Bosses Still Aren’t Sure Remote Workers Have ‘Hustle’
More than a year into America’s great work-from-home experiment, many companies have hailed it largely as a success. So why do some bosses think remote workers aren’t as committed as office dwellers?
Recent remarks of numerous chief executives suggest the culture of workplace face time remains alive and well. At The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit this month, JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon said remote work doesn’t work well “for those who want to hustle.” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has called it “an aberration that we are going to correct as soon as possible.”
WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani —whose business relies on office space—sparked an uproar on social media and beyond after he said employees who are “uber-ly engaged” with their companies would want to go to the office at least two-thirds of the time. So did the CEO of Washingtonian Media, which publishes Washingtonian magazine, when she wrote in an opinion piece that business leaders had a strong incentive to change the status of staffers who are rarely in the office from full-time to contractor.
Both later apologized for the way their comments came across and said their intent wasn’t to devalue any worker. Yet those public comments reflect some managers’ private feelings and raise the question of whether those who choose to work from home as colleagues head back to the office will have to fight long-held stigmas associated with remote work.
