Martha Stewart says she’s opposed to remote work: ‘Should America go down the drain?’

“You can’t possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely,” Stewart said in a free-wheeling interview with Footwear News, a trade publication. “Look at the success of France with their stupid … you know, off for August, blah blah blah. That’s not a very thriving country. Should America go down the drain because people don’t want to go back to work?” 

Stewart’s comments come as remote work seemingly becomes more of a hot-button issue with each passing day. Many companies are now requiring employees to return a minimum number of days each week after mostly letting them do their jobs from home since the start of the pandemic.

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on the controversy surrounding Farmers Group, an insurance company that told the majority of its employees in 2022 they could work remotely, only to backtrack recently on the decision. Chief executive Raul Vargas is now demanding that most workers come back to the office three days a week.

Then, there’s Tesla and Twitter executive Elon Musk, the nation’s richest individual. He’s strictly opposed to remote setups, saying employees who prefer that option should “get off the goddamn moral high horse with their work-from-home bullshit.”

Still, a recent Deloitte survey found that younger workers prefer a hybrid work schedule — even if it means giving up some career advancement.

As for the 81-year-old Stewart, the Footwear News story didn’t include any other comments from her about remote work. But Stewart spoke about plenty of other issues, from her daily regimen of drinking green juice (“It gives me energy, good skin and great hair!”) to her recent Sports Illustrated photo shoot (“Don’t think about aging, think about living as long as you can”).