First, he banned WFH. Now, this billionaire wants to stop his staff from going on coffee runs.

Chris Ellison is the managing director of the Australian mining company Mineral Resources.

An Australian billionaire who barred his staff from working from home has said he doesn’t want employees to leave the office to get a coffee.

Chris Ellison, the managing director of Australian mining company Mineral Resources, said on Thursday that he didn’t want his staff to “leave the building” to get lunch or a coffee and instead wanted to keep them “captive all day long.”

His comments came as he touted the facilities of Mineral Resources’ two-year-old headquarters in Perth, Australia, which he said employees “love” working in and includes a restaurant, gym, and new day care.

“I want to hold them captive all day long. I don’t want them leaving the building,” Ellison, worth $1.2 billion according to Forbes, told investors while presenting the firm’s full-year 2024 financial results.

“I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee — we kind of figured out a few years ago how much that costs. Wandering out around lunchtime — we’ve got a restaurant in there. We’ve also got a gym, and we’ve got other facilities that keep them glued in there,” he said.

“I have a no work-from-home policy. I wish everyone else would get on board with that — the sooner, the better. But the industry can’t afford it. We can’t have people working three days a week and picking up five days a week pay,” the mining billionaire added.

WFH became commonplace during the pandemic, but now many companies in the US and abroad are clamping down on remote working.

In the past few years, several CEOs have demanded that employees return to the office part time or full time, saying working remotely impacts productivity.

Goldman Sachs said last year that staff should come into the office five days a week, while the tech giants Google and Amazon have both told staff they must go into the office at least three days a week.

Ellison said Mineral Resources had set up its own day care as part of a drive to encourage employees to come into the office and to make it easier for women to enter the mining industry.

He said that female employees were spending as much as 180 Australian dollars, or about $122, a day on childcare and that the company day care would cost AU$20 by comparison.

“Drop the little tykes off next door. We’ve got doctors on board and nurses. We’re going to feed them, but Mum and Dad will be working in our office,” Ellison said.

Mineral Resources didn’t respond to a request for comment from B-17sent outside normal working hours.