Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is trying a unique strategy to get remote workers to return downtown: insulting them.

“I don’t know if you saw this study the other day,” Frey told an audience of 1,000 at Minneapolis Downtown Council’s annual meeting on Wednesday. “What this study clearly showed … is that when people who have the ability to come downtown to an office don’t — when they stay home sitting on their couch, with their nasty cat blanket, diddling on their laptop — if they do that for a few months, you become a loser!”

The comment was a “complete joke” and the study was made-up, the Minneapolis mayor’s office told Fortune, but there are serious facts to back up Frey’s worry about the impact of remote work on Minneapolis’ downtown economy.

  • @Telodzrum
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    -209 months ago

    Often it’s a distinction without a difference.

      • @PriorityMotif
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        -89 months ago

        Believe it or not, you can. Just like the guy with the shovel can probably write an email.

        • @Misconduct
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          159 months ago

          So then go do it instead of bitching about other people doing it? Wtf?

        • ɔiƚoxɘup
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          fedilink
          149 months ago

          Maybe dude with the shovel should go pull himself up by his bootstraps and get one of those email writing jobs since that’s how the world works now.

        • @[email protected]
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          fedilink
          59 months ago

          let me go tell everyone with physical disabilities that instead of working from home they should be out working the fields.

          • @PriorityMotif
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            9 months ago

            My guy, I work with a 67 year old woman at a factory working 12 hours 4 days in a row plus additional overtime every few weeks. There are all also multiple people with physical disabilities that work there. Not every physical disability prevents you from working a physical job. In fact, I can think of several jobs that someone in a wheelchair could do on the floor with no problem.

              • @PriorityMotif
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                29 months ago

                She’s there by choice, she said she’s just waiting until her birthday to retire. She’s an immigrant from Vietnam, they have a much different cultural mindset. She will barely let you help her with her work.