‘Laptop class in la-la land’: Elon Musk lashes work from home, calls it morally dubious

Austin: Elon Musk is calling out people who work from home, saying it’s an insult to those who must show up at the workplace.

In a wide-ranging interview this week the Tesla chief executive said that firing up the laptop from home lowered productivity and also sent the wrong signal to factory workers and other employees who didn’t have that option.

“People building the cars, servicing the cars, building houses, fixing houses, making the food, making all the things that people consume. It’s messed up to assume that, yes, they have to go to work, but you don’t,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

“It’s not just a productivity thing, I think it’s morally wrong.”

“You see it as a moral issue?” CNBC’s David Faber asked.

“Yes,” Musk replied. “It’s a productivity issue, but it’s also a moral issue. People should get off their goddamn moral high horse with this bullshit because they’re asking everyone else to not work from home while they do. It’s wrong.”

Musk has been a strong advocate for return-to-office policies and issued an ultimatum to Tesla employees about it last summer, requiring employees to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.

“The laptop class is living in la-la land,” he told CNBC.

In the same interview, the controversial billionaire compared Jewish financier George Soros with the comic character Magneto, a reference that has been interpreted as anti-semitic.

“Soros reminds me of Magneto,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

Elon Musk and George Soros.

“He wants to erode the very fabric of civilisation. Soros hates humanity.”

Musk’s comparison sparked an outcry.

Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt wrote: “Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems.”

“To see @ElonMusk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment – comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros “hates humanity” – is not just distressing, it’s dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.”

Bloomberg with reporters

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