee head count.

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4w ago

Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy call remote work a 'Covid-era privilege.' Economists say it's here to stay

www.cnbc.com /2025/01/02/musk-ramaswamy-call-remote-work-a-covid-era-privilege-some-economists-disagree.html

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Ok, let's say it is a covid-era privilege. Why does that mean it has to go away? Why can't it be a modern day innovation? Isn't it a curb on vehicle emissions? More spending money in people's wallets if they're not paying for gas or coffee or meals on the go due to commuting? What's the fuckin downside?? We stumbled upon a good thing
Oh fuck, I forgot the real estate prices. My bad. Yea let's cancel this whole thing
- You forgot, it saves people 30 mins - 2 hours every day. What are they going to do with that time? Enjoy themselves? Advocate for their own interests?
  No, clearly this cannot stand
  
  If someone still has secret guilt of this looking like a conspiracy thing - it isn't, there's buying and there's buying out on markets, these are different.
  Also a pretty normal thing for authoritarian governments to make honey pots for intelligent people, so that they'd work in some kinda useful, but more importantly well-paid positions different from where they could make a difference.
  I still think there are 3 other components, all of which can be considered good to some degree - 1) feeling of belonging and, ahem, of hierarchy, people all seeing each other and their employer, 2) less disruption in case of connectivity problems, 3) better understanding of processes and dynamics when in one location. To be clear, 1 is bs, 2 is factual, but can be negotiated for some skeleton group, 3 is bs. But some people make think this way without malice.
  Makes me wonder, though, when they say Musk has ASD, how in hell would he be against remote work. Other than commute being hard, actually being present among all those people, boss or not (even worse when boss), should be exhausting. There is that pop culture idea that ASD is connected to being very intelligent (actually no, just caring about interests above social needs), so perhaps it's a PR thing and he really doesn't have it.
  
  No, you don't understand... This isn't a "the government is doing this to control people" kind of conspiracy
  This is a "consulting firms like McKinsey have been quietly but openly pushing the idea of exploiting workers to keep them too busy to advocate for their interests for the last 50 years, using concepts such as corporate culture, surpressing wages, and most recently return to office" thing
  It's the investigative journalism kind of conspiracy
  
  Oh. Corporate culture is something I absolutely hate. I have ASD and get sick from the thought itself.
  
  Musk didn't say he was against remote work for himself. This is for peons like the American worker class, not for the ruling oligarchy.
  But I also wouldn't be surprised if ASD is just PR to help explain away some truly disturbing behavior throughout Musk's career.
  
  ASD doesn't explain anything disturbing. That would be ASPD.
- Isn’t it a curb on vehicle emissions?
  Welllll, Elon owns a large share of a company that makes vehicles. So the more people drive, the better for him.
- It’s also incredibly fucked up that they’re worried about real estate prices falling in an economy where so many are having a problem paying rent or owning a house.

121 comments