Martha Stewart says America will 'go down the drain' if people don't return to office

U.S. businesswoman Martha Stewart pictured in New York City on May 18, says America will ‘go down the drain’ if people don’t return to office. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images)

Martha Stewart has waded into the hotly contested remote work debate.

In an interview with the magazine Footwear News, the author, TV personality and entrepreneur slammed hybrid work culture, saying that people cannot “possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely.”

Stewart’s comments come as more managers push for an end to the work-from-home trend that took hold more than three years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stewart compared the state of in-person work in the United States to France, calling it “not a very thriving country.”

“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 told the magazine that she is on a “rampage” to get people in the United States back into offices.

Stewart is not the only high-profile figure strongly advocating for in-person work. The CEOs of many banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, asked some employees to return to work five days a week in the last two years.

More recently, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk came down even harder on the work-from-home trend, calling it “morally wrong.”

The question of whether in-person work is necessary kicked into high gear three years ago when many companies decided to send most white-collar employees home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, office culture has yet to rebound fully. According to swipe data from Kastle Systems, this week’s average office occupancy still sits at about 48 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Many offices have met employees in the middle, adopting hybrid work models, meaning workers can continue working from home on certain days of the week.

However, remote work has its defenders. Some workers have told CNN the ability to work remotely has changed their lives for the better and that they would rather quit their jobs than return to in-person work.

“Some people work better from home. I never wake up dreading work because I am in the comfort of my home,” copywriter Ryan Bernsten told CNN last year.