In California, with the number of corona infections, many employees of tech companies are also tending to prefer to work in the home office to perform. Elon Musk however, there is no understanding of such wishes. The head of the US automaker Tesla ultimately orders his employees back to the office – and those who do not comply can leave.
“Everyone at Tesla has to spend at least 40 hours a week in the office,” Musk wrote in an email to employees of the US electric car manufacturer on Tuesday evening, which is available to the Reuters news agency. “If someone doesn’t show up, we have to assume that person has left the company.” Two Tesla insiders confirmed the authenticity of the email. Tesla itself did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk apparently sent another email on the subject on Tuesday afternoon, but not to all employees, but to the management team. In it, he formulates his claim even more clearly: Anyone who does not comply with the compulsory presence of at least 40 hours per week must »leave Tesla«. A Twitterfollowers posted a screenshot of this email and then asked Musk what he thought of people who thought compulsory attendance was an outdated concept. Musk’s answer: They should pretend to work for another employer.
Other tech companies are dealing with the return to the office somewhat differently. Twitter, for example, which Musk ironically wants to take over for $44 billion. Twitter boss Parag Agrawal wrote in March that while the offices were open again, employees had freedom of choice: “Wherever you feel most productive and creative, that’s where you’ll work and that’s closing too permanent home office.« The Google-Mother Alphabet, on the other hand, relies on face-to-face meetings with its employees, similar to Musk.
Musk made negative headlines during the pandemic by dealing with infection control in his companies: In May 2020, he reopened his plant in Fremont, California, against the current pandemic-related restrictions. From May to December 2020, 440 infections were reported among Tesla employees, according to data from the authorities SpaceX there were 132 corona cases last year.