Elon Musk admits the truth: most return to office mandates are designed to make staff quit

In his new role as Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), Elon Musk has said the quiet part loud when it comes to forcing federal workers back into the office full time: he hopes it will make people quit. It’s a concept that many have discussed, predicted and rebuked over the last year or so, but few CEOs have voiced it so plainly and unapologetically until now.

In a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk wrote that “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”

Perhaps this is no real surprise coming from Musk, who banned remote work when he took over X (formerly Twitter) and immediately laid off the majority of the company’s talent. But his hard stance on remote and hybrid work will undoubtedly drip down into other areas outside government, too.

Deliberately creating a work environment that makes life hard for employees is highly controversial—especially when the end result is to force people to quit on their own terms. Doing so means corporations can avoid costly redundancies and administrative burdens that are legally required when letting an employee go properly and ethically. In the case of the US government, over a million people (that’s half the federal staff) stand to be affected by a return to office mandate, given that they currently work from home at least some of the time.

At a glance, you can see why some companies might find such a mandate tempting. But, as we’ve seen with X, the brand damage is irreversible when a company treats its people so poorly. This month alone, millions have jumped ship in a mass exodus from X onto its competitors Bluesky and Threads. Eventually, cut corners come back to bite you.

When he refers to hybrid work as a “Covid-era privilege”, this is perhaps where Musk shows his colors most plainly. He sees a better work-life balance and increased trust in his employees as a threat to his leadership—a privilege rather than a basic human choice. But flexible work is far from a privilege, it makes perfect sense for millions of people all over the world. And while Musk may currently “welcome” a surge in voluntary exits, in the near future, it will be the CEOs who refuse to move with the times that suffer the long-term consequences. Flexible work is here to stay, whether Elon Musk likes it or not.

At Remotify, we believe that the best workplaces are flexible workplaces. Our Employer of Record service makes transitioning to remote work simple, seamless and effective. Want to find out more about how we do it? Book a call with a member of our friendly team today.