It is well known that telecommuters occasionally play Hearthstone while working from home. However, some tech bosses are convinced that telecommuting employees are up to some crazy scheming. James Clark, CEO of a Utah-based digital marketing firm called Clearlink, recently held a virtual town hall to voice his concerns about the company's mandatory return-to-work policy. CEO Clark accused many employees of "silently quitting," condemning working mothers to spend time with their children and telling employees they must make sacrifices, such as selling their dogs. According to an internal email read by Motherboard (opens in new tab) (via Gizmodo (opens in new tab)), the policy change came after the company had assured employees in October that no one would be forced to return to the office. The new policy requires all employees who live within 50 miles of the Draper, Utah, office to come to work four days a week. The video was posted online, but Clearlink removed it after a copyright complaint was filed; Motherboard obtained the video, which shows the CEO telling employees, "I challenge any of you to do a better job than me, and you won't be able to," and I republished the edited version with ridiculous highlights, such as being upset by comparisons to "Wall Street felons" (opens in a new tab).

"I have made sacrifices, and all of you here have made great sacrifices to be here, away from your families," Clark said at the town hall.

"I learned from one of our leaders who, while listening to this message, went to sell his family's dog.

Clark continued that it "broke his heart" because he is "at the forefront of the pet humanization movement."

Clark didn't stop there. He blamed a group of employees who were "quietly quitting," claiming that 30 of them "didn't open their laptops for a month last year." He went so far as to openly suspect that his developers were working for other companies while accepting checks from him.

He then accused the content writers of "exclusively using AI to write." He said this could be done in "30 minutes out of an eight-hour workday," and suggested that it would increase productivity "by 30 to 50 times the normal production rate."

Clark spoke with single and working mother employees who are having problems finding adequate child care to meet their new return-to-work obligations. He expressed concern that these parents may not be able to meet the company's expectations because being a full-time employee and the primary caregiver is "not fair to the employer or to the children."

A Clearlink spokesperson told Motherboard that the issue was entirely "Clearlink's internal business" and that the mandatory return-to-work policy was to achieve the company's "collective goals."

Before we get to the criticism, it looks like the rich and to-the-point CEO is having a hard time out there, as MillerKnoll CEO Andy Owen recently gave himself a $6 million bonus after other employees announced that they would not receive their annual bonuses, and employees She was criticized and apologized for her rant, which was leaked online (opens in new tab). She told employees to "leave the pity town" and "let's get it done."