According to a memo sent to Tesla employees, Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, has ordered them to return to work or “pretend to work somewhere else.”
Nick Bloom, a Stanford economics professor and co-founder of the Working from Home Research Project, says about 30% of office workers in the United States still work from home.
Many businesses are adopting a hybrid work paradigm, in which employees work two or three days each week.
However, the world’s wealthiest man appears to be opposed to his executives working from home.
“Anyone who chooses to conduct remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I emphasize minimum) of 40 hours per week or leave Tesla,” Musk said in a message titled “Remote work is no longer acceptable” [sic]. This is far less than what we expect of factory workers.”
Musk and Tesla have not acknowledged that the letter was issued, but in response to a Twitter follower who asked for “further remark to folks who think coming into work is an obsolete concept,” Musk answered, “They should pretend to work somewhere else.”
Musk added in the memo that he would “evaluate and approve” any circumstances where employees were unable to achieve the basic requirements.
Tesla has joined a growing list of corporations that have made it mandatory for employees to return to work.
While some large companies have made voluntary work-from-home arrangements permanent, others, such as Alphabet’s Google, believe it is ideal to encourage in-person contact between co-workers.
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The announcement comes as Musk pursues an acquisition of Twitter, whose San Francisco headquarters he has indicated should be converted into a “homeless refuge” because “no one shows there anyhow.”
Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, announced in March that the company’s headquarters will reopen, but that workers could still work from home if they so desired.
In a tweet, Agrawal stated, “Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work, and that includes working from home full-time forever.”
