The king of strong opinions has spoken (again).
Regardless of the topic or whether or not you want to listen to it, it’s a safe bet that “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary has some thoughts to share.
O’Leary tends to be bombastic about everything from the future of cryptocurrency to how to succeed as an entrepreneur (pro tip on the latter: forget about having a family, pets, or any other semblance of normal humanity).
However, a stopped clock tells the correct time twice a day, and when it came to discussing working from home versus going back to the office in a segment on CNN This Morning, O’Leary hit the nail on the head.
“Over the last three years, there’s a new generation of workers, particularly in financial services and technology and engineering, who have no intention of working in an office,” O’Leary said.
“They never have and they never will. People keep saying, oh, they’re all going to come back, they won’t. So when you’re hiring now, part of the negotiation is where they’re going to come back to.” job. So if you’re racing, and we still are, because unemployment is below 4%, this is an extraordinary economy, supposedly we’re going into a recession because of unemployment doesn’t make sense. But the reality is that pumping $3 trillion into the economy has provided a lot of liquidity.”
O’Leary went on to use his own employees as an example.
“We’re hiring every day and we’re competing every day and we can’t have them in the office. 44% of our employees in our portfolio companies work remotely and don’t come into the office, period,” he said. .
However, O’Leary sees employees working from home as compensation.
“I call my employees 24/7,” he said. “That’s the deal. If you don’t work in the office, I can call you at two in the morning if we have a crisis, and they’ll respond. That’s the way they’re used to now.”
