Tech companies like Tesla, which rely heavily on software programmers and artificial intelligence developers working behind a computer, have been investigating whether it makes sense to require employees to return to the office. Many proponents of working from home (WFH) argue that it can improve quality of life. However, there are also those who believe it can promote social inequality, warning that it creates a two-tier workforce where yuppies enjoy all the benefits that flexibility has to offer while workers have none. Electrek reported that Musk`s email states that anyone wishing to continue working remotely must work at least 40 hours a week in an office or “leave” Tesla. Musk himself appeared to telegraph his dark view of the WFH last month when he responded to news that Apple was delaying its return-to-work plan by tweeting a meme suggesting that employees working from home were actually just lazy dogs. The email states that the office an employee goes to must be a Tesla headquarters and not a remote office that has nothing to do with work responsibilities. In a leaked email from Elon Musk titled “Remote Work Is No Longer Acceptable,” the polarizing centbillionaire said that only in extreme cases where it was considered impossible would he personally decide to reconsider his executive order. The billionaire added that employees` offices should be a “Tesla headquarters, not a remote branch that has nothing to do with work tasks,” Electrek reports. News of the policy was published in a series of emails leaked by Musk on Tuesday, according to electric car news site Electrek. At this point, Musk`s turn to the cartoon supervillain is basically complete. In recent months, he has faced allegations of racism and sexual harassment in the workplace.
He does the weird stuff of Twitter. He seems to have been yearning for basic labour law for some time. This general provision, as it appears to be impacting Tesla`s culture, has led to a fluctuation — which he also explicitly calls for by telling workers to come to the office or expect to be fired. “Surviving 10 years of grind at Tesla is a rare feat,” writes Edward Niedermeyer, who interviewed more than 100 Tesla employees for his book Ludicrous: The Unlacknished Story of Tesla Motors, “and it`s common for talent to be squeezed dry or moved before the end of the company`s four-year stock lock period.” A particularly troubling example in the book is Musk`s apparent joy at a post-worker future at Tesla. “Tesla`s manufacturing engineers were horrified when Musk also publicly pledged in 2016 to develop a fully automated factory that doesn`t require human workers,” Niedermeyer writes. (The project ultimately failed: “Tesla built two assembly lines that tried to automate tasks that required a level of dexterity and flexibility that modern robotics is far from achieving.”) Late Tuesday night, Tesla workers received an email from their boss. “Anyone who wants to do remote work must be at least (and I mean *minimum*) 40 hours a week in the office or leave Tesla,” CEO Elon Musk wrote, according to a Bloomberg report. “That`s less than we`re asking of the factory workers.” A second email — the subject line: “To be very clear” — appeared soon, repeating the 40-hour minimum, reminding employees that they need to report to an actual Tesla office, not a “pseudo” remote office. “If you don`t show up,” Musk wrote, “we assume you`ve resigned.” The email says Musk will personally consider exemptions for “particularly outstanding contributors” who can`t meet the requirement, according to Electrek. It says 40 hours at the office per week is less than what Tesla requires of factory workers. In an email to Tesla employees, CEO Elon Musk shared his reckless but simple ways to achieve serious goals during the workday.
One user who posted a screenshot of the first email on Twitter asked Musk to target those who believe working in an office is an “outdated concept.” Musk replied, “They should pretend to work somewhere else.” Factory hours that Musk sees as an example of the company`s work ethic include, as Bloomberg notes, Shanghai workers “pulling 12-hour shifts, six days a week” and “sleeping in the factory” for months to keep covid-19 at bay while meeting production targets. Musk boasted in his emails to employees that this was something he was willing to do — and did it himself: “That`s why I`ve lived so much in the factory — so that people on the line can see how I work with them,” he wrote in the second email. “If I hadn`t done that, Tesla would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.” The email didn`t mention a deadline by which Musk`s instructions to staff must be applied, so it`s conceivable that the orders will take effect immediately. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an email Tuesday urging company employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week, according to Electrek. CEO Elon Musk has demanded that Tesla employees return to the office for at least 40 hours a week for their personal work, or they will be fired. When asked if the leaked email was indeed genuine, Musk confirmed its veracity and made it clear that he had zero tolerance for those who demanded the right to retain privileges that had long been considered a necessity during the pandemic. The subject of the email is “Remote work is no longer acceptable” and is signed by Musk. Electrek reported that Musk then sent a follow-up email saying that the older an employee is, the more visible their presence should be. Tesla did not respond to NPR`s immediate requests for comment. However, in a response to a Twitter user who asked Musk about the leaked emails, he responded by saying, “They should pretend to work elsewhere.” The billionaire has spoken out against his stance against remote work and has criticized Americans and their work ethic in the past. “At Tesla, don`t use acronyms or absurd words to refer to objects, software, or processes. In general, anything that needs an explanation inhibits communication.
We don`t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to work at Tesla. The responsibility for human resources at the automaker`s Fremont assembly plant in California while working from a corporate office in an entirely different state would not count, he said.