Remote work one of the biggest mistakes made by technology industry: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

“I think definitely one of the tech industry’s worst mistakes in a long time was that everybody (thought they) could go full remote forever, and startups didn’t need to be together. There was going to be no loss of creativity. I would say that the experiment on that is over, and the technology is not yet good enough that people can be fully remote forever, particularly on startups,” he said during the conference.

Many technology companies across the globe and their leaders have expressed concerns about prolonged remote working conditions citing lack of creativity, team-building issues, and delayed outcomes of projects.

In the past, the issue of moonlighting — simultaneously working for more than one organisations — was flagged as a major drawback of the remote working model with Indian IT majors such as Wipro voicing their problems against it.

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Altman also pointed out that it was easier to create new products while working together within an office space but working from home just adds to more confusion.

Earlier this week, according to a Bloomberg report, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said that he would not force any staffers to come into the office just yet, but those who don’t would be hard-pressed to get promoted, especially into managerial roles.

“Being a people manager when you’re remote is just tough because if you’re managing people, you need to be able to see them once in a while,” the report noted. “It doesn’t need to be every minute. You don’t need to function under those old ‘Everybody’s under my eye’ kind of rules, but at least sometimes.”

Krishna also said people make a choice to work remotely, but it need not be “a forever choice — it could be a choice based on convenience or circumstance”.