Elon Musk threatens to fire all home office workers

Everyone back to the office or permanent home office? This is a question many large companies are asking themselves, and the answer often lies in a compromise that allows employees to do both on a daily basis. However, anyone who has Elon Musk as their boss cannot count on that much flexibility.

In an email to his executives, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX made it more than clear what he thinks of working from home: nothing. “Remote work is no longer acceptable”it says in the subject line of the email that circulated on Twitter and whose authenticity Tesla employees confirmed to the US media.

Every employee must be in the office at least 40 hours a week, Musk wrote. “or leave Tesla”. Musk wrote to his senior staff that this is still less than what Tesla is asking of a normal factory worker. He only accepts home office for work that goes beyond these 40 hours. Exceptions for individual special cases are to be approved by him personally.

“If you don’t show up…”

The topic is obviously burning under Musk’s nails, because a little later he sent a second email to everyone (subject: “To be super clear”). In it, Musk writes: “Everyone at Tesla has to be in the office at least 40 hours a week.” And with “office” does he mean the place where the colleagues are actually “and not some remote pseudo-office”according to Musk. “If you don’t show up, we’ll assume you’ve resigned.”

The more important the position in the company, the more visible the presence of the individual has to be, Musk explains his work ethos. He himself spent a lot of time in the factory so that the local colleagues could see him working next to them. “If I hadn’t done that, Tesla would have been broke a long time ago.” Of course, there are also companies where this is not necessary, Musk adds “But when was the last time they released a great product?”

Musk also sent a similar letter to the Tesla employees to the employees of his space company SpaceX. Musk has not officially commented on his leaked emails. On Twitter, however, he responded to a post sharing the email and asked what he said to people who think office work is an antiquated concept. Musk’s answer: “They should pretend to work somewhere else.”

There is a home office culture on Twitter

So Musk’s uncompromising stance on the home office is clear. Other US companies, on the other hand, are pursuing completely different strategies. At the end of April, the announcement by Airbnb boss Brian Chesky caused a stir that his 5,000 employees could work from wherever they wanted in the future – and without a drop in salary. He understands the concern of not knowing how well the employees work when they are not in the office, Chesky wrote in an email to the employees. But: “For me the answer is simple: I trust you – and flexibility only works if you trust the people in your team.” In ten years, this way of working will dominate, predicted Chesky.

Twitter boss Parag Agrawal also wrote to his employees in March that the offices were open again, but that everyone could decide for themselves whether to go. “Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work, and that includes permanent home office”, according to Agrawal. Shortly thereafter, Musk announced that he wanted to acquire Twitter for $44 billion.