Elon Musk Email, Recession Fears Complicate New Work Era
Many bosses have longed for some leverage to prod more workers back to the office. Recession worries, a rash of hiring freezes and a broadside from Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, may have just made it easier.
For more than two years, millions of white-collar workers at companies from Apple Inc. to American Express Co. have grown accustomed to greater flexibility in where and when they work, and a red-hot labor market has given them license to push back on pleas from CEOs to return to their pre-pandemic office routine. Now, recession fears have clouded companies’ outlooks, prompting some to curtail hiring or wage hikes while others slash jobs, revealing early signs of a leveling playing field between employees and employers.
Elon Musk’s recent demand that all Tesla Inc. employees get back to their desks or find work elsewhere has made him the latest figurehead of the return-to-office movement and his salvo against remote work could embolden others to act. Half of business owners expect to be operating in-person all the time a year from now, according to a new survey from insurer Nationwide. The developments highlight debates raging in boardrooms around the globe about how this new era of hybrid work will play out, and raise concerns that some firms might use the economic jitters as an excuse to jettison those workers who refuse to trudge back to the office.
“Workers have had the balance of power over the course of the pandemic,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement and executive coaching firm. “Companies are still holding tight to workers, but we’re starting to see an uptick in layoff movement. The demand to be in the office could certainly be a way of
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