In his email, which was titled, “Remote work is no longer acceptable,” Musk provided some caveats to this new policy. For example, he stated people can still work from home, but only after they’ve put in 40 hours at the office. He stated the 40 hour number is the minimum, implying he would like to see employees working above and beyond that many hours. Musk himself notes that 40 hours a week is less than what the company asks of its factory workers. In a clarifying follow-up email, he stated the new policy applies to people who work in Tesla offices. It does not apply to “pseudo offices,” and satellite locations. As Musk puts it, “the office must be where your actual colleagues are located.” He added, “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.” When asked on Twitter what he’d say to people who think working in an office is an antiquated concept, he replied, “They should pretend to work somewhere else.”
(Photo: @Samnissin)
Musk also stated being in the office is even more important if you’re an executive. The more senior you are, the more “visible must be your presence.” Elon says this is the key to the company’s early success and claims burning the midnight oil in factories prevented Tesla from going bankrupt. He then pivots to saying although other companies are allowing remote work, none of them have shipped an exciting or meaningful product.
Although manufacturing certain involves unique workplace requirements that differ from, say, software development, Musk’s statement just isn’t true. After all, Apple launched the M1 MacBook Air in the middle of the pandemic. Though the ground work for the M1 was laid prior to COVID-19, the company still validated its silicon remotely. It even went so far as to install cameras to allow for remote inspection of them. This is quite a stretch from Elon.
This is also not the first time Musk has bristled at the notion of employees not pulling their weight. Just a few weeks ago he praised workers in his Shanghai Gigafactory for working around the clock. In a keynote speech covered by Jalopnik, he said they don’t just burn the midnight oil, they “burn the 3am oil.” He went on to say this is a stark contrast to what he’s seeing stateside. “Whereas in America, people are trying to avoid going to work at all,” he said. Back in May 2020, Musk also defiantly re-opened the company’s Fremont factory. He took this action despite a county-wide, mandated shutdown. This lead to hundreds of workers contracting COVID-19 in the months that followed, according to county records. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Keith Rabois also stated Musk once famously became upset seeing interns waiting in line for coffee at SpaceX. He then installed security cameras to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.
Musk’s disdain for employees working from home could also spell trouble for Twitter employees should he go through with the purchase. The company announced in March of this year that its employees would be free to work from home “forever” if they so choose. If Musk ends up taking the reins, it seems unlikely he’ll allow that to continue. However, in Elon’s defense he did leave the door open to remote work for some employees. “If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly,” he wrote.
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