Steve Schwarzman of the Blackstone group said staff want to work from home so they can save money
The boss of the world’s biggest commercial landlord has accused remote workers of staying away from the office because it means they “don’t work as hard” and can save money.
Steve Schwarzman, the chief executive of investment firm the Blackstone group, made the claims about hybrid staff while speaking on a panel at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In remarks first reported by Bloomberg, he said employees had kept working from home because “they didn’t work as hard, regardless of what they tell you” and also due to the savings they make on their daily commute, lunches and work attire.
Even if we accept the premise that remote workers “don’t work as hard,” so what? They’re either fulfilling their job responsibilities or they’re not.
I mean, it’s true? I used to have to spend 11 hours a day to get 8 hours in my workplace. Now I spend 8 hours a day to get 8 hours in my workplace. And I start earlier and finish later because I can take longer breaks during the day when no one needs me to be there. And I get more done because I’m not knackered all the time from commuting 3 hours a day.
They’re quids in (unless they’ve based their finances on the capital gains from owning property in a ridiculously expensive city while shunting the costs onto lower paid workers who are forced to commute long hours at their own expense).
Well they have to have their side hustle too, gig economy and all!
And companies used to know this. Pre-COVID, I got told on multiple occasions I wasn’t being picked for a job due to my commute distance because they were afraid I would be tired or unreliable due to having to travel to work.
I left a company because traffic got worse and commute sucked, only to discover that they shut their doors a few years later because remote workers were getting more done.
Yes, well, he’s saying the quiet part out loud. In his mind workers should know they are finite resources for the company to suck dry at their whim and spit out once they’re done with them.
This is the type of person who would ban lunch hours and eight hour days given the chance. They’re an embarrassment to their companies and to humanity in general.
“remote workers never leave the office”
This guys manages finance people and stock traders. They probably don’t work as hard remotely. I’ve seen Wolf of Wall Street.
Don’t even have to delve into movies. The book “Way of the Turtle” is a first hand account of some of the early algorithmic traders. While there’s nothing mentioned that’s even close to Wolf of Wall Street, the actual work they did hardly filled a full day. Mid-day office ping pong tournaments were common.
I agree, but the problem is that they still have no way of determining that aside from chair to ass ratios because all of the upper layers of these organizations don’t know how to do their jobs.