Elon Musk hates remote work, although he always works remotely. In a 2023 interview, the billionaire called work from home (WFH) "morally wrong," comparing it to a double standard where white-collar workers stay home while factory employees, delivery drivers and others can't. "The laptop class is living in la-la land," he declared, emphasizing that in-person work boosts productivity and fosters fairness.
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Despite Musk and other business owners hating WFH, many remote workers quietly carve out extra leisure time by turning Fridays into unofficial personal days. Dubbed "quiet Fridays" or "gentle Fridays," this trend sees employees sneaking in three-day weekends while still appearing online to avoid suspicion.
How Workers Are Doing It
Business Insider recently talked to “Annie,” a PR professional in Denver who commutes three days a week due to her company's hybrid policy. On Fridays, she's not at her desk but on the ski slopes, gym or couch. She'll check her phone occasionally to ensure she doesn't miss any urgent messages but saves her easiest tasks for Fridays to wrap up quickly.
Another person BI talked to is a sales professional in Philadelphia. She uses Fridays for Costco runs, vet appointments or boozy lunches. Like Annie, she's adjusted to prioritize personal time at the week's end, confident that her coworkers are doing the same. "A Friday-morning Costco run is magical," she says.
Workers often rely on "hacks" to appear active, such as mouse jigglers, setting Zoom meetings with themselves and scheduling emails or Slack messages.
The trend is more than anecdotal. Data from ActivTrak shows workers now clock out roughly 80 minutes earlier on Fridays compared to 2021. OpenTable reports a 44% increase in Friday afternoon dining reservations, while Zocdoc notes a rise in Friday medical appointments.
Flexible work policies also play a role. Companies like Buffer and Stok have embraced shorter workweeks or meeting-free Fridays to reduce stress and improve morale. Yet, such perks are becoming rare. Job postings offering four-day workweeks have dropped 42% since late 2022, reflecting economic uncertainty and labor market shifts.
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American Workers Trading Pay for Flexibility
American workers are increasingly trading higher salaries for the ability to work from home, marking a shift in how employees value workplace flexibility versus compensation. A FlexJobs survey found that half of U.S. workers would accept a pay cut to work remotely. Among them, 26% would take a 5% reduction and 24% would accept cuts of 10% or even 15%. Beyond pay, 23% of workers said they'd forgo professional development opportunities and others would sacrifice vacation days or health insurance benefits.
"There's this unspoken exchange rate between flexibility and compensation and for some candidates, it's worth a significant trade-off," said Theresa L. Fesinstine, founder of peoplepower.ai, in an interview with Fortune.
Musk's hard-line stance on WFH contrasts sharply with the growing demand for work-life balance. Meanwhile, workplace loyalty has declined, with mass layoffs and rising workloads fueling frustration.
Trends like quiet Fridays may be proving Musk and other WFH critics right. Blurring boundaries between work and leisure, combined with tools that allow employees to appear productive while disengaged, could reinforce the perception that remote work undermines accountability and fairness.
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