The boss of the world’s biggest commercial landlord has accused remote workers of staying away from the office because it means they “don’t work as hard” and can save money.
Steve Schwarzman, the chief executive of investment firm the Blackstone group, made the claims about hybrid staff while speaking on a panel at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In remarks first reported by Bloomberg, he said employees had kept working from home because “they didn’t work as hard, regardless of what they tell you” and also due to the savings they make on their daily commute, lunches and work attire.
The continuing vacancies in office buildings in the US were a direct result of the rise in remote working since the Covid pandemic, Schwarzman added, saying it was likely firms would cut back on space once their current leases come to and end.
He said some of those properties were “not survivable as economic entities” but that newer office buildings were proving resilient, while demand for real estate such as warehouses was on the increase.
The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, told the same panel that his company’s workers had returned to office working in recent months.
Solomon had previously described remote working as an “aberration” that needed to be corrected “as soon as possible”. He said that his firm was “by and large, operating the same way now as it did before the pandemic”.
It was revealed earlier this month that nearly two-thirds of bosses believe that workers will return to the office five days a week within the next three years, while a majority of company leaders think pay and promotions could become linked to workplace attendance, according to a survey.
Despite the widespread adoption of hybrid working by most office-based employers since the pandemic, the KPMG CEO Outlook survey found 64% of leaders globally, and 63% of those in the UK, predicted a full return to in-office working by 2026.
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The annual poll – which surveyed more than 1,300 chief executives of the world’s largest businesses, of whom 150 are in the UK – suggested many executives were increasingly supportive of returning to pre-Covid ways of working, more than three years after the pandemic forced office-based employees to carry out their roles from home.
However, concerns have been raised about the equality implications of trying to roll back hybrid working patterns. Last week the Treasury parliamentary committee was told that the backlash against such arrangements was forcing women out of the City.
Fiona Mackenzie, the CEO of thinktank The Other Half, told MPs that the “accidental” introduction of hybrid working in the financial sector due to the Covid pandemic did lead to some “fantastic progress”, aiding working parents.
However, she said very few people in the City defended hybrid working, and many chief executives were quite keen to “switch it off”, forcing high-performing women out of their jobs.
