Elon Musk has sent out an email to Tesla staffers demanding their return to office for a minimum of 40 hours a week. According to Musk, if employees did not accept this condition, they should “depart Tesla.”
In an email entitled “Remote work is no longer acceptable,” Musk said, “anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers.”
In a communication seen by Reuters, Musk likened the requirement to dedication he had shown earlier in the company’s lifecycle. He said, “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.”
Stephen Knight, executive director at California-based workers advocacy group Worksafe, told Reuters, “Employers, including the state government are finding that mandating a return of all employees is a recipe for outbreaks. Unfortunately Tesla’s disregard for worker safety is well documented, including their flouting of the county public health department at the start of the pandemic.”
In May 2020, Musk had opened Tesla’s Fremont, California factory despite Covid restrictions saying that disease’s risks were overblown. In the next seven months, 440 cases were linked directly to the factory’s employees.
Twitter, whom Musk is attempting to purchase for $44 billion, still has a remote work policy in place. CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted in March that offices would be reopening but employees who wished to work from home could continue to do so.
