Memorandum
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- Caroline Mercer via Fortune | FORTUNE
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- Business·4 min to read
- Re
Kevin O'Leary Says Remote Work Doesn't Matter If You Can Execute
ReKevin O'Leary Says Remote Work Doesn't Matter If You Can Execute
The Shark Tank investor and O'Leary Ventures founder says Gen Z workers who deliver results rise fastest, regardless of whether they work from an office or a basement, as corporate America continues pushing return-to-office mandates.
Kevin O'Leary, the investor and Shark Tank personality, says the debate over remote versus in-office work misses the point. What matters, he argues, is whether employees can execute — deliver on their mandate, on time, with results.
«If you're a Gen Zer and you can execute, and you can hit your mandate and deliver it on time, you move up and you make more money,» O'Leary said in a video earlier this year. The founder of venture capital platform O'Leary Ventures has been a consistent critic of return-to-office mandates, and his latest comments double down on that position.
O'Leary pointed to an employee who joined his organization in the United Arab Emirates just over a year ago. That person climbed the ladder quickly, he said, simply because «the kid can execute.» The lesson, in his view, is that performance — not attendance — drives advancement.
His own workforce is spread across London, Los Angeles, and Canada, and he says the ability to execute has little to do with physical presence. «If you have to be in an office, why? Is my question? We do have people that sit in cubicles, but I'd rather hire somebody who can execute and sit in their basement or in their backyard,» he said.
The comments arrive as corporate America continues to tighten remote-work policies. After Amazon launched a full-time return-to-office push in tech at the beginning of last year, other major employers followed. In February, Instagram required most employees to return five days a week as part of CEO Adam Mosseri's effort to build what he called a «winning culture.» Microsoft asked Seattle-area employees to come in three days a week starting late last month.
Since the end of the pandemic, chief executives have framed office mandates as a way to boost collaboration and relationship building. But workers have pushed back. A Harvard study last year found that employees were willing to accept a 25% pay cut when comparing fully remote or hybrid jobs with full-time in-office roles.
O'Leary argues that in what he calls the execution economy, high performers rise because of work ethic, not attendance. «They're just delivering, and they get rewarded because the whole team wants the people that can execute. That is the nature of the economy today,» he said.
He also rejected the idea that remote work inherently leads to isolation. Loneliness, he said, is not a new phenomenon and «that's not really what's at play here.»
The entrepreneur's stance builds on years of skepticism toward mandates. In 2022, he said 55% of the 10,000 people across more than 50 portfolio companies he works with had not returned to the office. By January, that figure had fallen to 40%. When companies threatened job losses for non-compliance, he said, employees responded by leaving for other employers.
In a January video, O'Leary said companies demanding office attendance are the ones struggling most in the war for talent. «If you're trying to say to people, 'Oh, you got to work in an office,' and that's the talent you want to hire, you'll just get the bottom quartile people that have no choice,» he said. «I don't want those people. I want my competitors to hire those people.»
His message to younger workers is straightforward: focus on delivering results, and the rewards — promotions, higher pay, and greater leverage — will follow. Whether that happens in a cubicle, a basement, or a backyard, he says, is irrelevant.
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