Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, one of America’s leading online marketplace for lodging, has strongly vouched for the new work model ‘work remotely indefinitely’ and said that onsite office work has become a vintage concept, terming it as “an anachronistic form”.
According to the CEO, traditional full-time office jobs are a relic of the past. In a recent interview, Chesky shared his opinion that the concept of onsite jobs is “from a pre-digital age” which hardly makes sense anymore for several career options, reported the New York Post.
“I think that the office as we know it is over. It’s kind of like an anachronistic form,” said the Airbnb CEO. “If the office didn’t exist, I like to ask, would we invent it? And if we invented it, what would it be invented for?” he added.
Further, Chesky agreed that people going to hospitals or to coffee shops for the purpose of working stands fine and makes absolute sense. However, he questioned the need for an office “for somebody whose job is on a laptop.”
The Airbnb CEO also targeted some companies which have imposed hybrid working schedules as a part of their strategy of “return to office” after many of them turned completely remote during the COVID-19 outbreak, reported the New York Post.
According to him, these hybrid working modes are “not super sustainable.” He said that virtual meetings have “limitations” in terms of community building as well.
Personally, Chesky has adopted a working schedule, quite similar to the one he mentioned in the interview, reported the New York Post. Earlier this year the Airbnb boss had revealed that every two weeks he would be working from a different city altogether.
Chesky’s comment came soon after Airbnb announced that its employees would be granted permission to work from anywhere in the country. They would also be exempted from location-based pay cuts. Further, the company has even allowed the employees to live overseas for a portion of the year including in-person meetings and regular team gatherings as well.
Meanwhile, while Airbnb is in the trial period of experimenting with the remote working criteria, some mainstream organisations have faced resistance from their workers for forcing them to return to the office, reported the New York Post. (ANI)
