The wealthiest man in the world has now had enough working from home business. CEO and Co-founder of Tesla Inc, Elon Musk, wade into a debate on Twitter on returning to the office by elaborating on an email he has sent to his executive staff on Tuesday.
Marks’s warning to the executive staffs
Musk wrote to his staff under a subject line that said that remote work is not accepted any longer, stating that anyone who wished to do remote work must put in a minimum of 40 hours in a week or exit Tesla. The demand is less than what the company asks the factory workers.
As per Bloomberg News, the CEO went on to reiterate that the office must be the main office of Tesla and not some remote branch office doing unrelated jobs. For example, it is like being responsible for the HR in the Fremont factory (the most productive Tesla factory in California) but having the controlling office in some other state.
Musk didn’t clarify whether the email was fake or not. Still, he strongly suggested that people should work somewhere else. Musk replied that people should work somewhere else. This is not the first time the Tesla Chief has come up with tough love for his employees.
Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley and friend of Musk, tweeted an anecdote about his management style roughly two weeks before Musk’s deal to acquire Twitter Inc.
Musk had once noticed a group of interns milling around as they waited in their queue for coffee at Space Exploration Technologies Inc. Musk saw this as an impediment to productivity. According to Rabois, who knew Musk from their earlier days at PayPal Holdings Inc., Musk had threatened to fire the interns if it was repeated and installed security cameras to monitor and ensure compliance.
In April, Rabois had written that the employees at Twitter Inc. were in for a rude awakening as Twitter is one of the prominent organizations that allow permanent remote work. The apparent email by Musk to the executive staff of Tesla indicates that Twitter’s policy will change once Musk takes over the company.
The reference to Tesla Plant in Shanghai is also interesting, considering the factory workers’ situation. Thousands of staff have been locked up for months and working 12 hours a day for six days weekly. Until recently, the worker was sleeping on the factory floor as part of the closed-loop system meant to ensure cars roll out of the production line and keep Covid at bay.
Workers brought to the factory back up to speed production are shuttled between the plant and their makeshift dormitories. They share the beds with others on day and night shifts.
