Consider for a moment the bustling scene of SpaceX’s launch site in Texas or the humming corridors of Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory. Now imagine the silent hum of keyboards from countless homes around the globe, the global headquarters of the so-called ‘laptop class’. Elon Musk has drawn a line in the silicon sand, arguing that tech workers are leveraging an unfair privilege by choosing remote work, a luxury not afforded to the ‘factory class’.

He paints a picture of the Silicon Valley elite, nestled in their ergonomic chairs and bathed in the glow of dual monitor setups, forcing the common man to trudge through rush hour traffic and clock in at the factory floor. “Does that seem morally right?” Musk quipped in a CNBC interview, the sardonic tone hard to ignore. “People should get off their goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit,” he said. “They’re asking everyone else to not work from home while they do.”

Yet the paint is barely dry on this portrait of privilege when you realize the artist himself is bathing in a pool of disproportionate wealth. A pool filled by the sweat and grind of factory and tech workers alike. Yes, Musk is correct; the situation does not seem morally right. But his painting is missing an essential element: a mirror.

The Dystopian Diatribes of a Disconnected Billionaire

Musk’s peculiar stance on remote work is as perplexing as a pigeon at a chess game – scattering pieces with every flutter and coo, unaware of the chaos it leaves in its wake. After all, this is the man who rocketed a car into space just for giggles. The man who envisions a future with Neuralink brain implants and an interplanetary human civilization. Yet, he balks at the idea of flexible work arrangements – something many companies successfully embraced during the pandemic.

The irony is as thick as the Martian atmosphere Musk dreams of breathing. It’s akin to Willy Wonka denouncing chocolate or Da Vinci deriding the beauty of the Mona Lisa. Remote work is not a manifestation of entitlement; rather, it is an innovative solution to an unforeseen global challenge – the kind of innovation Musk champions in his ambitious ventures.

The Tesla CEO and the Tale of Double Standards

In the realm of remote work, Musk seems to channel the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge, clinging to a past where work is a place you go, not a thing you do. He likens those who favor remote work to lazy, self-centered opportunists, unfairly burdening others. However, one has to wonder: does this narrative apply to Musk’s own lifestyle?

The Tesla and SpaceX founder regularly treats us to a lifestyle as flamboyant as a peacock in a nudist colony. While his employees “burn the 3:00 a.m. oil,” Musk spends hours at music festivals, laughing off meetings with world leaders as mere distractions from the fun. If he’s pointing fingers about unfair privileges, perhaps he should consider the three pointing back at him.

From “Innovator” to “Incongruity”: A Conundrum Wrapped in a SpaceX Suit

As the self-proclaimed innovator, Musk seems to be caught in a web of his own contradictions. On the one hand, he’s an advocate for pushing boundaries, straddling rockets, and breaking down conventional barriers. Yet, on the other, he upholds traditional work structures, brushing off the benefits of remote work like crumbs off a billionaire’s banquet table.

In the world of Elon Musk, it’s not uncommon to find a man who has mastered quantum physics yet fumbles with the simple geometry of fairness. It’s like discovering Sherlock Holmes struggles to solve a jigsaw puzzle. His stance on remote work reveals an interesting dichotomy: a man so forward-thinking in his ambitions, yet stubbornly conventional in his management style.

The Sermon from the Tesla Pulpit: A Reality Check

There’s a lesson to be learned here: the man on the pulpit should practice what he preaches. Before Musk takes another jab at the “laptop class” and their supposed privileges, perhaps he should reconsider his own indulgences. If he’s advocating for equity, maybe he should start by sharing his astronomical wealth and providing better working conditions for his employees.

In the end, Elon Musk’s stance on remote work is as bewildering as a vegan at a barbecue. His dismissal of the “laptop class” and their supposed privileges reeks of hypocrisy and double standards. If there’s anything unfair about the current situation, it’s not the privilege of remote work; it’s the uneven distribution of wealth, resources, and power. Perhaps the SpaceX founder needs a reality check before his next launch.

Key Take-Away

Elon Musk’s criticism of remote work as a privilege reveals hypocrisy given his own lavish lifestyle and disregard for employee well-being…>Click to tweet

Image credit: Christina Morillo/Pexels

Originally published in Disaster Avoidance Experts on May 17, 2023

---

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky was lauded as “Office Whisperer” and “Hybrid Expert” by The New York Times for helping leaders use hybrid work to improve retention and productivity while cutting costs. He serves as the CEO of the boutique future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote the first book on returning to the office and leading hybrid teams after the pandemic, his best-seller Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage (Intentional Insights, 2021). He authored seven books in total, and is best know for his global bestseller, Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters (Career Press, 2019). His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, Time, Business Insider, Fortune, and elsewhere. His writing was translated into Chinese, Korean, German, Russian, Polish, Spanish, French, and other languages. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, with 8 years as a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill and 7 years as a professor at Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio. In his free time, he makes sure to spend abundant quality time with his wife to avoid his personal life turning into a disaster. Contact him at Gleb[at]DisasterAvoidanceExperts[dot]com, follow him on LinkedIn @dr-gleb-tsipursky, Twitter @gleb_tsipursky, Instagram @dr_gleb_tsipursky, Facebook @DrGlebTsipursky, Medium @dr_gleb_tsipursky, YouTube, and RSS, and get a free copy of the Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace by signing up for the free Wise Decision Maker Course at https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/newsletter/.