Come to the office every day or leave, Elon Musk tells staff

This policy, published in leaked e-mails that Musk sent to Tesla executives on Tuesday, was first reported by Electrek with news about electric vehicles.

“Everyone who wants to do telework must be in the office for at least (and I mean * at least *) 40 hours a week or leave Tesla. That’s less than we ask of factory workers,” Musk wrote, adding that the office must be the employee’s primary place of work, where other employees with whom they have regular contact are located – “not a remote branch which is not related to work duties”.

Musk said he would personally consider any request for an exception to the policy, but that for the most part: “If you don’t show up, we’ll assume you’ve resigned.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the policy change, but Musk seemed to confirm it in his own tweet early Wednesday when he was asked on Twitter: “Hey Elone … any other comment for people who think the arrival Is Musk an outdated concept? “Musk replied,” They should pretend to work elsewhere. “

This policy is completely at odds with the policy of another technology company that Musk is trying to buy, Twitter, which has previously announced that employees can continue to work from home “forever” if they wish.

“Where you feel most productive and creative, there you will work, and that includes working from home full time forever,” CEO Parag Agrawal wrote in a note to nearly 100,000 Twitter employees in March, just before Musk’s interest in owning a social media platform. was revealed.

But this will not be the case with Tesla. It’s especially important for senior executives to be seen in the office, Musk said, adding that this was one of the reasons he basically lived at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California, when the company struggled to increase production in 2017 and 2018.

“If I hadn’t, Tesla would have gone bankrupt a long time ago,” he wrote. “Of course there are companies that don’t require it, but when was the last time they delivered a great new product? It’s been a long time.”

He added: “Tesla has created and will create and actually produce the most interesting and meaningful products of any company on Earth,” he added. “It won’t happen when you call it.”

Surveys show that most office workers prefer to work from home. Since the reopening of offices after the shutdowns of Covid-19, many companies outside of Twitter have announced increased flexibility for employees who want to work remotely, partly as a way to retain or attract talent in a particularly tight labor market.

But the richest man in the world does not seem to be concerned about this dynamic.