Elon Musk on Tuesday ordered Tesla employees to return to the office full time — and invited employees who weren’t happy to pack up and “pretend to work elsewhere.”
In a brief email sent to corporate Tesla employees, Musk wrote that “anyone who wants to work remotely must be at least 40 hours per week (and I mean *minimum*) in the office or departing Tesla.” It is less than our factory workers.”
“If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will directly review and approve those exceptions,” Musk said. “Furthermore, the ‘office’ must be a main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to the duties of the job.”
Screenshots of Musk’s email were circulated on Twitter on Tuesday. In response to a Twitter user who asked Musk for his response to any Tesla employees who think in-person work is an “ancient concept,” Musk once again lashed out at remote workers.
“They should be pretending to work elsewhere,” Musk said.
Musk’s crackdown comes as tech firms take a wildly different approach to remote work. Some companies, including short-term rental giant Airbnb and Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, are allowing many employees to work remotely forever, betting that the policy will keep existing employees happy and help attract talent. Will help
Meta executive Dare Obasanzo took to Twitter on Wednesday to take a dig at Musk’s return to office push.
“A forced return to office policy during a renewed COVID boom seems like a great way to generate some allure without the negative optics of a layoff,” wrote Obasanjo, who heads Meta’s Horizon Worlds Metaverse team. Product Manager.
Other tech firms, including Apple and Google, are pushing for hybrid schedules, where many employees come to the office three days per week.
However, Apple said in May that it was temporarily pushing back its three-days-per-week deadline. The company blamed the move on a rise in coronavirus cases – but it also came as employees threatened to quit if they were forced to show up at the office.
In response to a news report of Apple pushing back the deadline, Musk mocked the decision with a meme of a fat dog taking a nap.
In addition to running Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company, Musk has agreed a deal to take over Twitter, which was one of the first big tech companies to let employees work from home permanently.
On corporate forum Blind, Twitter employees criticized Musk’s attitude toward remote work and questioned whether the acquisition would mean a similarly strict policy at the social media company.
In response to Musk’s Tesla announcement, a Twitter employee said, “Most companies set a return day for at least a few months to prepare employees.” “Which suddenly, without warning, causes massive changes in the working life of an organization.”
In April another Twitter employee questioned whether Musk would “rule” Twitter with an “iron fist”, predicting that there would be “even more casualties” to return to office.
Musk has already ridiculed Twitter employees working remotely, writing in April that the company should turn its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter because the office has fewer workers.
