🥴 Why is Elon obsessed with remote work? | Ep13 OoO

🦚 Bloomberg: Musk insists on return to office at Twitter

📰 The New York Times: Fallout from the talent wars

Hey! Welcome Back -

It’s lucky number 13 this week, and things are heating up.

The headlines have been flocking around a particular billionaire since he up and bought one of the largest social media platforms in the world.

So, this week we’re raiding nests, breaking eggs, and going Alfred Hitchcock on some of Elon Musk’s opinions on remote work.

Let’s take off –

Elon Trashes Remote Work

It took 913 days to shift to permanent remote work, and then - to a permanent remote work ban over at Twitter.

It happened through email both times, sent by the respective CEOs.

Jack Dorsey announced a “Work From Home Forever” policy way back in May 2020, but it took incoming CEO Elon Musk less than 2 weeks to demand the opposite:

Source Economic Times, India

🤔 What makes this even more interesting is what a huge priority it was for Elon.

This was his first companywide email, just 14 days after taking the reins.

At 2:30 in the morning.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat this message…” the email began. He sure didn’t.

Something is hitting the fan. Something worse than the drama over blue checkmarks, and it’s not just Twitter caught up in it. It’s everyone.

🌋 Silicon Valley is suffering a devastating talent apocalypse.

This month in the US alone, more than 25,000 tech workers lost their jobs.

Happy Thanksgiving! – have the rest of your life off 😳

November 2022 has been one of the worst months in the history of tech. It’s one heck of a way to end a year where over 100,000 people lost their jobs in the US.

Globally who knows how many more people lost their jobs.

• Stripe - 1000 employees
• Twitter - 50% of its workforce
• Meta - 11,000 people

One thing these announcements have in common is that they blame layoffs on overzealous expansion of teams and projects.

Erin Griffith reported

Mark Zuckerberg: “I made the decision to significantly increase our investments…unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”

Sure, we’re in a period of economic downturn and layoffs happen.

What makes this different from every other recession is that for the last 10 years companies have been betting big on people and real estate too.

Giant Campuses: Why? Asked Everyone

Everyone from Google to Apple opened giant campuses that look like mini cities.

Then COVID-19 struck.

Why are they apologizing for investing in people, and not apologizing for the gross investment in buildings barely anyone has used in years?

Seems foolish for a company who has shifted their entire focus to virtual reality, to still expect their workers to be at the office.

Around the world workers have realized:

• Remote work is better in every way
• Arguments against it have been repeatedly proven wrong

👀 Weird that companies who should have seen this coming were looking the other way.

They should have been innovating to free business results from physical limitations – but instead they doubled down on ‘going back.’

In the meantime there are trillion-dollar campuses they still have to pay for, and half the people meant to use that space have been laid off.

The Point: Swing or Miss

Swing big and sometimes you miss.

The smartest people slow down or stop before the next pitch. They dust themselves off a little, realign, and swing better next time.

Otherwise, they strike out.

History shows us that it will work out just fine for the talented individuals who lost their jobs. They’ll land on their feet with something new.

❌ But the companies?

Not so much.

They can’t absorb the shock impact of a surprise innovation from a competitor, or an unexpected shift in customer needs, or a global shift in perspective that hemorrhages their most talented people.

History has shown us, that these companies end up with three strikes.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this message Elon:

You’re wrong about remote work. You picked a losing battle, right when you most depend on the strength and dedication of your people.

Here’s an analogy you’ll like –

Trying to cancel remote work is like trying to stop a river. The water is going to keep rising and you can’t blame flood damage on the river.

Elon, you’re smart enough to use remote work to your advantage. Instead of blocking the river, use it to generate the thing you love most: power!

Think about it.

Everyone gets it wrong sometimes, even Zuckerberg admitted that. But if you don’t realign, it will keep coming up – until you figure it out or end up underwater.

So, which is it – continuous damage control, or the chance to generate power?

That’s it for this week, and remember the future of work is Out of Office.

Andrew

This Week’s Shareable

• Why blame people over property? There are trillion-dollar campuses still being paid for, and half the people meant to use them have been laid off. #Remotework can save thousands of jobs! Get the scoop on Out of Office.