'You want to doss on the sofa with your laptop in your dressing gown'
A recruitment boss has gone viral after his rant over WFH candidates drew comments on LinkedIn. James Cox, founder and managing director at Chelsea Personnel, said he is "sick and tired" of candidates turning down job offers because they want to work from home.
"I am so tired of hearing people tell me that they don't want to go forward for a role because it does not allow them to work from home!" Cox wrote on a LinkedIn post. "I've done this job for 15 years and before covid, I had never heard anyone ever say to me that they want to work from home, the world experiences an awful pandemic and all of a sudden we’re all entitled to work from home!!" he added.
The Chelsea founder said those who want to work from home don’t want to get dressed at 6am, they want to save money on travel, watch "Loose Women" during their lunch breaks, and "feed the squirrels at 11am in the garden."
"As a nation it seems we have become spoilt and entitled and to be honest it screams laziness to me! You want to doss on the sofa with your laptop in your dressing gown/PJs!" he added. "Come on everyone, let's pull together, stop the working from home nonsense and let's get Britain working again!"
Cox, however, conceded that he doesn’t direct any of this towards people with disabilities, and said they - as well as those with illnesses - should be able to work from home if they prefer.
"But if [you're] healthy and able to walk go get yourself to work and help create a working atmosphere with your colleagues!"
Read more: WeWork CEO apologises for WFH comments
His remarks came after businesses across the world were forced to operate in a work-from-home setup due to the spread of COVID-19. Despite Cox's observation that those who work from home are just lazy, research from Becker Friedman Institute of Economics said the WFH setup actually improves productivity by five per cent.
The same sentiments are echoed under Cox's post, with users saying they’re more productive, are working longer hours, and able to find more time to spend with their families. The Daily Mail added that Cox has received 50 ranting phone calls following his remarks about the WFH setup. Despite this, the official seemed unmoved by those he offended by his post.
"Well it’s been fun today, reading all of your amazing comments, have a lovely weekend, you’ve been a wonderful audience," he said in the comments.
In a Robert Half study on employee sentiments, 63% of workers said their companies are considering making remote work permanent following the pandemic. Despite more businesses rolling out mandatory vaccines and beginning to open their office doors once more, some employees are still uneasy about rushing back to the nine-to-five grind.
In one study from Randstad, the majority of employees remain hesitant to return to their workplace citing safety reasons brought about by the pandemic. Research found that 69% of surveyed respondents prefer to continue with the WFH scheme until vaccines have been widely distributed.
