Billionaire: Remote Employees 'Didn't Work as Hard'

Another billionaire has made clear his distaste for remote work. This time it was Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private equity firm Blackstone, who was speaking to investors at a panel discussion at the so-called "Davos in the Desert"—Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative conference. Schwarzman was explaining why it was "more profitable" for people to work at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, CNN reports. His comments came during a discussion on the impact of remote work on the commercial real estate market; the Guardian reports that Blackstone is "the world's biggest commercial landlord." The company's investment team staffers are in the office five days a week, Blackstone confirms to Insider.

"During the pandemic, people got used to staying at home," Schwarzman said. "It was actually more profitable for them to stay home because one, they didn't work as hard, regardless of what they told you. Second, they don't spend money to commute. They can make their lunch at home. They don't have to buy expensive clothes, so their incomes are higher." He estimated 20% of office buildings in the US are vacant and the same amount of buildings are leased but not in use. When those leases expire, he predicted, even more of them will go vacant because companies will cut back on how much office space they lease. "That's going to have a very bad ending," he said. Other ultra-rich CEOs who've spoken out against remote work recently include Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, and Elon Musk. (More Stephen Schwarzman stories.)