‘We caught trains, buses, ferries to work’: CEO slams remote workers, says it negatively impacts businesses

A real estate firm’s CEO seems to be unhappy with the fact that a lot of workers are working remotely as she thinks that those who refuse to return to office contribute towards a slowing economy.

Calling them as ‘selfish’, Nicole Duncan, CEO and Managing Director of CR Commercial Property Group in Sydney, Australia, criticised remote workers 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 said that getting to work often took two to three hours, but that was quite vital. “Yes it did take two or three hours, but you’ve got to be in the office,” she said.

She further highlighted how young people working from home negatively impact local businesses. Duncan said that working remotely created collateral damage as less people working from the office reduced business travel, hotels suffered while office cleaners and cafeteria workers were also fired from 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 slow and rambling.”

The demand for online remote working from home significantly surged due to Covid-19 pandemic. It affected several businesses that required people to be on location and they are facing the heat for the change of pace. According to a report, restaurants, pubs and hotels saw a huge loss due to decreasing footfall in Australia.

As per a PwC Australia report, three-quarters of Australians wanted a hybrid of home and office working post-pandemic and one out of ten wanted to return to working five days a week in an office environment.

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