In Short
- Elon Musk had said that work from home is morally wrong.
- Musk is now being called out on Twitter for his statement.
- Reddit users are calling him Karen Musk
By Divyanshi SharmaMost of us have come across a ‘Karen’ at work. The one who is always trying to tell others what to do (even though that is not her job) and acting way beyond her responsibilities (and payscale). And ever since Twitter Boss Elon Musk called work from home ‘morally wrong’, several Reddit users have a new nickname for him. You guessed it right, they are calling him ‘Karen’.
For the uninitiated, Karen is a widespread meme that refers to a certain type of middle-class white woman, exhibiting behaviour that comes from a position of being privileged.
Say hello to Karen Musk
A Reddit thread calls Elon Musk as ‘Karen Musk’ and links a video in which the Twitter Boss is being called out for his recent statements.
A number of Reddit users have also replied to the thread. While one user wrote how Musk is ‘dumb’ to say this, another user took a dig at him not paying rent of Twitter offices and wrote, “You must work in the offices I refuse to pay rent for.”
Yet another user wrote that ‘being a billionaire is immoral’.
Another user said that it is immoral for Musk to be complaining about ‘real and non-existent problems’ while he is a billionaire. The user wrote, “It’s 100 per cent immoral for a billionaire to spend time complaining about problems, real and non-existent, in the world while hoarding their money and saying they’re making money because they care about humanity’s future while being a self-righteous conservative that just lives to complain.”
Elon Musk calls working from home morally wrong
Elon Musk is being called out for his statements made in an interview with CNBC. Musk had said that “Silicon Valley ‘laptop classes’ need to get off their ‘moral high horse’ with their work-from-home bulls***.”
He further added that in his view, work from home idea is like the fake Marie Antoinette quote, ‘Let them eat cake’.
Musk referring to the quote here implied that those working in Silicon Valley are oblivious to service workers, who can’t work from home. He also referred to tech workers as ‘laptop classes living in a la-la-land’.
“Really, you’re gonna work from home? And you’re gonna make everyone else who made your car come work at the factory? The people who make your food that gets delivered, they can’t work from home? The people who fix your house, they can’t work from home but you can? Does that seem morally right? It’s messed up,” Musk added after the Marie Antoinette remark.
He further said, “It’s not just a productivity thing. I think it’s morally wrong.”
When Musk changed Twitter’s work from home policy
Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and turned Twitter employees’ world upside down. In his first email to employees, sent late night in November, he had warned them of ‘tough times ahead’. He had also put a ban on remote work unless he personally approved of it.
“Remote work is no longer allowed, unless you have a specific exception. Managers will send the exception lists to me for review and approval,” he had written in an email that was viewed by The Guardian. He had also said that Twitter employees needed to work from office atleast 40 hours per week.
Before Musk had assumed his new role, Twitter had adapted a ‘work-from-anywhere’ policy for its employees. However, this changed as Twitter’s new boss was against working from home.
Emanuel Schmitt
Isaac Tremblay
Wilmer Bode