Billionaire founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk declared that he no longer tolerates remote work at Tesla. In an email to the company’s executive staff with the headline “Remote work is no longer acceptable,” , he said employees must spend a minimum of 40 hours per week in the office, or else “depart Tesla.”
He also added that the “office” must be a main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to the job duties. He however stated that if there were any exceptions, he would review and approve the exceptions personally.
Like most offices during the COVID pandemic, Tesla allowed remote working. However many offices have been slowly allowing people to come back physically to the office while some have not yet taken a firm decision. Some people have maintained that remote work is here to stay and they are not physically going back to the office
One wonders why the billionaire read out the riot act to his employees and what must have triggered this.
In response to a Twitter account requesting for his comment on the email, he neither confirmed or denied the email. He just responded, “They should pretend to work from somewhere else,” in a way confirming the email.
In a follow-up email seen by Electrek, Musk reminded employees that he set the example by sleeping in the factory:
The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence. That is why I lived in the factory so much – so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.
Finally, the CEO took a dig at the companies who still allow remote work:
There are of course companies that don’t require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It’s been a while.
Here is the second email:
Subject: To be super clear
Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.
The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence. That is why I lived in the factory so much – so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.
There are of course companies that don’t require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It’s been a while.
Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in.
Thanks,
Elon
I wonder what the response will be or should we expect mass resignations from Tesla staff?
