Elon Musk Calls Remote Workers “Detached From Reality”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk went on a crusade against the remote work crowd during the company’s earnings call with investors on Wednesday evening. This is not the first time Musk has blasted remote work, calling it “morally wrong” and “bullshit” earlier this year.

Here’s where Musk begins to rant about remote work during Tesla’s Q3 earnings call (transcript via Bloomberg):

It’s not a — sometimes you get these, like — no, honestly, I would say it’s like, somewhat correlates with the why doesn’t everyone work from home crowd? I’m like, I mean, this is like some real Marie Antoinette vibes from people that say, why doesn’t everyone work from home? Like, what about all the people that have to come to the factory and fill the cars? What about all the people that have to go to the restaurant and make your food and deliver your food. It’s like, what are you talking about? You — I mean, how detached from reality is the work-from-home crowd have to be? While they take advantage of all those who do, you cannot work-from-home. So I mean, you have to say, like, why did I sleep in the factory so many times? Because it mattered. So I just can’t emphasize how important cost is. It’s not an optional thing for most people. It is a necessary thing.

Musk made similar comments in May. He called remote work “morally wrong” and “bullshit,” arguing it was unfair to those who can’t work at home.

“I’m a big believer that people need to be more productive when they’re in person,” Musk told CNBC’s David Faber at the time.

In June 2022, Musk implemented a strict return-to-the-office policy for Tesla workers. He has since forced Twitter staff to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week.

“Get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit,” Musk previously said, adding, “If you want to work at Tesla, you want to work at SpaceX, you want to work at Twitter — you got to come into the office every day.”

Here’s the transcript of Tesla’s Q3 earnings call: