“Slack reports that employees forced to return to the office full-time experienced the steepest declines in work-life balance and overall satisfaction compared to their hybrid/remote peers, suggesting that in-office mandates will lead to high rates of attrition.”ĪRK said it expects the total number of addressable knowledge workers excluding China to hit 832 million in 2026, of which 75% will engage in some form of flexible labor arrangement, up from 489 million and 51% last year. “Knowledge worker backlash and talent shortages will compel employers to adopt more flexible arrangements,” ARK Invest argued. Interestingly, the sentiment expressed effectively repudiates the management style of another major conviction call in ARK’s portfolio: electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.Ĭritics including corporate executives have called CEO Elon Musk’s demands for workers to return to their desks for a minimum 40 hours a week with virtually no exception “ tone-deaf” in the current environment.ĪRK Invest instead seems to share the views of Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who described his $28 billion acquisition of Slack last month as a bet that remote work is not going anywhere.

“We believe current pivots back to in-office mandates could be part of a trial-and-error process for employees that will increase the percent of workers in hybrid/remote working models during the next five years,” ARK wrote. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest published on Wednesday its thesis for Zoom, the top holding in its flagship Innovation exchange-traded fund (ETF), complete with a $1,500 price target for 2026 and a minimum of $700 should its bearish scenario unfold.

Zoom stock projection