Work from home: Remote work ‘doesn’t work’, David Sacks argues

Entrepreneur David Sacks, a close ally of Tesla boss Elon Musk, is one of a growing number of business leaders making a stand firmly against the work-from-home trend, which has emerged as a major flashpoint between companies and employees in the aftermath of Covid.

“It’s time to admit that remote work doesn’t work,” Mr Sacks wrote in a viral Twitter thread which has been viewed more than 4.5 million times.

“WFH Friday is a four-day work week. Full WFH is a two-day work week. Every interaction has to be scheduled, which means a lot of information-sharing doesn’t happen. Remote is a great lifestyle, not a way to build a great company.”

Mr Sacks was responding to earlier comments by tech executive Florent Crivello, who wrote in an April memo to staff at his AI start-up Lindy that he had “made a 180º on remote”.

“I think everyone here can attest to the fact that we tried harder than anyone else. And I’m more bummed out about it than anyone,” he wrote in the memo, which he later shared as a blog post.

“Remote is more comfortable from a lifestyle standpoint. You save on commute, have your own office, can work from anywhere, and get more flexibility on your schedule (especially important for folks with families). But it makes it harder for a start-up to succeed or find product / market fit. That’s especially so if you’re building something very new, like we are doing.”

Mr Crivello went on to explain that remote work “raises co-ordination costs”, outlining a few reasons why it was less efficient — such as people not being online at the same time and online meetings being less effective than face-to-face due to the technology — all of which “causes us to be less aligned”.

“It’s hard to overstate the importance of this misalignment,” he wrote.

“We in tech are building pure thought-stuff — the things we build are like icebergs, 99 per cent invisible. The quality of our work is a function of the alignment of our mental models about the stuff below that water line. And remote makes it harder to reach that alignment.”

Mr Crivello added, “Colocation is more fun too. You get to have lunch with your team, grab beers on Friday nights, play video games at the end of the day in the office, etc.”

Mr Sacks expanded on his thoughts in a lengthy Twitter post.

“In the earliest days of a start-up, it’s possible for a small team to remain continuously connected electronically,” he wrote. “This [creates] false confidence in remote. It doesn’t scale. By the time the start-up has hundreds of employees, full remote completely breaks down.”

He suggested “maybe 10 per cent of the roles in a company can naturally be remote”, such as engineers “whose code check-ins are obvious” or “field sales reps who live in their territories and close large enterprise deals”, the dollar value of with were “also obvious”.

“What makes these remote cases justified is that achievement is largely individual and fairly obvious,” he said. “By contrast, the contribution of most employees is often subtle to measure and depends on a team dynamic. Hence the importance of being together in an actively managed environment.”

Fully remote companies, he continued, are “dominated by a feeling of atomisation”.

“Their founders will often complain that it’s hard to get the company culture to gel, or to get all the employees aligned around the new strategy, or to adequately share information even though it’s already been shared many times before,” he said.

“These problems largely go away when you’re collocated — or at least require much less energy to solve. The value of ‘managing by walking around’ cannot be underestimated for a founder. Founders solve problems, make course corrections, and save the team a lot of work going down a wrong path. Founders also have a different level of energy, enthusiasm and work ethic. As the company scales, the number of employees who can be touched by founder enthusiasm has a direct impact on performance.”

He concluded, “People get very emotional about this topic. I get it. If someone told you that you have to work an extra day or two a week, of course you’re not going to be happy about it.”

Many users agreed with the analysis.

“It’s impossible to have an honest conversation about remote work these days. Those who work remotely will never admit that productivity at home is nowhere near what it is in the office (especially when you are coworking with your team),” one wrote.

But another user slammed bosses like Mr Sacks as “dinosaurs”.

“You have said many words, yet provided only one reason: ‘For some managers in some cases communication is harder,’” they wrote.

“This does not justify the cost in relocation, commute, living expenses, office space, reduction in diversity, etc. If company wants to impose them, it should pay them, including the two hours commute to office and from office, leaving me four hours to work at office.”

In Australia, advertising executive Adam Ferrier last month penned an op-ed discussing how companies could encourage people to return to the office, which he argued was as much for their benefit as the employer.

“Flexible working hours are now instantly a thing and have their benefits — and yes, there are some people who literally could not work without them,” he wrote for industry website Mumbrella.

“However, my original point still stands. In our creatively driven industry, it’s vital that people get into the office to interact and deal directly with humans as messy as themselves, as that’s where the magic often happens.”

Last week, CommBank sparked an internal revolt after ordering staff back to the office at least 50 per cent of the time, with employees lashing out at management during an internal town hall meeting held to discuss the changes.

Research from LinkedIn late last year found nearly three quarters of Australian business leaders prefer staff to work from the office.

Mr Musk, who famously hates working from home, said recently that employees who did so were living in “la-la land” and insulting those who show up to the office.

But not every large corporation is choosing to pick a fight with its employees.

In Australia, companies including Telstra, Medibank, NIB and Grant Thornton have embraced hybrid working arrangements.

frank.chung@news.com.au