To Work or Not to Work From Home: What Executives Told Me From the Back Seat

Simon Kalipciyan, COO & Co-Founder, 31 October 2026

In short: Working from home has gone from a temporary fix to a defining feature of modern work. Driving executives through and after COVID, I heard the debate first-hand. Most leaders I spoke with believed fully remote staff risk slower career progress, and the bigger question is fairness: many workers, including chauffeurs, never had the option at all.

"Work from home" has gone from a temporary solution to a defining feature of the modern workplace. But the big question remains: should we keep working from home, or not?

It is a debate that has played out across dinner tables and boardrooms. High-profile leaders such as Elon Musk have pushed hard for staff to return to the office, while others see remote work as the future. So where is the middle ground, and can we really have the best of both worlds?

My Perspective From Behind the Wheel

As a chauffeur working through COVID, I never had the option of a home office. Like a lot of people, I had to pivot quickly to keep moving. Driving executives to meetings and airports gave me an unexpected vantage point: I heard the real conversations about remote work.

Some passengers laughed about doing "half the work for the same money". Others admitted that working from home made it easier to check out during the day.

To be fair, that was not everyone. Many professionals worked tirelessly from makeshift desks and kitchen benches. Some organisations even introduced keystroke monitoring software to measure activity, which seems extreme, but says a lot about how worried leaders were.

What CEOs Really Think About Remote Work

I asked countless executives what they thought of permanent remote work. Their answer was remarkably consistent:

"If you insist on working from home, it will likely slow your advancement in the company."

Why? Because collaboration, mentoring, visibility and culture tend to thrive in person. A quick corridor chat or an unplanned brainstorm is hard to replace with a scheduled video call.

Is Remote Work Fair?

Here is the question I think we are not asking enough. If chauffeurs, airport transfer drivers, hospitality staff, retail teams and countless others never get the option to work from home, why should it be a guaranteed right for anyone else?

Should the workforce be split into those who enjoy flexibility and those who physically cannot have it? And should leaders reward remote employees equally when their visibility and engagement are harder to measure?

Working From Home vs the Office: The Trade-Offs

A Call for Conversation

This is not a black-and-white issue. Every role is different, every company has different needs, and every employee brings a different work ethic. So here are the questions I will leave you with:

• Are you in a leadership position?
• Have you had to choose between promoting a visible in-office employee and a remote one?
• Do you believe in equal opportunity for advancement, regardless of location?

And finally: can we truly build a fair, productive and motivated workforce if we are not all playing by the same rules? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Back in the Office? Make the Commute Count

As more teams return to the office, executives are finding the commute does not have to be dead time. A chauffeur turns the drive into an extra hour of calls and emails. Cars on Demand is one of the only services where you can get an instant quote online, book in seconds and receive instant confirmation, as late as an hour before the trip, then track the car in the app and message your driver. See our guide to corporate and executive cars in Australia, or how Executive Assistants book for their teams.

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Related reading: Why I stopped watching the competition | Uber for Business vs corporate chauffeur service | All Cars on Demand blog posts