Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the electric car maker needs to cut its workforce by about 10 percent because it had “a very bad feeling” about the economy.
Key points:
- Farquhar says the order to return to work at the head of Tesla was “like something from the 1950s.”
- Musk responded by saying that comments like these are the reasons why America needs “economic cleansing.”
- The exchange is not uncommon for the richest man in the world, who often uses Twitter to make apologetic statements.
The comments were made in an internal email sent to Tesla executives on Thursday entitled “Pause all hiring worldwide.”
Tesla was not immediately available for comment.
Musk earlier this week asked Tesla employees to return to the office or leave the company.
“Everyone at Tesla has to spend at least 40 hours in the office a week,” Musk wrote in another email to employees Tuesday night.
“If you do not show up, we will assume that you have resigned.”
On Friday, those comments drew criticism from workers’ advocates, including Australia’s third-richest man, co-founder of Atlassian Scott Farquhar, who ridiculed Mr. Musk in a series of tweets as “like something from the 50’s.”
Loading
Atlassian’s “work from anywhere” policy was “key to our continued growth,” Farquhar said.
“We are looking to grow Atlassian to 25,000 employees by fiscal year 26,” Farquhar concluded.
“Any interested Tesla employees?”
Musk responded: “The set of tweets above illustrates why recessions have a vital function of economic cleansing.”
Loading
In Silicon Valley, many technology companies moved to work at home and in the office during the pandemic, while others have set dates to return to the office only to go back as new outbreaks occur. .
Musk, the richest man in the world and also CEO of SpaceX, also has a history of clashes with other billionaires.
Loading
In 2021, he posted a picture of a second-place medal in response to a tweet from Jeff Bezos celebrating the success of Amazon.com.
In 2017, Farquhar’s co-founder of Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-operated with Mr. Musk, publicly accepting and facilitating its bid to supply a powerful Tesla battery facility for the state of South Australia after suffering a blackout in 2017.
Cannon-Brookes, who has since led a campaign to buy Australian energy company AGL Energy Ltd and accelerate its transition to renewable energy, republished Farquhar’s statements criticizing Musk’s return order. in office.
Reuters