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.

  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    Says WFH is terrible

    Is biggest commerical landlord

    Yup, definitely totally unbiased opinion im sure lmfaooo

    • clearedtoland@lemmy.world
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      3 years ago

      Not only unbiased, but completely relatable and down to earth. I’m sure he lives just like the rest of us.

      • Fraylor@lemm.ee
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        3 years ago

        I only pray that us lowly peons can work as hard as Blackrock execs.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        3 years ago

        Haha that’s hilarious! Seriously though, I bolt my dogs kennels to the roof of my car when I have our chauffeur drive us from Denver airport to our Aspen ski chalet, just like any common man would.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    Let’s assume for the sake of argument he’s correct. So fucking what? Wealth concentration is wage theft. Profits are at historic highs. They owe it to the workers to put down the fucking whip. It’s better for the environment. Every worker who wants to telecommute (in jobs where it’s possible) should be allowed to do so. It’s unethical not to. It should be made illegal, IMO.

    • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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      3 years ago

      Oh, well, we’ve been over producing by taking in extra tasks and not getting raises for many years with extra work while in the office. I guess this is just our reciprocity and evening out our personal time.

      I wonder if I sent him a pizza, would he feel better about it all?

      Oh. And you expect me to be in the office? Then you should make an appearance daily in the office. I don’t care if you’re halfway across the US - you better show up to say hi and prove you’re there you fucking slacker.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 years ago

        Oh. And you expect me to be in the office? Then you should make an appearance daily in the office. I don’t care if you’re halfway across the US - you better show up to say hi and prove you’re there you fucking slacker.

        This is the biggest reason people don’t respect the Return to Office mandate of some companies. If the C-suite jabronis can’t be arsed to show up and it’s okay for them to telecommute, they’ve given away the game. It’s rules-for-thee-not-for-me and it’s as simple as that. Treating adults well into their professional careers like children who must be watched endlessly is a slap in the face to these professionals. It’s why more often than not they’re just finding a different job that does respect them.

        This is such short-term thinking. They’re going to lose their most productive and most valuable employees to this, and then their business will slowly fold like a flan in a cupboard.

    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 years ago

      These people do not care about the environment. They don’t care about social debt to the workers. They especially do not care about ethical behavior.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        3 years ago

        They’re the howling ghouls of neofuedalism. They would legalize slavery again in an instant if they could.

    • Powerpoint@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      Good thing he’s not correct though. Remote workers are more productive and save businesses money. This guy is just a greasy greedy fuck.

      • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Yup, I’m with you on that. Just pointing out that he’s still on the wrong side of it, either way.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    I’m not saying violence is the answer, but I do believe he deserves to be strapped into a machine that just slaps him in the face constantly

    • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
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      3 years ago

      I dunno, historically speaking, violence has often been the answer.

      Maybe it wasn’t always the best answer, but it certainly is effective. Just ask the French!

      • Daft_ish@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
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        3 years ago

        People don’t like you to know this but the revolutionary war was very violent. What did the revolutionaries want anyway? Representation. Hmm. I wonder if there is a place that has an underclass that has increasingly less representation in government.

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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      3 years ago

      Maybe we can gamify that a little. Every time a worker-bee completes a task, the machine delivers a slap and a photo to the worker. We can collect them like sortie markers on WWII bombers. Boss gets feedback on how productive his employees are, and employees get to compete for points.

  • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    Ah, yes, a man with a vested interest in seeing offices full to capacity can clearly be trusted to tell the truth here.

  • bemenaker@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    Commercial landlord. LOL, like this douchebag has a clue what he is talking about.

    Translation: These remote workers are costing me money!!!

  • elrik@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    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.

    • JoBo@feddit.uk
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      3 years ago

      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).

    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world
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      3 years ago

      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.

    • tastysnacks@programming.dev
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      3 years ago

      This guys manages finance people and stock traders. They probably don’t work as hard remotely. I’ve seen Wolf of Wall Street.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        3 years ago

        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.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      They’re either fulfilling their job responsibilities or they’re not.

      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.

  • clearedtoland@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    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.

    It’s almost as if people enjoy having extra disposable income!

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      3 years ago

      I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, one of the fastest ways to pull cars off the road is to pass strong incentives/taxes on businesses to encourage them to adopt a hybrid or remote work model. I live in a rural area where you frequently need to drive to the next town over for this that or the other thing and my hybrid work schedule has allowed my family to become a single car family in about the most eternally car dependant kind of living situation there is

  • kaitco@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    How dare the common staff attempt to save money?!

    That is not their lot in life! They ought to be thankful for the pittance they receive as it is, and they are entirely ungrateful wretches to think of saving and trying to improve their situation!

    Entirely ungrateful!!

    • GreenMario@lemm.ee
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      3 years ago

      That’s why when people start making a bit more money suddenly “fake inflation” gets introduced. We are always supposed to be on the edge of death. That’s the only thing that makes the owner class hard, and fucking kids.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    3 years ago

    “It’s very important to me that you head into a large and expensive to rent office. Don’t ask me why.”

  • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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    3 years ago

    We should remove these people from all levels of power. They are not fit to be in charge of anything, ever.

  • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.worldBanned from community
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    3 years ago

    Obviously, the dude owns commercial real estate. Of course he’s talking shit about people that don’t want to go to the office.

    I’m never going back to an office. Started my own business and never looking back. Information workers don’t need offices, period.

    Dude probably can’t wait to replace his own office staff with AI. Tell him to eat shit.

  • MiDaBa@lemmy.ml
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    3 years ago

    Remote workers can live in locations with cheaper rent. Blackstone has invested far too much money buying up overpriced housing in densely populated areas to allow that. A spread out population is bad for their bottom line.