Media mogul Barry Diller says working from home is a ‘crock’

On-line journey reserving firm Expedia is attempting to coax its workers to work from its model new Seattle headquarters.
Fb/Damon Deaner

Media mogul Barry Diller griped that working from house is a “crock” as workers at his travel-booking website Expedia stay reluctant to return to a lavish, $900 million headquarters the corporate in-built 2019.

The billionaire chairman of Expedia and IAC — proprietor of Folks, the Each day Beast, and Journey & Leisure — is fed up with workers who don’t wish to work from the workplace, to not point out Expedia’s new 40-acre campus in Seattle with breathtaking views of the Puget Sound, he advised the Skift International Discussion board on Tuesday.

The campus is so stunning that 1.6 acres alongside the waterfront is open to the general public.

Expedia’s headquarters was accomplished in late 2019 and the corporate’s 4,500 workers have been shifting into the brand new digs when the pandemic hit.

Now Expedia is attempting to coax its employees again to the workplace, which was designed to duplicate the facilities of a luxurious lodge. 

Billionaire Barry Diller is fed up with workers who don’t wish to work from the workplace.

Getty Photos

Barry Diller is the chairman of Expedia and of IAC, which owns media manufacturers together with Folks, Higher Houses & Gardens and Meals & Wine.

Alec Tabak

It has cappuccino machines and fridges stocked with wholesome snacks each few hundred toes, a full-service cafe, soundproof cellphone cubicles, and Wi-Fi-enabled rocks throughout its manicured grounds, in line with the Seattle Occasions.

Expedia started calling employees again to the workplace in Might with a mandate for them to spend “half of their time” at headquarters.

Diller says the hybrid work-from-home mannequin was “imposed” on his corporations by different tech corporations and that his administration crew tells him that a five-day work week would lead to a mass defection of workers.

The Expedia headquarters was accomplished shortly earlier than the pandemic hit.

Fb/Damon Deaner

Expedia is asking its workers to spend half of their time working from the workplace.

Fb/Damon Deaner

He’s not comfortable in regards to the coverage, which is partly knowledgeable by worker surveys asking about what folks take into consideration working from house versus coming to the workplace, he mentioned.

“Sitting at a laptop computer laptop at a eating room desk” is “sort of silly,” Diller mentioned on the convention.