Flexport's CEO called remote work ‘white-collar fraud’ — then said it’s really for workers who’ll accept lower pay

Some radical kept getting paid successful 2020 due to the fact that their jobs could travel location with them. The laminitis of a institution that profited from that nonstop displacement present likens moving from location to "white collar fraud (1)."

Flexport laminitis and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ryan Petersen said that connected the Twenty Minute VC podcast successful June — which is unusual erstwhile you look astatine his numbers. Flexport's gross went from $670 cardinal earlier the pandemic to $3.3 cardinal successful 2021 (2), the twelvemonth the state shopped from location and sent freight surging done logistics firms similar his, though it's gone down since then.

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Regarding distant work, helium says, "I person a three-year-old and a five-year-old. The thought that I could bash immoderate enactment astatine my location is similar a full fantasy," helium said (1). "Like, travel on. You're kidding." And if it doesn't enactment successful his house, helium figures it works nowhere: "I person a bigger location than astir employees bash ... there's nary enactment getting done astatine that location erstwhile the children are astir (1)."

But the portion that truly affects paychecks isn't astir kids. It's astir who helium thinks distant enactment should beryllium for instead.

Who Petersen thinks distant enactment is for

Petersen said going distant during the pandemic was a mistake. "I made the mistake during COVID of going distant and letting it enactment distant for mode excessively agelong and I deliberation our civilization suffered arsenic a result," helium said. Flexport present brings radical successful 5 days a week (3), and helium suggested workers who wouldn't travel backmost were fto spell (1).

Even with each the return-to-office headlines, not everyone is back. In May, astir 26% of U.S. paid workdays were inactive done from location (4), down from a 2020 highest adjacent 62% but inactive acold supra the astir 7% from 2019, according to a survey from WFH Research, the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (5).

Petersen besides talked astir pay. Petersen said distant enactment mostly makes consciousness for highly skilled workers successful processing countries who tin usage it to gain much than their section marketplace pays. For everyone else, helium said, (1)"the thought that enactment from location is going to payment highly paid employees is benignant of a full phantasy (1)."

Not everyone took it well. "As idiosyncratic who has raised an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old, the precious clip you get to spot them portion you're moving from location volition beryllium worthy much than thing you could bash with your institution oregon the dollars that you tin make," Ryan Carson, CEO of legal-software institution Untangle, wrote connected X (6).