Emma Grede is the powerhouse entrepreneur behind size-inclusive fashion brand Good American and shapewear line Skims—some of the Kardashian family’s most successful business ventures. (Grede co-founded the brands with Khloé and Kim, respectively.) In a recent Bloomberg podcast, Grede shared her staunch take on the pitfalls of remote work.
“Working from home is career suicide,” Grede said.
“We only talk about the upside of working from home.” Not only does she believe the workplace perk is “career suicide,” but she sees the damage of remote work having wider, lasting societal implications.
“Think about what’s happening in the world,” Grede said. “Declining birthrates, declining marriage rates and loneliness epidemic. We think that none of that is linked to the number of people that, like, don’t see people because they are doing Zoom calls from the living room. It’s so crazy to not make that correlation.”
“The key to a long and happy life is your close relationships,” she said.
It’s a hot take, considering that in the last year or so, return-to-office mandates have caused tension between employees and employers. While companies argue that working from the office boosts collaboration and productivity, some experts say that RTO has to be mandated with purpose and empathy to not drain engagement or break employee trust.
Over the last decade, Grede has been at the helm of some of the biggest names in the apparel industry. Good American, launched in 2016, was Grede’s first apparel business venture, she said. The company launched with $1 million in sales on its first day. In 2019, Grede became the founding partner of Kim Kardashian’s apparel and shapewear brand, Skims. Last November, Skims was valued at $5 billion.
