Elon Musk says ‘get off your work-from-home bullshit’

In an interview aired on CNBC, Elon Musk called remote work “morally wrong” and “bullshit,” arguing it was unfair to those workers who can’t work from home.

Musk, who banned remote work at Twitter after acquiring the company, has not been shy about sharing his disdain about work from home policies. But in the interview, Musk was more animated than usual, arguing that remote work was counter-productive.

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

Musk imposed a strict return-to-the-office policy for Tesla in June 2022, warning them they would lose their jobs if they refused to do so. Employees would need to spend a minimum of 40 hours at the office a week; anything less would be “phoning it in.”

Tesla was more open to remote work before the pandemic, workers told CNBC. But after covid, Musk took a hard line against remote work, as well as other preventative measures like mask-wearing. The company also lacked room and resources to bring many of its employees back to its San Francisco offices.

After acquiring Twitter, Musk set the same strict policy, just as he was laying off over three-fourths of the workforce. During the interview Tuesday, he became extremely animated when CNBC’s David Faber casually referenced the policy.

“Get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit,” Musk said, “because they’re asking everyone else to not work from home while they do.”

He went on to argue that because people who deliver food and build houses can’t work from home, neither should office workers, calling the decision “messed up” and a “moral issue.”

“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,” he said.