Elon Musk Bans Remote Work: The Outthinker Perspective
Last week, Bloomberg?confirmed news of an email to all Tesla employees. The message, sent by CEO Elon Musk, demands that everyone at Tesla is now required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.
It’s a daring move—one that conflicts with most workplace trends. Microsoft's 2021 Work Trend Index indicated that 73% of respondents from 31 countries desired more remote work options. ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2022 survey showed that 64% of 32,000 workers have already considered or would consider looking for a new job if their employer asked them to return full-time to the office.
Beyond worker preferences, research also shows that working remotely increases productivity. Data from Prodoscore, an employee productivity monitoring solution, on 30,000 U.S. users found a 5% increase in productivity during the pandemic remote work period. The firm also found that if an employee was productive in the office, they would be just as productive at home. If an employee slacked off at work, they also would slack off at home.
A shocking, contrarian decision is not incongruent with Musk’s character. And perhaps a brand as strong as Tesla can afford to make such a risky move. But here are three data-backed reasons why we at Outthinker won’t be packing up our laptops for a return to the cubicle anytime soon:
1. Remote work enables asynchronous collaboration?
According to leadership and collaboration expert Keith Ferrazzi, the major benefit of hybrid work is not working from anywhere, but working from anytime.
“If you unleash asynchronous collaboration, you can reduce the number of meetings and increase the number of inputs,” he says.
In a hybrid team, an analyst in India can send research results at the end of her day and, while she’s sleeping, a consultant in New York puts the data into a presentation for their client. Asynchronous collaboration can also improve workers’ psychological safety by allowing time to process complex information and letting them work during the hours that they are most productive.
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2. The future of work requires presence, not place?
Last week, leaders, thinkers, and innovators from around the world gathered in Miami Beach for TWIN Impact 2022 to discuss the future of business in a digital world. At that event, Jon Morris, co-founder of NOWHERE, a human-centric metaverse that combines video, gaming, and social collaboration to deliver virtual experiences, said that in the future “presence will be larger than place.”
Today, we may be limited by the boundaries of phones, laptops, or VR headsets. Tomorrow, technology will emulate a full sensory experience to give us the feeling of being together, no matter where we are.
3. 100% in-office work limits diversity and inclusion?
A McKinsey study reported that companies with high gender diversity outperform low gender diversity peers by 25%. Companies with high ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed those with low diversity by 36%.
Remote companies have the potential to reach across socio-demographic lines, neighborhoods, towns, and countries to attract more diverse talent. They reduce restrictions imposed by demographics and geography by making it easier for people to work when and where they want to.
If a company suddenly goes back to in-person, a highly capable engineer who lives two hours from the office, and who happens to have young children and extended family living in their home, may not be able to uproot and buy a house in the city. They are going to rethink staying with that company.
Conclusion?
We will see how the decision to return to the office works out for Tesla. We wouldn’t be the first to question Musk’s logic and be proven wrong. Until then, we expect remote and hybrid work will continue to evolve to take advantage of asynchronous collaboration, experiential technologies, and access to top talent from diverse backgrounds.
Advisor, Product Nerd, Strategist
2 年I’m on the fence here; more on Musk’s side. Productivity is one thing. Innovation is another. As a former Product person, I recall my most productive and creative collaborations and problem solving happened while walking with colleagues directly from the office kitchen to a white board. We had ideas and wanted to discuss asap. After a serendipitous 30 min ideation session, we’d often come up with beautiful solutions. Unscheduled, in person, getting key players involved. I ask my MENTOR dna guests how they feel about this. Has innovation taken a back seat during the WFH era? Most answer yes. Sure, people are productive and get their tasks done. But what about the longer term effects on innovation? You’re the guru on innovation, so I’m curious what the longer term data are. The US is known as the world’s innovator. Our culture is that of collaboration and invention. If I have to wear an Oculus at home for a scheduled meeting to “brainstorm,” my gut says that the spur of the moment creation cycles/energy are missed. Musk conceptualized and sent a rocket into space in a very short span. I’d be shocked if this rapid prototyping is truly possible with people spread all over working asynchronously.
Managing Director Finance at State Street Global Advisors
2 年The tie into diversity is a very interesting one, but makes complete sense. Thank you for the quick read.
Civil Engineering & Infrastructure | Project Management | Agriculture | Strategy | Transformation | Public Speaking
2 年Most likely the approach will be industry specific! One size won’t fit All. So the answer is ? it depends ?! Each industry would have to see what mix works best for them.
Spot on Kaihan. He certainly has brass, marches to the beat of his own drum and loves stringing all of us along. We will see if the electrifying cultural sound it makes with his employees orchestrates into the classical sound of higher performance as we head into a tougher economy or as the letters T-E-S-L-A rearranged tell us - it will end being L-E-A-S-T effective in getting the employees jazzed about the Company they work for and simply ends up being just alot of wind.