The richest man in the world seems to have achieved it with this whole business of working from home.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk elaborated on the return-to-office debate on Twitter on Wednesday in an email he apparently sent to executive employees of the electric-car maker.
Under the subject line “Remote work is no longer acceptable” [sic]Musk wrote that “anyone who wants to work remotely must be in the office for at least 40 hours per week (and I mean *minimum*) or depart Tesla.”
He further wrote that the office “should be the main Tesla office, not a remote branch office unrelated to job duties, for example being responsible for human relations of the Fremont factory, but your office must be in another state.”
While Musk didn’t directly state whether the email was authentic or not, the billionaire strongly suggested it was by replying to a follower who asked about people who think going to work is an outdated concept. “He must pretend to work elsewhere,” he tweeted.
This isn’t the first time Musk has treated his employees with strict love.
About two weeks before Musk prevailed in his attempt to strike a deal to buy Twitter Inc., Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur Keith Rabois tweeted a story from Musk’s startup days. Once, at Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Musk saw a group of interns milling around while waiting in a line for coffee.
For Musk, it was an insult to productivity. According to Rabois, who knew Musk from his days at PayPal Holdings Inc., Musk responded that all interns would be fired if it happened again, and security cameras were installed so the company could monitor compliance.
Also interesting is the context of the email to factory workers in light of the situation at Tesla’s own factory in Shanghai.
Read more: Tesla, VW to keep Shanghai workers apart as lockdown eases
There, thousands of workers working 12-hour shifts, six days a week, have been effectively laid off for months. Until recently, many people were sleeping on factory floors, as part of a so-called closed-loop manufacturing system meant to keep Covid out and cars off the production line.
The workers brought in to get the factory back in motion are now being shuttled between the facility and their sleeping quarters – either with disused factories or an old military camp – with day shift and night shift workers. Share beds in temporary hostels.