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.
Her secret weapon to success, especially with Good American, was never doubting her capabilities, and surrounding herself with a team “who knew better and could help me open doors.”
Before becoming a multimillionaire founder, though, Grede shared that she’s had plenty of business ventures that didn’t pan out.
“There’s a ton of failures,” Grede said. “There’s a ton of things that I’ve done that didn’t work. When I think about my early businesses, I opened offices that didn’t quite work out. I have grown companies and then had to downsize them. And those things are really painful. We only show the glossy side, the amazing things, the great headlines, the stuff we want to put on our Instagram. And the reality is, anyone who is an entrepreneur that’s done multiple things will have failed.”
“So much of being an entrepreneur is about figuring it out,” Grede added. “You never have the answers, and I think if you have the answers, you’re probably not moving fast enough.”
When it comes to running a team, Grede said her first principle is to be radically honest. She recognizes a challenge in how female leaders are often judged on how empathetic they are—but she doesn’t let that dictate her belief that honesty is the best policy.
“I don’t think anybody in my organizations ever wondered what I’m thinking,” she said.
It’s safe to assume that no one is unclear about Grede’s office policy, either.