CEO says remote workers are hurting businesses: ‘We caught trains, buses, ferries to work’

The trend of working from home has proved to be an enduring legacy of the pandemic (File photo)

A real estate CEO has placed the blame for slowing economy squarely on the shoulders of “selfish” remote workers who refuse to return to office.

Nicole Duncan, CEO and Managing Director of CR Commercial Property Group in Sydney, Australia, slammed remote workers as selfish during a call to a commercial radio station on May 15, the New York Post reported.

“In our younger days we caught trains, buses, ferries to get to work,” she said. “This generation is just selfish.” Duncan admitted that it sometimes took two to three hours to get to office, but deemed it necessary. “Yes it did take two or three hours, but you’ve got to be in the office,” she said.

She also described how young people working from home was negatively affecting local businesses. Duncan explained that fewer people working from office meant business travel was reduced, hotels suffered while office cleaners and cafeteria workers also lost their jobs.

“Hotels are suffering … there’s less business travel, they do it all on (Microsoft) Teams … cleaners, people who make your coffee, lunches, all of those sorts of things,” she said. “We want a vibrant city for visitors to come to, and it needs to look busy, it needs to look vibrant, it doesn’t need to look as slow and rambling.”

Remote work has proved to be an enduring legacy of the pandemic, with employees across the world refusing to return to office. Small businesses, however, are struggling to adjust with this change of pace, The Guardian has reported. Restaurants, pubs and hotels have seen a decrease in footfall in Australia, where office vacancy rate is at an all-time high of 13%.